Soccer

Goal: Establish a world class soccer and learning academy based in Metropolitan Detroit Area with a fully integrated academic, soccer training, competition curriculum and a residency program with Pacific Soccer Institute (PSI).

The GPA/PSI program for U12-U17 boys/girls addresses the following deficiencies in the current North American development structure:

• Players are not being developed to the level of technical, tactical, physical, or psychological ability needed to compete effectively at the highest level of the game, in either Europe or North America.
• The minor soccer infrastructure in North America assists the development of players only to a certain degree. In the grand scheme, when considering the professional game, this development system is too recreational to be effective for the elite player.
• Young players in North America lack a professional approach to training and development, in a realistic and competitive environment. The result is that when players reach maturity, they lack the sustainable tools needed to compete against the elite players from other countries.

GPA will provide the right training methods, intensity of practices, fitness demands and psychological makeup for elite soccer players to obtain the sustainable tools, which will allow them to compete successfully at the highest levels in North America and Europe.

We will establish a program for elite players who will be recruited from North America’s club youth system.

For four to six years, these players will receive intensive training and will be evaluated on their capability of taking the step into professional soccer. The program will be consistent with NCAA requirements, so that players that cannot reach a professional contract will move to university/college programs.

During their years with GPA, players will stay home with their families and continue their schooling through our Chartered Blended Learning Environment (CBLE). Selected players in the GPA program will then move to the PSI residency program in Victoria BC.

Alex Strehmel, Lead Instructor, GPA Michigan

214   1. Bundesliga games
169   2. Bundesliga games
13 Euro League games
25 German National Team U18 - U21 games

with VfB Stuttgart, Wattenscheid, SpVgg Unterhaching, Augsburg

Experience As Co-Trainer
(under Head Coach Lorenz Köstner)

SG Hoffenheim (3rd League)
Rot-Weiss Essen (2. Bundesliga)
VfL Wolfsburg II (4th League)
VfL Wolfsburg (1.Bundesliga)

"Alex's attention to detail and hard work have been instrumental in the development of our young players at the professional and youth academy level at Wolfsburg."
    -Lorenz Kostner