Emerging Talent Program

The Chicago Fire Soccer Club partner with Youth Elite Soccer (YES) to launch the Emerging Talent Program in 2012. This initiative will bring together some of the brightest young soccer players in Chicagoland and expose them to a new, innovative and revolutionary approach to individual player training. The Emerging Talent Program has 2 distinct features: Philosophy (what to coach?) and Pathway (how to coach?)

The Emerging Talent Philosophy is a set of concepts that define the Chicago Fire Soccer Club’s attitude to

working with each individual soccer player and follows a long term player development (LTPD) model. LTPD develops players from an early years ‘FUNdamental’ stage to ‘Training to Win’ for older aged players. ‘TRAIN LIKE A PRO TO PLAY LIKE A PRO’ is an overarching principle all Fire technical staff follow when coaching young players.

The Emerging Talent Pathway: this is the practical application of the Chicago Fire Soccer Club’s long term player development model and highlights the steps a PLAYER, a COACH and a soccer CLUB can take to receive high quality programming. The Emerging Talent Pathway has 4 levels: Club Talent Schools (CTS), Regional Talent Schools (RTS), Elite Performance Centers (EPC) and National Training Center (NTC).