An international academy becomes a different business once the opening ceremony ends. Someone has to run Tuesday’s training session, assess a player returning from injury, speak with a family, and decide what the next group of coaches needs to learn.
Those responsibilities receive less attention than the investment, the facilities or the league behind them. They also determine whether a sports organization can deliver what it announced. A training center needs people who can make it work every week, often far from the country where its founders, partners or technical staff developed their experience.
The globalization of sports has a staffing consequence. As organizations establish operations across borders, the work follows the facilities and the athletes. The expertise needed to support it can come from several countries, sports and systems.
International academies create work that stays
In March 2026, FIFA reported that 54 member associations across all six confederations had FIFA Talent Academies. The figure appeared in an update on the academy in the Kyrgyz Republic, one location within a development effort spanning very different football markets.
Across those markets, an academy creates recurring decisions about instruction, player assessment and the development of its own coaches. A shared program can establish training principles, but the people running each location have to respond to the athletes in front of them. That work requires judgment close to the training ground.
Some of that knowledge already exists locally. Some may arrive through visiting specialists, long-term appointments or partnerships with organizations elsewhere. The mix depends on the program. An established club looking for a performance specialist faces a different problem from a federation building a youth development system.
For the organization funding an academy, the opening creates a commitment to develop and retain its staff. Salaries are one part of that cost. Time for coaches to learn, share observations, and improve the program also has to fit into the operation.
SportsEpreneur’s examination of how the 2026 World Cup could change U.S. soccer asks a related question about turning attention into lasting facilities and programs. Staffing belongs in that discussion: a new place to play becomes more valuable when a program can keep delivering useful instruction there.
From Philadelphia to an academy in Senegal
Roland Houston offers a concrete example of how experience reaches another market. The Philadelphia native played professionally in France, Spain, Israel, and Argentina before a college coaching career that included La Salle, George Washington, and George Mason. A George Mason profile also noted that he spoke French and Spanish.
Houston later served as technical director of NBA Academy Africa in Senegal, overseeing coaching and player development. The academy’s permanent training facility in Saly opened in November 2018.
His route connected American college basketball, overseas professional leagues, and an African development program. By the time he worked in Senegal, his experience had been shaped by different teams, languages and expectations. The knowledge he brought to the academy had already passed through several sporting systems.
For an academy, such a background can have practical value. Teaching a teenager, evaluating a prospect and preparing someone for a different competitive environment involve decisions about what that player needs now and what may be expected later. A coach who has worked inside several systems brings reference points for those judgments, while still having to learn the setting in which the player is developing.
Athletes also move between these systems. SportsEpreneur’s conversation with founder Brando Babini about college soccer and youth development covers international recruits alongside infrastructure, mentoring, and building programs across states. Recruiting across borders places athletes into an existing operation, with all the teaching and support that requires.
A program that recruits internationally takes on responsibilities well beyond identifying a talented player. Its staff has to understand where that player developed and help them adjust to the expectations of a new team. The recruiting map can be large even when the group doing that daily work is small.
Building local coaching knowledge in China
An outside appointment raises a question for the organization paying for it: what should remain when that person leaves? A team might need immediate coaching help. A development program may also need local coaches who can carry the work forward without relying on the same hire indefinitely.
China provides a specific historical example. In 2019, FIFA described a Chinese Football Association project targeting 100 foreign coaches for 2018–19. The plan paired each foreign coach with three local coaches. Its scope included scouting, fitness and goalkeeping expertise, as well as coaching teams.
The pairing made knowledge transfer part of the program’s design. Bringing in a specialist could support training immediately while giving local coaches sustained exposure to another approach. Under that arrangement, the foreign coach’s work extended to colleagues who could continue using and adapting what they learned after the appointment ended.
Listings for football coach jobs in China offer a view of the work advertised today, including football coaching and physical education teaching roles. The mix puts schools alongside competitive development programs in the discussion of where sports expertise is used.
Schools broaden the picture of where this work happens. A coach introducing children to football serves a different purpose than a specialist preparing academy players for a competitive pathway. International sports work can include both, with different expectations for the person leading the session.
Performance knowledge travels between countries and sports
The same movement reaches beyond the coaching bench. In January 2026, Brighton & Hove Albion appointed Mike Anthony as head of player development and high performance after 14 years with New Zealand Rugby. His roles there included sports science manager.
The appointment moved expertise from New Zealand rugby into an English Premier League club. It was an established organization looking outside its own country and sport for knowledge relevant to player development and performance.
A rugby background gives a football club another set of reference points for preparing athletes. A performance leader still has to judge which practices fit football, then work with the club’s coaches and specialists to apply them. Moving the person across a border is only the beginning of that work.
Brighton’s appointment also shows why the geography of sports work reaches beyond newly built academies. An established club can look overseas for expertise while its own operation stays in place. Its search for a performance leader connects sporting systems just as an international development program does.
For an investor or federation opening a program abroad, staffing becomes part of the expansion itself. Coaches and specialists carry experience into the new operation, and local colleagues can build on it. The investment has to support those people long after the launch team has gone home.
Related Reading
How NBC Sports’ Premier League Streaming Fuels Soccer in the U.S.
How Money Works in the Premier League
Content Disclosure: Some content on this website may include links to third-party products, services, or websites. While we may or may not receive compensation for the time and effort spent curating and creating this content, we do not receive payment specifically for the sale of products. We only share content and resources that we believe offer value to our readers and align with our editorial standards. All opinions expressed are our own, and any content or links are subject to review for quality and relevance. For more details, see our full disclaimer.
The Globalization of Sports Is Changing Where the Work Happens
An international academy becomes a different business once the opening ceremony ends. Someone has to run Tuesday’s training session, assess a player returning from injury, speak with a family, and decide what the next group of coaches needs to learn.
Those responsibilities receive less attention than the investment, the facilities or the league behind them. They also determine whether a sports organization can deliver what it announced. A training center needs people who can make it work every week, often far from the country where its founders, partners or technical staff developed their experience.
The globalization of sports has a staffing consequence. As organizations establish operations across borders, the work follows the facilities and the athletes. The expertise needed to support it can come from several countries, sports and systems.
International academies create work that stays
In March 2026, FIFA reported that 54 member associations across all six confederations had FIFA Talent Academies. The figure appeared in an update on the academy in the Kyrgyz Republic, one location within a development effort spanning very different football markets.
Across those markets, an academy creates recurring decisions about instruction, player assessment and the development of its own coaches. A shared program can establish training principles, but the people running each location have to respond to the athletes in front of them. That work requires judgment close to the training ground.
Some of that knowledge already exists locally. Some may arrive through visiting specialists, long-term appointments or partnerships with organizations elsewhere. The mix depends on the program. An established club looking for a performance specialist faces a different problem from a federation building a youth development system.
For the organization funding an academy, the opening creates a commitment to develop and retain its staff. Salaries are one part of that cost. Time for coaches to learn, share observations, and improve the program also has to fit into the operation.
SportsEpreneur’s examination of how the 2026 World Cup could change U.S. soccer asks a related question about turning attention into lasting facilities and programs. Staffing belongs in that discussion: a new place to play becomes more valuable when a program can keep delivering useful instruction there.
From Philadelphia to an academy in Senegal
Roland Houston offers a concrete example of how experience reaches another market. The Philadelphia native played professionally in France, Spain, Israel, and Argentina before a college coaching career that included La Salle, George Washington, and George Mason. A George Mason profile also noted that he spoke French and Spanish.
Houston later served as technical director of NBA Academy Africa in Senegal, overseeing coaching and player development. The academy’s permanent training facility in Saly opened in November 2018.
His route connected American college basketball, overseas professional leagues, and an African development program. By the time he worked in Senegal, his experience had been shaped by different teams, languages and expectations. The knowledge he brought to the academy had already passed through several sporting systems.
For an academy, such a background can have practical value. Teaching a teenager, evaluating a prospect and preparing someone for a different competitive environment involve decisions about what that player needs now and what may be expected later. A coach who has worked inside several systems brings reference points for those judgments, while still having to learn the setting in which the player is developing.
Athletes also move between these systems. SportsEpreneur’s conversation with founder Brando Babini about college soccer and youth development covers international recruits alongside infrastructure, mentoring, and building programs across states. Recruiting across borders places athletes into an existing operation, with all the teaching and support that requires.
A program that recruits internationally takes on responsibilities well beyond identifying a talented player. Its staff has to understand where that player developed and help them adjust to the expectations of a new team. The recruiting map can be large even when the group doing that daily work is small.
Building local coaching knowledge in China
An outside appointment raises a question for the organization paying for it: what should remain when that person leaves? A team might need immediate coaching help. A development program may also need local coaches who can carry the work forward without relying on the same hire indefinitely.
China provides a specific historical example. In 2019, FIFA described a Chinese Football Association project targeting 100 foreign coaches for 2018–19. The plan paired each foreign coach with three local coaches. Its scope included scouting, fitness and goalkeeping expertise, as well as coaching teams.
The pairing made knowledge transfer part of the program’s design. Bringing in a specialist could support training immediately while giving local coaches sustained exposure to another approach. Under that arrangement, the foreign coach’s work extended to colleagues who could continue using and adapting what they learned after the appointment ended.
Listings for football coach jobs in China offer a view of the work advertised today, including football coaching and physical education teaching roles. The mix puts schools alongside competitive development programs in the discussion of where sports expertise is used.
Schools broaden the picture of where this work happens. A coach introducing children to football serves a different purpose than a specialist preparing academy players for a competitive pathway. International sports work can include both, with different expectations for the person leading the session.
Performance knowledge travels between countries and sports
The same movement reaches beyond the coaching bench. In January 2026, Brighton & Hove Albion appointed Mike Anthony as head of player development and high performance after 14 years with New Zealand Rugby. His roles there included sports science manager.
The appointment moved expertise from New Zealand rugby into an English Premier League club. It was an established organization looking outside its own country and sport for knowledge relevant to player development and performance.
A rugby background gives a football club another set of reference points for preparing athletes. A performance leader still has to judge which practices fit football, then work with the club’s coaches and specialists to apply them. Moving the person across a border is only the beginning of that work.
Brighton’s appointment also shows why the geography of sports work reaches beyond newly built academies. An established club can look overseas for expertise while its own operation stays in place. Its search for a performance leader connects sporting systems just as an international development program does.
For an investor or federation opening a program abroad, staffing becomes part of the expansion itself. Coaches and specialists carry experience into the new operation, and local colleagues can build on it. The investment has to support those people long after the launch team has gone home.
Related Reading
How NBC Sports’ Premier League Streaming Fuels Soccer in the U.S.
How Money Works in the Premier League
Content Disclosure: Some content on this website may include links to third-party products, services, or websites. While we may or may not receive compensation for the time and effort spent curating and creating this content, we do not receive payment specifically for the sale of products. We only share content and resources that we believe offer value to our readers and align with our editorial standards. All opinions expressed are our own, and any content or links are subject to review for quality and relevance. For more details, see our full disclaimer.