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**Prikulis5**

I haven't written an article in like 10 years so please don't judge me

Cesare Pinkman is a son of a now former SSL star Walter Pinkman, born in Rome, Italy while his father was playing for Italy's best team AC Romana. Cesare was basically born with a football at his feet because of his fathers involvement in worlds best league so it was always inevitable that he would become a baller. Early days of his life he was just kicking ball around his back garden with his dad which evolved into a genuine interest in playing the sport, since the age of 5 Cesare started training with the local youth team in Rome and straight away the coaches noticed he does have a talent and could replicate his fathers achievements in the sport. He started off as a striker because everyone wants to score loads of goals, right? Cesare played up front for a few years but as he got older and the tournaments got more serious it became apparent other players have more of a natural striker instinct so the coaches suggested he switch his game to a more defensive role so the choice fell to the wing-back position occasionally playing central defense as well. After the first season playing as a defender he became the best best defender in his youth league, forwards were struggling to get past him to a point where they adjusted their tactics to attack through the other side of the pitch. At the age of 16 it was time to decide what route does he wants to take in his career - sign up for the SSL draft or continue his career elsewhere and the obvious choice was the SSL. Requirement for SSL draft was to play at least a season in one of the SSL approved academy teams, Adowa Accra was keen on the Latvian defender so he gladly accepted their offer and joined the Ghanian team to kick off his road to SSL draft. Accra haven't had the best results in past academy seasons, occasionally not even participating due to lack of players but Pinkman was up for the challenge, will that prove to be the right choice? Only time will tell..

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**Rezo950inat0r2**

Sadie Black is a Canadian soccer prodigy coming from a family of greats. Since his time in the youth teams, he would get noticed by coaches and parents for the sheer amount of effort they would display on the pitch. Slide tackling 5-year-olds. getting their hands dirty with the mud in front of the net, and playing with no self preservation. As such, injury has been an issue in Sadie's past. However, they are incredibly excited to be en route to join a league as prestigious as the SSL, and take advantage of the medical staff they have. Outside of the field, Sadie also has a brother, named Carter. Despite being younger than their brother, Sadie was picked up by Port Poyal scouts a few years before him, truly showing that the scouts have an eye for pure talent. However, the two are very different in terms of positions. Sadie prefers to play as a fullback, being defensively sound, making plays, and lobbing assists to their leaping forwards whenever possible. Truly the dream of all who play on the wing.
With a career ahead of them, Sadie hopes to become the best fullback in the league, and end up being well known for their elite playmaking ability, racking up assists season after season. They also wish to improve their eye for the game, potentially finding themselves as a head coach once their career has run it's course. Yet, with all this hopefully in their future, they will never forget their upbringing in the small local parks, playing with a deflated ball for far too long, far too often. Sadie will always be thankful to their coaches, former teammates, and friends that helped them get into the SSL in the first place, and cannot wait to eventually become one of the best!

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iltornante

I have already told much of my story. From Banfora to France. But I have not really explained how I got from France to the SSL Academy.

The first academy I played in was Clermont Foot. The coach there did not like to use wingers, so I had to adapt to playing right wingback. This was a very different role to what I was used to, and I could no longer cut inside onto my stronger foot as much. This was a difficult season for me, and I had to develop my right foot to be more balanced. That season taught me many things. I learned when it was the right time to cut inside and play a through pass, or switch play to the other flank. With no winger in front of me, I had to learn better positioning, so we would not be vulnerable to counter attacks. I had to learn when to press forward and exploit the space left by the other team.

After a year at Clermont, we moved to Paris, where I played in the academy of Red Star. This was my favourite place to play. The coaches there encouraged me to play multiple roles. Multiple positions. Sometimes on the right of a midfield four or five. Sometimes as a wingback, like at Clermont. Sometimes as a winger, next to the striker, like I really wanted to play. The striker, Mathieu, was a tall guy, and he would often win headers and flick them on for me to attack. I scored a lot of goals for Red Star that way. We stayed there for two years, until Mathieu moved to Paris-Saint Germain, and I could not link up with the replacement striker as well. He wasn't as good at winning headers, and I don't think he liked me much, so he did not pass to me often. More and more I found myself on the bench, until Philippe came to me one day and said Marseille were interested in signing me for their academy.

I did not know much about Marseille, other than a lot of foreigners lived there, like in Paris. But I knew I was running out of time to establish myself as a good enough player to get a professional contract. Philippe went ahead to Marseille while I finished the season at Red Star, staying with a teammate's family. When I arrived in Marseille, it felt so different to everything else I had experienced so far. Even the French they spoke was different. It was great. Something about the city felt like home.

On the pitch, I was at home too. The coaches played me as a right winger, and instructed me to cut inside often. The left winger, a Senegalese guy called Ibrahim did the same thing, so we would both attack the centre. Sometimes the centre forward, Aleissandre, dropped deep to win headers like Mathieu. Sometimes he attacked higher to create space behind him. We all did well that season, but I was the only one who got an offer from the SSL Academy. I had to think about it. Do I want to go and take a gamble, test myself against the best in the world? Or do I want to stay with these guys, my brothers, and see how far we can go together? I could not decide. We talked about it, and they both encouraged me to go. "We will catch up to you later," Aleissandre told me. "And if we don't, I will be there to beat you at AFCON," Ibrahim said.

So I spoke to Philippe and arrangements were made. Now I am in Stockholm. Ready to start the next chapter.

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ggmeister

Anthony Privett's soccer journey began at the young age of 6 years old. His father, Andrew, wanted to get him involved in the game as early as possible to allow for maximum development time. Anthony began playing with youth travel soccer teams in the greater North Carolina region at the age of 8 and would quickly move up the ranks to the most prestigious teams for his age group, even playing up in U14 at 11 years old. He was picked up by the MLS Academy team for Charlotte FC, the professional team in his area and continued his rise to the top.

By the time he was 14 and headed to high school, he was ranked highly in the state of North Carolina as a top prospect for his class. Privett would go on to play varsity all 4 years in high school, captaining the team for his junior and senior seasons. This led to many scholarship offers from colleges in the United States. While Anthony may have felt like he was an elite level prospect for his age, the reality was that the American soccer scene was still not well respected globally. He had hoped to make a move overseas and play professionally right out of high school.

Ultimately, Privett would elect to play college soccer for the Penn State Nittany Lions. The team moved him to play as a left fullback, a change from the CM/CDM role he had played his whole life growing up. This turned out to be a very successful change, however. In 4 seasons with Penn State, Privett made 68 appearances, scoring 6 goals and tallying 18 assists. In his junior season, he was named to the All-Big Ten Second Team. At the conclusion of his senior season, Privett declared he would attempt to play professionally in the SSL.

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**Duilio05**

Vincent Haye S25

The journeys of life are not always easy to identify; sometimes the beginning is obvious. To reach a point in life where one feels confident enough in one's own abilities to apply for a professional league draft requires significant personal growth. There are factors outside of skills and abilities that shape how a player views themselves and their value. Haye's journey didn't start with the first time he kicked a soccer ball. His journey actually started the first time he realized someone else believed in him. Haye is the second of five kids, their parents, to this day, are still dysfunctional who have zero self-accountability or understanding of how to raise a child because they themselves are still kids. While not super wealthy, money wasn't ever a hindrance and was even used by Haye's parents to avoid being parents. Haye felt most free playing pick-up sports games after school to avoid going home. He felt better playing with other random kids he barely knew than to be ignored by parents and siblings at home. It didn't matter the sport; Haye would play pick up games of basketball, soccer, football, baseball, even rugby. That was his only experience with the sport of soccer even into high school. He never tried out for the school teams because Haye never had a role model to encourage him to. This changed his junior year of high school when one of the teachers was walking by the field where the after school pick up games occured. Journeys are odd things. Why did Mr. Gunther walk by the field that day, and at that time, and why Haye? Mr. Gunther could have selected any of those kids to mentor into a better human. Mr. Gunther has been quoted as saying, "It was my first time seeing him outside of a classroom. He looked like a young Donovan." If not for Mr. Gunther being the first adult in Haye's life to express encouragement, Haye would probably still be playing pick up games instead of being Montreal's star striker.

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Squid

Stephen Eustaquisquid grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia. As a Vancouver Whitecaps fan, he idolized multiple players on the team and always wanted to be a professional soccer player. His dream was to play for the World Simulation Football Classic and represent his home country of Canada. He was always an athletic kid and loved running around and doing sprints in the backyard, but did not play organized sports as his family could not afford it. He was recommended to the Canadian U-15 National Academy by his family friend Sven Squidjamin, (the agent for SSL Superstar Marco Tentacles) who saw potential in him and covered the cost to get him enrolled. With the enrollment into the academy he was able to watch the Vancouver Whitecaps play on many occasions for free. But outside of that his football knowledge was very limited, resigned to only playing the latest version of video game football on his simulation console. This caused him to not develop the knowledge that most average footballers gain and caused him to favour just lob through balling to an attacking player almost every time. Coaches tried to teach it out of him or give him options to do other things rather than just trying killer balls every time, but it is still a habit he does now. After a few years training in the Academy and working his way up to the U-18 division of the Canadian academy he was shipped out to the next level; the SSL Academy League. With the dream of playing professional football and being able to make it to the World Simulation Football Classic, Stephen Eustaquisquid is making sure he doesn't let his dreams just be dreams as he pushes hard to make the team he always aimed for. Playing for Port Royal FC is the first time he has been able to experience real tactical football, allowing him to be creative and show off for scouts.

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Symmetrik

Alyssa Barnes was born in Riverhead, a small town just outside of Auckland, New Zealand. When she was 5, her parents enrolled her with the Patagonia FC Football Academy, where she learned the basic skills she needed to look further. When she turned 8, she was good enough to leave the program and join the Auckland United FC Academy. Arguably the most prestigious academy in the whole country, they have established success turning players to pros, and Alyssa was ready for the challenge. From there she spent years in the academy, preparing for an eventual turn to pro, and international experience. When she was 15, she travelled with the U16 Academy team to a tournament in Europe, where she was spotted and scouted by the SYMM Sports Academy. While there hasn't been a lot of football representation from the Academy, there was a notable SSL player Isabela Cortez. After bringing Barnes into the Academy, they also brought Cortez back as a coach to help Barnes on her journey to being a pro in the SSL. The program isn't one that builds a team, but it works with local youth academies in Europe to find a home for their clients to train - in this case, Alyssa Barnes went to the UK and the London City Lionesses Academy - while also continuing with personal coaching, both mentally and tactically. The Lionesses hold one of the best girls' academies, and with a U17 team it provided Barnes with a perfect opportunity to transition her career path to the SSL. After turning 17, Barnes was headed to the SSL Academy where she joined PS Jakarta. It was lot of difficult transitions and moves for Alyssa in her youth, going through 4 different academies, moving from New Zealand, to the UK, to Jakarta, but each place she played gave her so much valuable training and preparation to bring her to today, just a few short weeks away from her SSL draft.

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Pelochyta

Paulie Wag grew up playing football (soccer) as a youth in the Kanto region of Japan. It was really the only sport that he stood a chance at on account of not having arms.

He spent a lot of time swimming with all his brothers and sisters growing up, so from a very young age he had excellent cardio. And, as kids do, once he got a little older he branched out into more organized sports with others around him. His friends, having arms, loved playing baseball, and American football, and even mixed in some hockey - but Paulie Wag pretty quickly realized that he just wouldn't be able to play with all his friends in those sports. Cause of the lack of arms. So, when they played soccer he would join in, and when they didn't play soccer ... he would play it by himself (or kick a ball around with whoever was willing). His whole life, pretty much, became soccer since it was all he could do.

Spending so much time playing the sport growing up, it's no surprise that he was skilled at it. As he aged, organizations and academies started to take notice - places like Saffron City, Celadon, and even far away towns like Cinnabar. He took up an offer from one academy nearby to his hometown, in Vermilion. He trained and trained and really settled into the role of lockdown defender and helped his youth team win a lot of games, and even a fair amount of tournaments. As his team continued to succeed, he started getting more and more attention from the SSL, who hoped to add his talents to their league.

Wag was very tentative, so it took some - a lot of - cajoling from the scouts (and his coaches, who knew he had the potential to play at the highest level) but eventually he agreed to sign up and enter the draft. He wasn't sure if he would go high on account of the lack of arms, and since he was never a particularly flashy player, or person, all the pre-draft theatrics were a little much for him. Eventually the draft time came and he went in the first few picks of the draft to the Reykjavik / North Shore organization. Moving to New Zealand to play would be his first time ever leaving Kanto, but big opportunities require big risks!

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nasbase

Rylee was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. Growing up, soccer played a big role. There's a lot of youth soccer in the state through the AYSO. Since the weather is nice all year, she played a lot and got better as she was mastering her craft. Rylee considers Natasha Kai her role model. Kai is the first ever from Hawaii and of Native Hawaiian heritage to play in the Olympics. It showed Rylee that success is possible. She loves the constant movement in the game and the constant strategy involved with all of the ball movement. Nothing beats the feeling of a scoring a goal though. Helping the team win by producing on the pitch and the stat sheet. That drive helped her in high school where she was the Gatorade Player of the Year. She led the state in goals with 34 over 20 matches. She then got a full-ride scholarship to numerous schools but chose to stay home and play for the University of Hawaii. She declined the NIL money from bigger schools because she wanted to play for her home. Rylee ended up being the first UH player to be 1st team All-American. She was the 2nd ever to be an All-American. The other UH player? Natasha Kai. They also made the national tournament for only the 2nd time in school history. Rylee has done what she set out to do at this point. However, she knows the next step in soccer means it's time to move away from home. That is how she found the SSL. A true professional league open to people from all walks of life that turned into the ultimate competitive league. She knows the road is going to be long, including starting out in the minor leagues... but she knows that it will lead to the end goal. Being at the top step of the World Cup as winners for her country and her state.

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