The foundation of the Premier Youth Academy is the highly successful and worldwide recognised Dutch Development Philosophy, ranked by FIFA in the highest category of quality. Dutch Lions FC will work with experienced Dutch coaches only to guarantee top player development on the technical and tactical level. The key objective is to prepare young talented players for a professional soccer career. To quarantuee the quality of the Academy the Dutch Lions FC have established a partnership with Dutch premier League club FC Twente, which Academy was voted Best Academy in 2007 and 2008.

In their development model a personal development program is aslo integrated in the Academy. With the use of various scans and assessments there is a lot of individual attention and development as a human being as well. several parental meetings (one on one) are also included during the season. This is all essential to be successful in a professional soccer environment.

This unique combination of technical, tactical, physical and mental development makes young players not only good soccer players but also self conscious, self ensured and mentally ready for pro soccer. We believe our better players will make it to USL PDL, Second or First Division, Major League Soccer or the pro leagues in Europe to play professionally. We also believe a lot of our players will play at a top college team with a (partial or full soccer) scholarship.

Furthermore, Dutch Lions F.C. will organise soccer tours to Europe to compete against the best youth teams, enter in recognised international tournaments and arrange trials with European top clubs.

Therefore Dutch Lions F.C. is the “Gateway to professional soccer”!

Player Development Model Dutch Lions FC

Age 4-7      Game/fun

Age 7-11    Technical and tactical fundamentals

Age 11-13  Learning to train

Age 13-16  Training to grow

Age 16-18  Training to win

Age 18+     Training to excel

Looking at the technical and tactical fundamentals in our model, it explains why we start in 2010 in our Premier Academy with teams only from U7-U12. Without these fundamentals at this age, we believe it is almost impossible to become a professional player for the top clubs in Europe. From these age groups, we like to educate kids for the coming 6-10 years according to the FC Twente player development model, which has been very succesfull in Europe the last few years.

Also, the Head Coach for the Dayton Dutch Lions FC, Sonny Silooy, will be coaching and leading the Premier Academy. Sonny played 25 games in the Dutch National Team and won the Champions League while playing for AFC Ajax. Besides Sonny, several players of the Dayton Dutch Lions FC will be coaching a team. All have a minimum of UEFA B licence.

View all footage off the Premier Academy here