Joaquin Escoto spent years developing a program whose mission was: to find children, especially from underprivileged communities, and give them a chance to showcase their talents to professional scouts.
As a former co-owner of Alianza de Futbol, Escoto created a free national scouting program that placed several top Latino players with professional clubs, primarily in Liga MX. Alliance alumni include Santos Laguna forward Santiago Munoz, Toluca left-back Mauricio Isaiah and Monterrey midfielder Jonathan Gonzalez.
Now, he will look to apply the same lessons he learned creating Alianza for an MLS club.
On Wednesday, MLS expansion team San Diego FC and Right to Dream Academy announced that they had hired Escoto as executive vice president – a position that will allow him to oversee all of Right to Dream’s decisions. Dream Academy of San Diego.
“Looking at the residential academy (that San Diego FC is building), that’s what was different, that’s why I took this position,” Escoto said. “Working on an MLS team for me wasn’t something that intrigued me that much, but an MLS team with an academy that’s going to give opportunities to these young players and be able to scout kids all over the United States and putting them in residency with the Right to Dream model, it was a little difficult to say no.
Right to Dream began as a recruiting organization for young players in Africa in 1999, and in 2004 it began placing children in boarding schools in the United States. It now has academy branches in Egypt and Denmark and was purchased by the Mansour Group, part-owner of San Diego FC. The Right to Dream network includes professional teams FC Nordsjaelland in Denmark and TUT FC in Egypt. Their alumni include 2017 SuperDraft No. 1 pick Abu Danladi, New England Revolution winger Ema Boateng and former Chicago Fire star David Accam, among others.
Escoto said he got to know Right to Dream founder Tom Vernon over the past six to seven years, first while he was working with Alianza and then as his career continued. at places like For Soccer Ventures and, more recently, IMG, where he led global soccer in the Americas. Escoto said, “We share a lot of values, including giving opportunities to low-income kids, and this whole idea of starting a team in the United States is something he’s been talking about for six or seven years.”
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At San Diego FC, Escoto will be responsible for “overseeing academic and campus operations, developing career and academic pathways for academy students, and strategically integrating with the broader Right to Dream ecosystem,” according to the team. He will work with the athletic director to oversee the academy.
Escoto said his experience at Alianza showed that players across the country don’t have opportunities, simply because they are outside of the pay-to-play system. Alianza, he said, found a lot of players in San Diego. His job now is to get them into the system with Right to Dream in San Diego. Escoto’s experience with Liga MX clubs will certainly also be valuable as San Diego FC look to take advantage of the young talent market in Tijuana, just across the border in Mexico.
“In Alianza, everything we did was a showcase, we never developed the player,” Escoto said. “For me, as well as Tom (Vernon) and (SDFC CEO Tom Penn), it’s so exciting to be able to recruit them and then bring them into full-time residency at a truly incredible school. Kids will be able to come in at 12, 13, and we know not every kid will make it (as a pro), but they can go to college, and we’ll continue to work with them to get to the top. colleges like Right to Dream has been doing for many, many years.
San Diego FC broke ground in November on a performance center and Right to Dream Academy campus, with plans for 125,000 square feet of buildings on a 28-acre campus located in El Cajon on the reservation Sycuan, who co-owns the club. . The campus will include the club’s training home shared by the first team and academy.
San Diego FC will also become the first Major League Soccer club to offer a private school for grades six through 12, combined with a residential soccer academy. It is currently anticipated that the first group of residential athletes will enroll in fall 2025.
San Diego will also create a non-residential girls’ academy that will be fully funded by the MLS team and is expected to begin operations in fall 2026.
“We have an incredible coaching staff that will come from our Right to Dream Academy and will implement the Right to Dream methodology on how we play that will influence the first team,” Escoto said. “So for me it’s nice to have Tom Vernon by my side, learning from him and taking what worked at Right to Dream in Denmark, Egypt, Ghana, and how can we do it? adapt to San Diego? I think that’s the magic.
(Photo: San Diego FC)