Why We Play

A LETTER FROM THE GENERAL MANAGER

North Chicago could not be more primed for an amateur and eventually a semi-professional soccer team. This group of communities is comprised of Americans from all over the world, that speak dozens of different languages, and come from extremely different societal and cultural backgrounds. One of the only areas of interest that unites all members of our community is a common pastime - beyond language, financial requirement, race, color or creed. Soccer can be, and is already the binding agent that can draw and hold these unique and beautiful communities together. 

The Communities of Uptown, Rogers Park, Albany Park, Budlong Woods & Edgewater are home to Americans from all over the world. People who have worked extremely hard, and often sacrificed a great deal to make this country their home. This area of our city has become one of the more globally diverse community areas in the country, and as a result, this area contains athletes with true talent and persistence from all over the world. There are young men and women in Edgewater with the skill to progress through the ranks of professional soccer in America. They are working hard every day at facilities in our community like the Foster Turf Fields, Loyola’s open Turf Field, Montrose Turf Fields, hoping to one day be given the chance to have a legitimate, concrete shot at playing for a real team. 

Through the course of the last several months, it has become more and more obvious that these athletes are passionate, talented and willing to work hard. ECFC has now built a squad of 24 first team players, and another 24 players on our second team squad. We are currently developing a women's team and U-18 teams in the same step function recruiting process we've followed thus far, as soon as funding becomes available.  Much of the team will at first be made up of former college athletes, former semi-pro athletes and a larger group of young men from our community who are talented far beyond their own reach. It is a goal of ECFC to extend that reach . 

This community club concept, with the talent at hand and our set of core values as a guiding light, will be able to compete, will be able win games, and eventually will be able win trophies. More importantly than that, this club will hopefully have an enormous impact on the lives of  thousands of young people in Chicago. The utmost goal of this club is to give local players and fans a new  opportunity to be seen not just as valuable members of their communities and their country, but as vital contributors to our collective identity as Chicagoans and Americans. We are beyond proud to contribute to America's development of and love affair with the beautiful game in one of our nation's most untapped soccer markets.

Thank you for your time, your interest in the game in America, and your willingness to read all that. Have a terrific rest of your day.

Best,