Podcast: IFA New England’s Rohit Gautam, Bill Altieri on the growth of the club

The IFA New England U-17 team huddles up before a game. (Courtesy photo)

The latest guests on New England Soccer Journal’s “The Goal” podcast are IFA New England MLS Next Director Rohit Gautam and Club President Bill Altieri.

Founded in 2021, Intercontinental Football Academy New England offers players aged 5-19 a robust selection of development opportunities. The club says its goal is to produce players for elite collegiate play, the National Team, MLS, and leagues abroad in a fun and challenging environment for all.

Gautam and Altieri joined hosts Matt Langone and Matt Doherty to discuss how the club continues to evolve and grow, and its approach to the MLS Next platform.

The full podcast can be accessed below and is available on all major platforms. If you enjoy it, please leave a rating and a review.

Here are some highlights from our discussion:

On striving to be ‘the best club in the country’:

Altieri: “For me, the best club in the country — when you’re a youth club — means that you’re doing the best job developing players. You’re getting the most out of the players and your system. So, you’re bringing them to as close to their full potential as you possibly can. Now to do that, obviously it’s a partnership between the coach, and the club, and the players and the parents. All three have to do their part and that’s challenging, but I think it starts on our end from creating a fantastic developmental environment — the best coaches, the best training, the best all-encompassing safe environment for players to take risks, push themselves, be inspired and be motivated to be ambitious.”

On progressing in the MLS Next platform:

Gautam: “This is our fourth year and this is our second year having the full pathway, which I think is the most important thing, because you can kind of see the growth. Being a new club in the area, having the full pathway creates a lot of good challenges and not-so-good challenges.”

On the competitiveness of New England club soccer:

Altieri: “I think competitiveness is critical. It’s important. Competition breeds improvement, it drives progress. I think when you only have one or two clubs with MLS Next, they can get lazy. There’s no pressure to do better, to innovate, to try to find a way to do something a little bit better, to get a little bit more out of a player, out of a team, out of a coach. So, one of the things I would say that’s different about us is we create a competitive cauldron for our players. You earn what you get and we make that very much age appropriate.”

On where the club is pulling players from:

Altieri: “All over the place. I mean, we have players from Rhode Island, we have players from Western Mass., Eastern Mass., a few players from Connecticut, players from New Hampshire. I think we are widespread as a club and we cover most of Massachusetts and lots of Southern New England, and we intend to be that way.”