Major League soccer team to train at FGCU

In yet another history-making moment for the FGCU men’s soccer program, Major League Soccer’s New York City FC will be holding the first week of its training camp on the Eagles’ beach-lined campus Jan. 22-Feb. 1. Additionally, NYCFC and FGCU will face each other in a friendly match at the FGCU Soccer Complex on Sunday, Jan. 31, at 5:30 p.m.

Tickets to the friendly are currently on sale and can be secured by logging on to FGCUAthletics.com/Tickets, calling 239-590-7145 or visiting the Alico Arena Ticket Office. Early-priced tickets for general-admission adults are $10, with youth (12 and under) and military members at a discounted $7 and FGCU students with a valid Eagle ID at $5. The price for general-admission seating will increase to $15 and $10, respectively, beginning Monday, Jan. 25, with student pricing remaining the same.

Additionally, reserved canopy seating closest to the middle of the pitch is also available for $25 for adults and $20 for youth and military members.

“This is an absolutely wonderful opportunity for the university, our program and facilities to be showcased at an international level, and we’re looking forward to welcoming NYCFC to beautiful Southwest Florida,” commented FGCU program-founding head coach Bob Butehorn. “I know our guys are extremely excited about having the opportunity to have some of the best players in the world train on our pitch and then play against them. It’s a terrific opportunity for fans in the area to see top-tier soccer, and I’m hopeful they’ll take advantage of having such world-class talent so close.”

NYCFC will train at the FGCU Soccer Complex for its first 11 days of preseason before traveling up the coast to Sarasota to participate in a friendly tournament over a 10-day period (Feb. 17-27) and hold the duration of its training sessions at IMG Academy in Bradenton Feb. 5-28.

The club features several world-class players, including Frank Lampard, David Villa and Andrea Pirlo. With 211 goals, Lampard is the all-time leading scorer for Chelsea, where he played for 13 years en route to being named England Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005. Villa was the first Spanish player to ever reach 50 international goals and is the country’s top scorer in World Cup games with nine goals. In 2009, he scored more goals than anyone else in the world across all competitions with 43 in 54 games. Pirlo is the fourth-most capped player in the history of the Italian national team with 116, and was named Man of the Match for the final of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, helping Italy to the most prestigious team championship in all of soccer.

NYCFC recently completed its first season in the MLS, and plays its games at Yankee Stadium. Former United States and Manchester City midfielder Claudio Reyna is the club’s Sporting Director, overseeing the coaching staff and player recruitment.

Playing MLS and professional competition is nothing new for FGCU as the Eagles faced the MLS’ Chicago Fire in friendly matches four-straight years from 2010-14 when the Fire held a portion of their preseason training at Ave Maria University.

The announcement of NYCFC training at FGCU comes just days after recently-graduated Aaron Guillen (El Paso, Texas/Coronado HS) signed a homegrown contract with MLS member Dallas FC and a day before fellow classmate Rodrigo Saravia (Guatemala City, Guatemala/College Internacional Montessori) is expected to be selected in the MLS 2016 SuperDraft.

FGCU – which was nationally ranked for several weeks this past season and as high as 19th – finished 2015 with a 7-4-3 overall record and secured an unprecedented sixth-straight Atlantic Sun regular-season championship by virtue of a 4-0-1 league mark. The Eagles boast the nation’s longest home regular-season conference unbeaten streak at 28 in a row (24-0-4) dating back to the 2008 season, and since 2010 the team has a dominant 36-4-4 record in A-Sun regular-season games.