When were you founded and what was the mission?
Founded in 2017, in Kitchener, Ontario, FC Berlin set out with an objective to provide a high-performance academy experience with a focus on developing long-term professionals that can continue their career at the post-secondary level. In the first years, our objective was to provide our athletes aged 15-19 with a direct pathway to scholarship opportunities in Canada and the United States.

FC Berlin looks to bridge the gap in supporting high quality soccer on the border by joining Canadian and American soccer cultures together. The club’s goal has been to expand to the rapidly fast-growing market in the United States and provide Canadian and American athletes the pathway to professional soccer.

Where are you located and who is your nearest rival?
Our club is in Kitchener, Ontario Canada but we play our UPSL games out of Buffalo, New York. We haven’t established rivalry yet, as we are new to the league. but I would say on the Men’s side we are looking most forward to playing against Roc City Boom, the current UPSL Northeast Champions.

What league do you play in, do you expect to be there for a while or do you have aspirations for growth The club has expanded its headquarters to Buffalo, New York – making it the new home for our pro-development teams. In the summer of 2020, FC Berlin joined the United Premier Soccer League and established a men’s team that competes in the Northeast Conference of the UPSL’s Division I.

Our Women play in the WPSL (Women’s Premier Soccer League). The league is meant for female athletes who are looking for a professional development opportunity and exposure to the highest level.

What's your playing / coaching style and what kind of players do you look for?
We pride ourselves on playing fast paced, physical, American style soccer. We live for crunching tackles, powerful, athletic players and outpacing our opponents with our high press and relentless attitude. We can compete with teams that are better than us because we teach our players to never give up, to frustrate the opponent and when playing better players, to be so frustrating that they lose their way.

We love our youth development – we aim to have several 2003/2004 players on both our UPSL and WPSL sides. We love young players that can make a difference on the big stage. The league is meant for them! However, we value athletes that are coachable, respectable, and understand the culture of the club.

Are you connected to a youth organization in any way? What value does it provide? If not, do you see any potential in that?
Yes – our youth academy is based in Kitchener Ontario and it is affiliated with Ontario Soccer Association. Our pathway provides our athletes the ability to grow and graduate to our pro development teams; this is an incredible opportunity to our Canadian athletes that have limited opportunities back home.

What does success look like for your club in 2021?
Our 2021 objectives are simple – to compete and win. We aim to compete for a UPSL conference championship this year, as our returning roster is more experienced and hungrier than ever. On the female side, our goal is to create a roster of women whose long-term objective is to have a long and fruitful career in soccer, and begin to develop them further as professionals, as coaches and as students of the game to create more positive female role models for our younger athletes.

We aim to compete in the league and we will consider the season a success if we can compete in all games, win against one of the top teams and create a long-term relationship with the league.

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