Erin Ridley, a valued member of the Ekkono Coaches Academy community for years, has made history as the first woman from Major League Soccer to earn the prestigious Elite Formation Coaching License, a collaborative program between Major League Soccer and the French Football Federation.

Currently, Erin serves as the head coach for the San Jose Earthquakes’ U16 Boys team within the MLS NEXT Academy, where she plays a crucial role in shaping young talent and inspiring growth. She values how the Ekkono Method enhances her ability to refine player skills both individually and collectively, which is essential for developing competitive athletes.

In the past, Erin contributed to the creation of the first Ekkono US Coaches Committee, fully integrated by female coaches, to foster soccer development at both the college and professional levels through the Ekkono Method.

Erin Ridley states: "Ekkono has profoundly influenced my understanding and structuring of game methodology, helping me develop a deep comprehension of both individual and collective fundamentals for players. The Ekkono Method provides excellent tools and strategies that I incorporate every day for player development in a high-performance environment."

Keep up the amazing work, Erin!

The Spanish National Team was crowned World Champions for the first time in its history after defeating England in the final. From Soccer Services Barcelona, we want to congratulate all members of the team, with a special mention to Irene Paredes, who chose to trust Ekkono to help improving her performance through individualized guidance. We also want to congratulate the other international players who were advised by Ekkono at some point in their careers to improve their performance.

The Spanish national team's defender and current FC Barcelona player played a fundamental role in winning the tournament, being the only Spanish player to have played every possible minute during the World Cup.

A similar case of American midfielder Andi Sullivan, who played all possible minutes with the US national team until being eliminated in the penalty shootout in the round of 16.

Same fate as Nigerian forward Rasheedat Ajibade, who despite her speed and talent, couldn't avoid the Nigerian team's elimination against England in the penalty shootout of the round of 16.

Lastly, the Japanese national team was eliminated in the quarter-finals, despite being the top-performing team in the group stage with a balance of 11 goals scored and 0 conceded in the 3 played matches.

Among the Japanese Team are some of the players we had the pleasure to work directly with during our 3-year collaboration with the Japanese Football Federation, such as Jun Endo (1 goal and 1 assist in the group stage), Miyabi Moriya, Miyake Shiori, and Chika Hirao.

Congratulations to all of them!

Andi Sullivan, Washington Spirit and United States National Team midfielder, recently joined the long list of professional players to whom Ekkono has advised through individual reports to improve their performance.

At 27 years old, Andi Sullivan has a brilliant track record, both individual and collective, in which the NCAA Championship obtained in 2017, the 3 She Believes Cups (2018, 2020, 2022) and the CONCACAF tournament achieved in 2022 stand out.

After receiving advice from Ekkono, Andi stated the following:

“I really enjoy my work with Ekkono. It was refreshing to have an analysis of my game from a different neutral perspective. They were able to organize film in a way that provided so much feedback and but did so without being overwhelming. Everything fit and flowed together very clearly. They did a fantastic job analyzing, organizing, and explaining their work so it was efficient, easy to understand and applicable. They can definitely help any player continue to improve”

Thus, Andi Sullivan joins the list of professional women players with whom we have the pleasure of collaborating, which includes top players such as Irene Paredes (FC Barcelona), Rasheedat Ajibade (Atletico Madrid), Vero Boquete (AC Fiorentina), Nahikari Garcia (Real Madrid) or Jun Endo (NWSL).

Ekkono continues advancing in its involvement in women’s football by collaborating with Pohjanmaa Football Academy, with whom will jointly organize Ekkono Football Camps in the Ostrobothnian area of Finland, addressed to U10-U12 girls.

Pohjanmaan jalkapalloakatemia (PJA) was founded in 2021 to offer possibilities for enthusiastic young girls to develop their skills with other highly motivated players. The academy founders have vast coaching experience with girls aged between 6-15 years old and have seen the obstacles preventing the talented youngsters from fulfilling their potential as football players. PJA exists to give young football enthusiasts great learning possibilities with world class coaching and a challenging environment to improve their football skills.

The 1^st Camp, held in Kokkola this last weekend, was a huge success having sold out in a few days. The next planned camps’ dates will be 9th to 11th of December, 14th to 16th of April 2023 and 12th of August to 14th of August 2023.

According to Mika Filander, Pohjanmaa Football Academy’s director, “There were a few options how to continue with the growth of the academy, but the option #1 was quite clear. The key people of the academy had good experience of the Ekkono Method in the past. And then the idea started to take form. Now we have a solid plan in place to do long-term development work with the Ekkono Method. There will be 4 camps during the first year. We plan to do the development work with the girls and also with the coaches from various teams to also inspire them in their regular training sessions.”

On the other hand, Miquel Farrerons, CEO of Soccer Services Barcelona states: “Since the first time we met, we realized that PJA was the best partner to work with in the development of youth women’s football in Finland. Their commitment and huge effort are indisputable. We are sure that this collaboration will be a great success and hopefully extended for many years”.

More information about Pohjanmaa Football Academy: https://www.pjary.fi/ (only in Finnish)

For several years now, Ekkono has been getting involved and showing its commitment to women's soccer by carrying out different activities in different parts of the world.

This summer, after several years with the participation of a significant number of girl players in our Camps in Eerikkilä (Finland) and carrying on several clinics with women's teams in the country, we decided to hold our first Ekkono Camp exclusively for girls.

The Camp, held in the incredible facilities of our partner Eerikkilä Sport & Outdoor Resort, had a wonderful reception with the participation of dozens of girls from different regions of Finland, who enjoyed the training sessions led by Ekkono, as well as the rest of the educational activities.

As we explained in a previous news articles, since we began collaborating with the Japanese Football Association in 2012 to develop a training methodology program for both male and female high-performance centers throughout the country, we have been developing many projects related to women's football.

Some great examples of our work in women's football are the collaborations with clubs/federations, such as Universidad Católica de Chile or Thailand FA, to educate and support their women’s football structure, or the individual advice programs carried out with some great professional players such as Vero Boquete, Irene Paredes, Rasheedat Ajibade or Nahikari Garcia, among others.

During the month of July, we have had the pleasure of advising Rasheedat Ajibade (Rash), a 22-year-old Nigerian forward currently playing for Atletico de Madrid, in order to improve her performance during the Africa Cup of Nations.

Despite her youth, Rash was proclaimed champion of the African Cup in 2018 in addition to winning the Spanish Super Cup with Atletico Madrid in 2021. Currently, Rash is a referent in African women's football, being nominated for best player in Africa.

Since we met together at the beginning of July, we have carried out two main advisory actions with Rash during the month of competition: before the African Cup begins, we presented her a report in which we analyzed her 2 most recent performances with the Nigerian national team, and we helped her to understand the most important fundamentals to be strengthen/improved in the positions in which she most often plays with Nigeria.

Later, once Nigeria was qualified for the knockout stage, we made a new follow-up report analyzing the 3 matches of the group stage and giving her some recommendations to improve her performance on upcoming matches.

Despite being eliminated on penalties in the semi-finals, Rash finished the tournament as top scorer of the tournament and was included in the Africa Cup of Nations best 11.

Thus, Rash joins the list of professional women players with whom we have the pleasure of collaborate, which includes top players such as Irene Paredes (FC Barcelona), Vero Boquete (AC Fiorentina), Nahikari Garcia (Real Madrid) or Jun Endo (NWSL).

Over the past months, Ekkono has continued to focus on women’s football development, by starting the US Coaches Committee in coordination with Erin Ridley (San Jose Earthquakes & USWNT U17).

The US Coaches Committee is fully integrated by female American coaches who are coaching at some of the best Division I colleges of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and also at the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) level.

The objective of this committee is to contribute to soccer development at the college level with the introduction of the Ekkono Method. The committee is also an opportunity to generate discussion about game models or training styles, and the specificities that can be found when coaching in the US.

This month, a series of two sessions about FC Barcelona Femení team were held. In the sessions, led by an Ekkono Licensed Coach, Barcelona’s game style was firstly analyzed and afterward discussed, with special focus in the offensive phase.

Erin Ridley states that “It’s an exciting honor to see Ekkono collaborating with top female coaches here in the United States. The ideas and principles that Ekkono presents creates robust conversations for coaches working with smart players who are hungry to add greater detail to their understanding of the game. I think that coaches in the women’s college game find a lot of value in engaging with this, and I hope it continues to grow and have more coaches join the conversation.”

Over the past few years, at the Ekkono Method we have been developing women's football worldwide and actively involved in many initiatives, thus giving it the value it deserves.

Our first steps in professional women's football date back to 2012 when, during our collaboration with the Japanese Federation (JFA), we developed a training methodology program for JFA's high-performance centers for both men and women.

Since then, many of the players with whom we work directly have managed to make the leap to professional football, such as the U20 World Cup champions Hannah Stambaugh, Endo Jun and Miyu Takahira.

Other professional players we have the pleasure of working with are the well-known Irene Paredes and Vero Boquete among others, who have been participating in advisory programs for the last 3 seasons.

Some other clear examples of our relationship with women's football are the continuous technical support and advice offered to the Thai Football Association in the development of women's football at all levels (including the national and senior teams), the methodological coaching education given to the women's team coaches at the Universidad Católica de Chile, or the creation of the "Women's Football Analysis Committee" with the objective of analyzing, together with a group of female players/coaches/professionals, different competitions in order to understand the needs of the game.

For this reason, in order to continue enriching this strategic line, at Ekkono we are starting a worldwide selection process to give the opportunity to female coaches from all over the world to join them and work on the development of future projects.

If you are interested or know someone who might be, please contact us by sending your CV to the following email: hello@soccerservices.net

After making history by winning the first French League for Paris Saint Germain Féminines, the central defender Irene Paredes has recently signed for FC Barcelona, current winners of the 2020/2021 UEFA Women's Champions League.

Irene is, along with other distinguished players such as Veronica Boquete (AC Milan) or Nahikari Garcia (Real Madrid FC), one of the world-class players whom we have the pleasure of advising in order to help them grow and improve as professional players.

Since mid-2019, when we started working with the current captain of the Spanish National Team, we have designed a specific individual advising program for her, that we have been following for the last two seasons.

To do so, we designed a specific Individual Player Performance Program (IPPP) for Irene. We analysed different games she played, in order to identify different aspects to be perfected such as the positioning in the build-up phase, the type of passes which generate greater advantage, and the understanding of when to maintain or break the balance from the defensive line.

During these last two seasons which she has been following the advisory program, the former captain of PSG, has become one of the best central defenders in the world, being included by UEFA among the best 50 footballers of the year.

After receiving the presentation of 5 individual reports in recent months, Irene Paredes states that:

"The Ekkono method has helped me interpret the game better and make better decisions"

Irene Paredes is another elite player with whom we have the pleasure of working, in order to help her grow and improve as a professional player.

The Basque center-back is currently the captain of Paris Saint-Germain, where she won the French Cup in 2018. Before landing at the French team, Irene had played 5 years (2011-2016) at Athletic de Bilbao, where she won la Liga, and 3 years at Real Sociedad (2008-2011).

In addition, Irene is also the captain of the Spanish National Team, in which she has played more than 60 matches. A proof of her great talent is that in 2017 she was chosen for the ideal team of FIFPRO World XI as one of the world’s best center backs.

From Soccer Services Barcelona, we designed a specific Individual Player Performance Program for Irene. To do so, different games played by the player were analyzed in order to identify different aspects to be perfected, such as the positioning at the start of the game, the types of passes that can generate greater advantage, or the understanding of when to maintain or break the balance from the defensive line.

Once this analysis was done, some reports were presented to the player explaining different concepts and fundamentals that would help her improve her performance.

After receiving the presentation of 3 individual reports in recent months, Irene Paredes states that:

"The Ekkono method has helped me interpret the game better and make better decisions"

Last week the The Best FIFA Football awards gala was held in Zurich, where the best football players of 2020 were voted and honored.

Among so many awardees, we are proud to see Verónica Boquete, current AC Milan player and with whom we have been collaborating for several years, selected in the in the FIFA FIFPro Women’s World11 2020.

As stated by Vero "The Ekkono method makes you a smart player and therefore it maximizes your performance"

On the other hand, Irene Paredes who is the current Spanish National team and PSG captain, and with whom we have the pleasure of advising, was nominated as one of the best defenders in the world.

According to Irene, "the Ekkono method has helped me interpret the game better and make better decisions"

Congratulations to both of you!!

FIFA recently made official the four final candidacies for the organization of the next Women's World Cup in 2023.

Alongside Brazil, Colombia and Australia & New Zealand, there is Japan’s candidacy, a country with which Soccer Services Barcelona has been collaborating for more than 10 years in order to develop and promote its footballing level in every respect.  Among the different projects we have been carrying out in the Asian country, our 3-year collaboration with the Japanese Football Federation is specially outstanding. 

This project, which began in 2012, aimed to take Japanese football to the next level using the Ekkono methodology. To this end, a training programme for coaches was carried out throughout the country and a training methodology programme was developed for the Japanese federation's high performance centres for both men and women in the country.

Since then, many of the female players we directly work with have made the leap to professional football. Such are the cases of the U20 World Cup champions Hannah Stambaugh, Endo Jun, Miyu Takahira and the senior internationals Chica Hirao, Miyake Shiori, Hikaru Kitagawa, Rika and Moriya Miyabi.

Soccer Services Barcelona has been advising high level world players for years with the aim of helping them grow and improve as players.

Since we worked together at PSG, Vero Boquete (world reference in women's football, UEFA Women's Champions League champion and FIFA & La Liga ambassador) has placed her trust in our experience developing the talent of players in order to help her continue improving as a professional player.

Thus, Vero visited the offices of Soccer Services Barcelona to receive her third individual annual report. These reports consist in an analysis of the player's performance in the latest matches stressing the previously defined aspects to be worked on, and then advising her on how to boost her strengths and improve her weaknesses.

After several years of working together, Vero Boquete states:

"The Ekkono method makes you a smart player and therefore it maximizes your performance"