Feature: Inside Right To Dream, The Unique Organization Transforming Lives That Could Change The Future Of Soccer

When King Osei Gyan thinks of his childhood in Nima, he doesn’t remember a “slum”.

He remembers music, spontaneous dance performances and kids playing soccer “everywhere”.

Where outsiders to this area of Ghana’s capital Accra may see poverty, Gyan sees opportunity. What Nima may lack in infrastructure, it makes up for in talent.

“I feel blessed to have come from a community that is known to be a talent hub for music, fashion, culture,” Gyan tells me in an interview.

“It’s very rare to find yourself in an environment where the creativity is so high and it erupts with so much talent. You basically just pick things up and then along the way you find the right supporting structures to take it forward.”

Having played soccer “for as long as I can remember”, Gyan’s obvious talent was with the ball. By the time he turned 11, he was already on the radar of some of the big European teams with academies in Ghana.

But he was instead convinced to join a fledgling academy, set up by a Brit named Tom Vernon.

A different type of academy

Vernon was 19 when he moved from the UK to Ghana to coach young players. Everywhere he looked – from kickabouts on dusty pitches to performers juggling balls at traffic lights – he saw natural soccer talent.

With his then girlfriend (now wife), the origins of an academy were born in their house in Accra. Bunk beds, desks and 16 players, including Gyan, were moved in.

More than once the academy looked like it would run out of money. A lot of “hustle” was needed to keep it alive.

Then, with a friend, Vernon started a business offering sports gap years – offering those taking a post-high school break the opportunity to coach at youth teams in Accra. It took off. Before long, Vernon and his wife were able to grow the academy, moving the 16 players out of their house and opening a new facility.

From the beginning, Vernon, who also worked as Manchester United’s scout in Africa, was determined not to copy the model of big European clubs. At the academies he’d seen in West Africa, the sole aim was producing professional players.

His academy, named Right To Dream, would have two graduate pathways for student athletes – a professional soccer career, or a sporting scholarship at a prestigious US university.

While all entrants to the academy would need a certain level of soccer ability, those not quite good enough to turn pro would not be left without a career path. Developing the person would be just as important as developing the player.

“We love to work with kids and we love to work in youth football. And if that’s your starting motivation there can’t be any thought in your mind that if a kid has a bad season you ask him to go home. It’s pretty morally bankrupt thinking,” Vernon tells me.

“(At other academies) the boardroom is analyzing human beings as numbers on a spreadsheet and justifying the investments that are made basically according to the transfer system, which is the fundamental problem.

“We don’t feel that the vast majority of people working in the academy system like it as it is, it’s the financial construct around football dictating it that way. That will surely change. And we would like to be one of the case studies of where football could aspire to move towards in how it works with its youth.”

Growing Right To Dream

The investment in individuals is paying dividends. From its humble beginnings more than 20 years ago, the Right To Dream facility in Ghana’s Eastern Region is today regarded as the best in sub-Saharan Africa. It boasts eight grass pitches and the only residential girls’ academy in Africa. There is a Cambridge-accredited school, LEGO labs and robotics programs.

Every year, 25,000 boys and girls are considered for five-year scholarships at the academy, which include everything from education and training to food and equipment. Between 15 and 20 of the best players in the region, and the most intelligent players with the soccer level to play at some of the world’s best universities, are chosen.

There are currently 82 children at the academy and, of the more than 140 graduates since 1999, 61 have played professionally, including in the MLS, Champions League and World Cups. On the education side, about $45 million worth of scholarships has been raised for graduates to attend private boarding schools and top universities in the US.

As the academy continued to grow, Right To Dream made an unorthodox move.

In December, 2015, Right To Dream bought Danish Superliga club FC Nordsjaelland (FCN), with Vernon becoming chairman. It was the first time a European soccer club had been purchased by an African not-for-profit.

The deal offered academy graduates the chance to gain experience playing in a European league and Vernon the opportunity to prove the Right To Dream model at a professional team.

Since the takeover, which Vernon describes as a “massive learning curve”, FCN has become known for doing things differently.

It became the first club to join soccer social impact movement Common Goal. There is a big focus on developing character, with a program designed to educate players on the importance of giving back and finding a purpose beyond being a soccer player. There are cultural exchanges, with young players from Denmark visiting Ghana and vice versa.

After the takeover, FCN established a professional women’s team that secured back-to-back promotions and won the National Cup. The men’s team has finished in the top six in Denmark for the last five years despite playing, for the past three seasons, with the youngest team in Europe. The average age of this season’s squad is 22 and 80% of the first team are Right To Dream academy graduates from Ghana and Denmark.

Can a purpose-driven approach be financially sustainable?

An important part of FCN’s strategy has been income from the transfer market, though there is a plan to reduce the reliance on this by boosting revenues from commercial partners.

One of the latest players to be sold was Mohammed Kudus. The 20-year-old joined Right To Dream in Ghana aged 12, went on to play for FCN and, last year, joined Dutch giants Ajax for a reported fee of €9 million ($10.6m). In total, FCN has generated transfer fees in excess of €65 million ($76.6m) since the takeover, the majority from academy graduates.

According to Right To Dream’s most-recently filed accounts, the business made a pre-tax profit of £3.19 million ($4.4m) on revenue of £22 million ($30.4m) to year end December 2019.

The ability to combine a “purpose-driven” approach with financial sustainability in soccer has not gone unnoticed.

In January, Man Capital, the UK-based investment arm of the Egyptian Mansour Group, announced a €100 million ($118m) partnership with Right To Dream. The newly-established Man Sports now has majority control of the organization, with Vernon remaining the other significant shareholder.

Mr Mohamed Mansour, the founder and chairman of Man Capital, became chairman of the board of Right To Dream, while his son, Loutfy Mansour, also joined the board.

The partnership’s first major project is to build a Right To Dream academy for boys and girls in Egypt. To be located in West Cairo, it is expected to welcome the first group of student athletes in 2022. A professional women’s team will also be launched in Egypt.

Opportunities to expand women’s and girl’s programs across the Right To Dream group will be explored, and the organisation will look at opportunities to acquire academies and clubs in the UK.

In a rare interview, Mr Mansour tells me “football is in our blood” and points out his uncle, Mostafa Kamel Mansour, was a goalkeeper who represented Egypt at the 1934 World Cup.

Mr Mansour, who is a founder of Mansour Group, the family-owned, global conglomerate with more than 60,000 employees and revenues exceeding $7.5 billion, says the investment in Right To Dream is for the long-term.

“We as a family believe that sports helps nurture people,” he says.

“We see this as an investment that brings us happiness and fun. It’s an investment that brings us purpose. It’s an investment with an excellent partner.

“This is not a charity model. There are many talented young men and women in Africa, in Denmark, in Egypt. This is just creating opportunities for them, whether in education or sports. It’s a long-term project. Whatever returns come in from this business will stay and grow it. That’s the formula.

“You can work all your life, but to get the gratification of something, it’s not always about numbers.”

Mr Mansour says he had been considering purchasing a soccer club in the UK when Loutfy told him about Right To Dream in Ghana. His son had been aware of the academy since 2013 and, about three years ago, went to spend time there.

“There are very few moments when you see something for yourself and you hold on to it forever. And that was one of those moments,” Loutfy tells me.

“It’s always been in the family’s DNA to help something grow. But to help it grow with a purpose and a passion is very powerful as well.

“The network effect that you will get from the players that come out of Right to Dream – whether it be on the academic or professional route – what they will learn and how they will feel about giving back to their communities … There’s no spreadsheet that can calculate that.”

“Actively exploring” other clubs and academies

For Vernon, the academy he started on a shoestring could one day be an organisation with soccer clubs in several markets. The group is “actively exploring” opportunities with clubs in the “Big 5” European leagues and Vernon admits he isn’t sure how big Right To Dream will become.

“Personally, I see the concept like pushing a boulder up a hill, and, once we push it over the other side, we don’t envisage that we can keep control of the whole thing,” he says.

“That opportunity creation and establishment of academies, whether it be through a hybrid franchise or through our control or others who are just replicating and taking our IP, the passion here is unlocking the physical and psychological barriers for children achieving their dreams. And that goes beyond us.”

As to whether other clubs will follow Right To Dream’s “purpose-driven model” and seek to take an active role in social change, Vernon says it must be authentic and not because “purpose is selling”.

“If it’s driven from a classic commercial motivation, it will fail,” he says.

“We believe that understanding of your own identity and purpose and deepening that journey on a consistent basis leads you to be happier, which is our primary objective for the kids in our academies. And that happiness will also lead, in our mind undisputedly, to greater performance.”

Reinvesting in people

In 2004, King Gyan was among the first generation of graduates when he was awarded a scholarship at the prestigious Dunn School in California. Two years later, he was offered a professional contract at English Premier League club Fulham. Two years after that, aged 19, he was called up to play for Ghana.

“Wow,” Gyan says as he recalls pulling on the shirt of the Black Stars for the match against Tanzania.

“There are moments in life that you never forget. And it’s one of those moments.”

After Fulham, Gyan went on to play in Belgium, Norway and Sweden. In 2016, aged 27, he had a chance to continue playing but opted to hang up his boots and return to Right To Dream in Ghana. After his leadership skills impressed during an internship, he was offered the role of deputy managing director.

“It was a good opportunity for me to come in and be part of building the future,” Gyan, who is also a member of the Obama Foundation’s Leaders: Africa program, says.

“I will never stop loving football. If a footballer ever tells you that they stopped because they lost the love for it, they are lying! But the point is not to stop loving it, it’s knowing where it’s taking you.”

Now Right To Dream’s director of purpose, Gyan plays a key role in the strategy to develop “socially-focused, purpose-driven leaders”. He oversees different academy operations and delivers coaching and the character development curriculum.

Right To Dream graduates are encouraged to give back to their communities and Gyan is no exception.

Though he prefers the word “reinvest” to “give back”: “Because with investment, you take into consideration both sides of what people are bringing to the table.”

Gyan founded the Amin Nima project, a business to support and celebrate people in Nima undertaking projects in everything from sport and fashion to music and poetry.

“One of the things that people from Nima are really known for is that we are stubborn. We say that we are ‘stubborn on purpose’ because we refuse to be told what the limitations of life can be,” he says.

“And when you come from where we come from, the impossible doesn’t even exist.”

Source: forbes.com