A Bit About James 

James Georgeff

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Forward · Newcastle, Australia

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At 15yo, James Georgeff became the youngest player in Adamstown FC history to start for the first team, scoring five goals in his first five games. He was selected to the Australian U-17 national team pool, signed with the Newcastle Breakers at 16, and trained with Lokomotiv Sofia in Bulgaria.

He moved to the U.S. to play NCAA Division I soccer at Clemson and then UCF, where he captained the Knights. In 2007, still a college junior, he scored and assisted against MLS side Real Salt Lake, faced reigning MLS Cup champions Houston Dynamo the next day with a strong performance scoring with a shot ricocheting off defender Eddie Robinson, and weeks later scored a 30yd left foot volley equalizer against Swedish top-flight club BK Häcken. This raised eyebrows for Major League Teams.

In 2008 he was drafted into both of America's top professional soccer leagues: historic First Overall Pick in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) Draft by the Orlando Sharks, and by Houston Dynamo in the MLS Draft. Major League Soccer confirmed he was the first Australian ever drafted in MLS.

In 2009 he joined FC Arouca in Portugal, playing in the club's Portuguese Cup run past top-flight Marítimo. His breakout season there had him scouted by Karl-Heinz Granitza, the former Bundesliga striker and U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame inductee, who brought him to Germany. With Torgelower SV Greif he faced Bundesliga giants Hamburger SV in the German Cup, and won a league title and promotion with the club before 2013.

Today James lives in Tampa, Florida, where he runs his businesses.

During his time in Germany, he joined youth development coaching roles, under the likes of ex-bundesliga greats, which James later mentioned in interviews, shaped his whole worldview of youth development soccer coaching.

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“In Germany, what I was exposed to was like nothing else in youth development. The coaches for young kids are high level ex professionals, it’s incredible to see a coach who could be coaching anywhere, choose to be with 8 yr olds, and happy to do it. The way they teach the kids, you understand why they are one of, if not the best countries in the world for national team and club teams performances overall. The mission of the coaches was player personal development, but also teaching the fundamentals of defending first, then learning to play through recovery of the ball and possession, but always the focus first was team system defense until possession was recovered. At first I did not fully agree, but when you see a group of ‘average’ athletic kids, all on the same page, playing against a group of highly athletic kids that cannot beat them, you start to see the magic of this kind of development. The kids would come out of these few years with incredible grit and understanding of the game. The understanding was so intrinsic that any of the players in any position could be moved into a new position and the team would almost go on unnoticed. Try this on most teams…” 

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