Effective April 1st, 2012 Jeni Duro is now the new EFA Operations Manager. Jeni has worked at the University of Western Ontario for the last 15 years. While there she has held many roles such as lab supervisor for 5 Biology classes. She was the recepient of the first Western Award of Excellence given out to staff in 2006. Please stop by and say hello to Jeni if you get a chance.

Do you have what it takes to join the 00, 99 or 98 Lions? Let us see your abilities on the following days at Golds Gym London.

We are recruiting athletes born
in the years 2000,1999,1998.

Our Tryouts are at Golds Gym
4465 Wellington Road S
London , ONTARIO N6E 2Z8

February 14 6-7:30pm
February 21 6-7:30pm
February 28 6-7:30pm

We hope to see you on the pitch

Elvir Gigolaj signs with FC Edmonton after successful season with St Marys University. He propelled his team to the CIS Finals with some very crucial goals during the playoffs. This young star even mentions his coach Luka Shaqiri (EFA Technical Director) during this story. Thank you Elvir and good luck to you at your new home. We wish you the the very best in soccer and hope you come back home often to visit us. Read the full story for more details.

Below I have posted a recent statement from Alex Chiet the Cheif Technical Officer of the OSA. He is working with the LTPD (long term player development) committee to bring in some major changes in the way soccer operates in the province of Ontario. Alex has some pretty bold recommendations that we obviously support, if you actually read the EFA pages the following is going to sound pretty familiar such as;

Read more to see the full statement.

Director Luka travelled the city of Frosinone to meet with the executive directors of the club and Academy. They have been a dominant force in second division soccer in Italy as of yet, however their Academy has made more waves then their main team who was just relegated to third division (Lega Pro). The directors spoke on how they can work together and Frosinone was very impressed by the work he had done to bring many professional players to Italy. This is one of the major reasons why at that time they offered to make EFA an affiliate of the club and Academy. After discussing it with the EFA Board, we are now more then happy to announce the affiliation formally.

The affiliation opens up another door in the province of Lazio and it sets the stage for our players to feel at home in Italy with so many friends about. The club has agreed to the following (click read more for details);

A few lions crossed the pond to attend the Milan Junior Camp in Italy. In attendance a few old players from AC Milan and a few of their Academy coaches. Our director was on hand to make sure the lions tried their hardest. The players made themselves stand out. Two of them were identified for further trials. On the second last day Michele Ferraris the Academy Director for AC Milan met with our director. He expressed sorrow at how his attempt at opening an Academy in Toronto had failed due to attracting all the wrong types of players. Once he saw our talented players from Eurostar he was pleased to see that there was some coaches in Canada who were able to teach soccer the proper way. Both directors exchanged pleasantries and promises to work together for the improvement of soccer in their respective countries.

We started offering camps back in 1998 at the London Croatia Club and I still remember all those kids from then as they moved on to University and their lives as professional players. Some of them went on to be doctors, lawyers, bankers and some ended up playing professional soccer. There were so many of them and according to our records more than 1432 players have attended Eurostar Camps with the average attendance rate being 3.62 years. It is truly quite something to only be 27 and have seen all of this. It has been a privilege working with our director Luka Shaqiri on this project if not for any other reason than to see all these young people develop into the responsible and successful adults of today.

Martin (UEFA B) and Jon (UEFA B) from SK Slavia Praha visited our training grounds on Wednesday. They thought our academy players were extremly technical and they haven't seen that before in the U12 and U13 age group. They enjoyed the practice very much and we look forward to having them visit with us again real soon. Enjoy the pictures.

Alum Haidar al Shaibani returned home to London Ontario while on call for Team Canada during the Gold Cup. He took some time to train with our goalkeepers, offer some advice and answer a  few questions for us. Haidar will be off to France on June 25th to continue his season there with Nimes Olimpique. Read More to see the additional pictures and the interview.

3 Lions flew over the ocean to tryout for FC Den Bosch Academy.