Soccer Star Christian Fuchs' Training Academy Awards Scholarships to Kids From Public Housing

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — For a week in July, an Austrian pro soccer player turned Frederick Douglass Playground into a soccer hotspot on the border of Harlem and the Upper West Side.

International soccer star Christian Fuchs — captain of the Austrian national team and member of Premier League champion Leicester City — teamed up with the New York City Housing Authority to award scholarships to five children living in public housing to attend his week-long Fox Soccer Academy. The camp started Monday, July 11.

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The five scholarship recipients from public housing received nearly $3,500 to attend the soccer camp and get hands-on training from Fuchs, soccer pro Michael Gspurning and Fuchs' personal training staff.

"This collaboration is a fantastic example of how NYCHA is creating partnerships to make our communities more connected," said NYCHA Chair and CEO Shola Olatoye in a press release. "Through this program, five young residents are learning and exercising at the same time — free of charge."

The partnership between Fox Soccer Academy and NYSHA started when Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen reached out to Fuchs' wife Raluca Gold-Fuchs.

"They heard about the camp and we wanted to offer all New York City kids the opportunity to train with these professional players. So it was a way of giving back. We offered them five spots and they were all filled," Gold-Fuchs said.

By the end of the week-long camp the kids made impressive strides toward becoming more confident with the ball, Fuchs said.

"When I saw the kids come in the first day they had no clue what to do with the ball and were like, 'Why am I here' you know?" Fuchs said. "But now when I see all those guys from the New York City Housing Authority having fun, this one girl cannot even stop dribbling."

One of the scholarship recipients, a 12-year-old girl named Mya, said that she plans on playing soccer more often at school after the camp.

"I didn't know how to play soccer, like very well," Mya said. "But now I'm kind of developing, so yeah I think I'm doing good in soccer."

Mya added that playing with the professional players was difficult for a beginner, but worth it.

"It's interesting to learn new moves," she said. "It's hard, but it's good and it's healthy for your body to keep moving. So playing with pro soccer players, that's really cool."

The goal of the Fox Soccer Academy is not only to help kids realize their potential on the soccer field and develop skills, but also to help kids learn how to interact with each other, Fuchs said.

"It's not only about playing soccer, it's also about learning how to behave in a community and in a group. To follow certain rules, to have respect to your teammates or to the people you're playing with. Basically you can apply that to any other situation in your life," Fuchs said.

The Fox Soccer Academy was only one-week long this year due to Fuchs' professional schedule in Europe, but it's going to expand when he moves to New York, Fuchs said. Fuchs also plans on continuing partnerships to allow kids from low-income families the opportunity to attend the camp.

"I'm not living here permanently at the moment but two years from now New York will be my home, and I see it as my home already because my family is living here," Fuchs said. "There are people who can't afford the camp, but they want to be here, and I want to give that to the kids."

Fuchs told Patch that in addition to running the camp, he also plans on playing professional soccer when he moves to New York.

[Photos: Brendan Krisel]