Inter Milan partners with Richmond Strikers to launch Inter Academy Strikers

MILAN – Inter, the iconic Italian football club based in Milan, is consolidating the presence of its brand in the United States through the inception of Inter Academy Strikers in Richmond, Virginia, in collaboration with the Richmond Strikers.

The Richmond Strikers are a non-profit youth organization founded in 1975 that provides an effective, dynamic and progressive athletic experience for more than 4,500 boys and girls between the ages of 4 and 19 in the Greater Richmond Metropolitan area.

The Inter Academy Strikers project aims to support the development of children in the Greater Richmond Metropolitan area both as athletes and as human beings by enabling them to train and grow as footballers in accordance with Inter’s demanding technical and ethical standards. To begin with, approximately 500 boys and girls between the ages of 8 and 12 will take part in Inter Academy Strikers, which will be based in the Strikers’ state-of-the-art facilities in Richmond. The project will be overseen by Inter Academy coaches starting in August of 2023.

“The creation of this new partnership represents an important stage in Inter’s expansion in the United States and is proof of how attractive our club is in a market that is of huge strategic importance to us,” said FC Internazionale Milano Corporate CEO Alessandro Antonello. “We are very pleased to join forces with the Richmond Strikers organization, one of the biggest in the country, in this exciting project, pushing the Nerazzurri colors forward in the American football landscape.”

“I am honored we have launched this partnership with one of the biggest football clubs on the planet,” said Jay Howell, Executive Director of the Richmond Strikers. “Inter has a well-established track record of cultivating and supporting youth soccer development all over the world. We look forward to working with the Inter coaches and seeing the accelerated growth of our young soccer players.”

According to Richmond Strikers President, John Mumford, “This collaboration gives our players, coaches, and all aspects of our organization access to the methodologies and practices of a legendary soccer club that has been an international football leader since 1908.”

As a consequence of the Inter-Richmond Strikers partnership, Inter Academy is working to establish a collaboration arrangement concerning the Jefferson Cup, which is the one of the most prominent youth soccer tournament series in the United States, involving more than 1750 teams from all over the US and Canada.
North American Football Academies LLC (“NAFA”) played a key role in sourcing, structuring and executing the partnership between Inter and the Richmond Strikers and NAFA will continue to support the expansion of the Inter Academy project across the United States.

The launch of Inter Academy Strikers further expands the horizons of the Inter Academy network, which now involves more than 20,000 boys and girls in 10 countries around the world.