U.S. Soccer hires Rick Cost as Director of High Performance

CHICAGO — The U.S. Soccer Federation has hired Rick Cost as its new Director of High Performance.

Cost brings a wealth of experience to U.S. Soccer with more than 21 years in the field, most recently as Head of Performance and Innovation at Dutch Eredivisie club Feyenoord.

“We’re very excited for Rick to join us as our new director of high performance,” said Earnie Stewart, U.S. Soccer Sporting Director. “This is a critical role for the Federation and we’re confident that Rick has the experience to keep us on the cutting edge of sport science as he oversees a wide variety of key performance areas.”

Cost won multiple gold and silver medals as the Head of Sport Performance for the Dutch National Field Hockey Teams and has spent time working in professional field hockey, handball and as a sport performance advisor for a number of top European soccer clubs.

“I’m thrilled to join U.S. Soccer and help accelerate the development of world-class players to win on the game’s biggest stages,” Cost said. “The Federation has been doing impressive work in the high performance space and there’s tremendous growth potential for the sport in the United States. I’m ready to keep driving us forward.”

Cost has worked with Feyenoord since the start of the club’s 2016 season, helping the team win the league in his inaugural season and the KNVB Cup in 2018. One of the Netherlands’ biggest teams, Cost managed the club’s medical, nutrition and strength and conditioning staff. He developed training and rehab programs, testing protocols and worked to physically prepare youth players for the first team.

Prior to working in soccer, Cost helped the Dutch National Field Hockey Teams reach Olympic glory as the program’s Head of Sports Performance and Medicine. During his tenure, the women won silver at the 2012 London Olympics and finished fourth at Rio 2016, while the men took silver in 2012 and finished fourth in 2016. The teams also medaled in all four World Cups played during his time on staff. In a similar role to Feyenoord, Cost oversaw medical, strength and conditioning, nutrition and video performance staff and worked to track load management, create periodization plans and manage physical/medical testing.

Cost launched his physiology career working in handball with the Dutch women’s national handball team and professional club HV Helias, before moving to field hockey with pro teams HGC and HC Rotterdam. He also owns and operates his own chain of private physiotherapy practices in the Netherlands, providing sport science services, physical/medical testing, gait analysis and more.