In the week building up to our Mid-Atlantic Division title winning game the Ocean City Nor'easters at two top coaches, Roberto Niccolai and Alessandro Montagnani from Inter Milan, joined the squad.

Inter Milan are one of the most prestigious clubs in the world having won the Italian league 18 times and the European Cup / Champions League 3 times among all their other honors. The coaches came over to Ocean City, NJ as part of Inter Club NJ Facchetti's support of former Inter player Ivan Cordoba's charity 4EduSoccer who help raise funds for missions throughout Colombia.

Roberto Niccolai works within the Inter Milan Academy system as well as with the first team. He has overseen the graduation of some of their brightest players of recent history including Brazillian start Coutinho. Alessandro Montagnani is a former Serie A goalkeeper who know works as the goalkeeper coach for the Academy players and first team. Both coaches have worked under Leonardo and Claudio Ranieri.

Our guests from Inter Milan watched over Nor'easters practices and saw the 4-0 win over NJ LUSO Rangers. They left impressed with the set up, with the Nor'easters relationship with Jersey Premier Soccer and our desire to keep improving. There was a lot of great feedback to the coaches as well as an in depth presentation about the best practices used at the word famous club.

Nor'easters General Manager Neil Holloway emphasized the importance of the relationship with clubs at the highest level, "In the American system the Nor'easters will never be a powerhouse in world soccer like Inter Milan but that does not mean we cannot learn from them and try to implement the best practices that are instilled at the best clubs in the world. Our job is to develop college level soccer players into professionals and, in a way, that is what Inter have to do too. We have learned a lot during this week and it will be exciting to see our relationship with these top level coaches continue and grow." On the charity side of the relationship Holloway explained how it came about, "Our President Giancarlo Granese is part of Inter Club NJ Facchetti and they made contact with former player Ivan Cordoba about how they could help his charity work in Colombia. In the future we will get involved more deeply with Inter Club NJ Facchetti events and raise funds that way".

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