After COVID interrupted his career, a DC football player started a business to help other football players get scouted and signed | WDVM25 and DCW50

WASHINGTON (WDVM) – Growing up in Washington, DC, Alex Koritsas dreamed of playing football at the highest level.

“I started kicking the ball when I was three or four years old right in the garden,” Koritsas said. “My dad is English, all my family is English, so growing up obviously I had to play. Every game I would go down in my Arsenal shirt, imagining what it would be like to play.

A dual American and English citizen, Koritsas played high school football at St. John’s College, before spending a season at Division I Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.

“I started to realize that maybe it was getting a bit late if I wanted to go to England,” Koritsas said. “So I started sending emails to professional clubs.”

A year into his college career, Koritsas moved to Europe, playing semi-professional football and in a lower division team in Spain. He got a trial with Brentford FC, a team that later gained promotion to the English Premier League. Koritsas eventually signed with Crawley Town FC, a team in the fourth division of professional football in England.

“By the time I signed in January [of 2020], COVID has arrived. February came and they canceled the whole season,” Koritsas told WDVM. “I was talking to a lot of other clubs at the time and I was asking those clubs, you know, ‘What’s the situation with your club? Can I come in? Will there be a contract on the table? stuff like that. And a lot of the responses were, we just don’t have the funds to sign new players and sort of hit after hit.

Although Koritsas, who has been firing on a professional career, has been put on hiatus, he has taken another hit – starting his own business – and he has scored.

“That’s when I started my business,” Koritsas said. “UK Football Contacts.”

Koritsas’ business provides aspiring young footballers around the world with contact details for teams, coaches and scouts, in England, America and Australia.

“It’s been about nine months now,” Koritsas said. “I’ve helped over 550 players now.”

During a difficult time, Koritsas turned her adversity into success for others.

“It means a lot right now to help all these players in the same boat as me,” Koritsas said. “And honestly, it makes me smile every day seeing these success stories.”

Koritsas says he still dreams of a professional career for himself and does not rule out future endeavors to fulfill that dream. You can visit the UK Football Contacts website here.