As allegedly the fastest growing brand in World football the natural place for Saints to branch into is the United States Of america and now they aim to do so.

Saints are to launch their first soccer school in the USA, it will be based in Baltimore a city famous for the star spangled banner and also only a 30 minute drive from Washington DC.

The East Coast is a good place to start for the soccer schools, cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston and even New York have traditionally been home to large European immigrant populations from Italy, Ireland & Germany and it is the 3rd even 4th generations of these that have been the bedrock of the boom in Soccer in the USA over the past two decades.

Ralph Krueger being of German stock albeit born in Canada is well aware of the rise of soccer in both the USA & Canada and is now keen for Saints to tap into that market both in terms of coaching and raising the "brand awareness" of Saints in North America.

On the business side, it’s an exciting growth," he told the Daily Echo back in the summer.

"I would like to continue to do what I can with the commercial and business arm of the club, to grow the brand.”

Now the club has taken its first step into that Market, with the announcement of the soccer school in Baltimore and there will be more.

Baltimore itself is a traditional blue collar city and is big on sport with the two big stadiums of the Baltimore football and baseball team sitting alongside each other.

But it does not have an MLS side at present nor a team in the next tier of soccer in the USA, it is sandwiched in between Washington DC & Philadelphia who do have MLS sides.

Although Baltimore is blue collar as a city and in parts is a dangerous place, to the South it is well populated by those in the Washington DC commuter belt and to the North the Pennsylvania City's & towns.

It is ripe not only to develop coaching schools but also to build on that with a professional soccer side and an alliance with Southampton which it could be said is a very similar type of City demographically given both are ports.

Many professional clubs have played pre season friendlies against MLS Club in the States, indeed the MLS has a mid season break to enable this to happen, but it is the top clubs who garner the most publicity and the biggest games, as well as show piece friendlies between Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United & Real Madrid etc.

The lesser Premier League clubs have to make do with games against smaller MLS sides as Bournemouth did last summer.

Krueger will know that Saints will be somewhere in between, but he will be keen to make a start and up Saints profile in what is a potentially lucrative market both in terms of finding players for the club and raising its profile to bring in more income through not only pre season friendly matches but merchandising.

Photo: Action Images

BoondockSaint added 13:56 - Nov 18 A real head scratcher. Baltimore? That's like the NFL setting up in Pompey!My guess is they got some kind of deal to set up in an area businesses are fleeing. Better and bigger markets would be as you mention New York, Boston, etc. If they want to raise their profile, which is doing well because of a lot of TV exposure due to last year's success, they need to be in the media hubs: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles. Friendly games against MLS teams (or partnerships) would do more to build the brand in markets that are already hot beds of football fans looking for a Premier team to adopt. There is a big following for college teams, both men's and women's, so why not set up a training/development deal with one of them? It would not only give Saints free press, they might get first crack at players they might want to bring over.

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ThicknThin added 17:35 - Nov 18 A good move in my opinion. What have we got to lose. if we raise brand awareness and maybe unearth a decent player or two - all to the good. And maybe establish a foothold into a growing and lucrative market.
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