John Rojas
Head Coach 11B Copa Red

John considers himself lucky, since there hasn’t being one day in his lifetime without soccer involved. His journey  began in Colombia, where he played up to the 2nd division before deciding to finish college. After earning his degree in journalism, he moved to New York City where he continued playing amateur soccer, even participating in the US Open Cup and coaching a U9 team.

As a journalist John worked for various media outlets, including TV, radio, and the web. He served as color commentator for NYCFC’s Spanish radio broadcast. This experience ignited his passion for the formal education in the game. After traveling the country sharing experiences and having conversations with the team coached by Patrick Vieira and with Frank Lampard, David Villa or Andrea Pirlo among others as players, John moved to LA where he started to work as a freelance analyst and with the porpoise of attend as much training sessions as he could from both teams (LA Galaxy and LAFC).

In LA he had the opportunity to attend training sessions and learn routines from coaches such as of Bob Bradley, Sigi Schmid, Guillermo/Gustavo Barros Schelotto, Bruce Arena and players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Carlos Vela, Diego Rossi, Eduard Atuesta, Christian Pavón, and Roman Alessandrini among others. The last step of time in LA involved the beginning of his US Soccer credentials and pursue other studies with MBP and The FA.

Since then, he had the chance to attend Marcelo Bielsa’s training sessions in France and England; and move forward on his formal education of the game.

Currently, John holds qualifications that include: D License from US Soccer (with plans to obtain a C License), diplomas in scouting and video analysis (MBP Barcelona School of Coaches), Talent ID (The FA), Concussion Recognition and Management (The FA), Collective Fundamentals of Soccer (MBP Barcelona School of Coaches), and FIFA Guardians. He is pursuing now a Diploma in Psychology Applied to Grassroots Soccer (Conmebol).

John’s methodology and training ideas are inspired by sources such as Paco Seirul-lo (one of there fathers of the Barcelona Methodology), the MBP teaching methodology, using the Structured Training Method, constraints in sports theory and its applications to soccer training.