WINNING THE FUTURE: WHAT THEY HAVEN'T LEARNED—YET

By Mads Davidsen

Group Head of Football

Looking back at another season across the Right to Dream football community—with only San Diego FC still in action—it's important to remind ourselves of what really matters: we're not here to chase short-term results or just focus on team performances.

We’re here to win the future.

Our core mission is to create meaningful opportunities for young people and provide clear pathways for talent across the world. That means our environment’s focus must always return to one thing: Learning.

There’s an important saying from the science world: “You can’t perform while you’re learning.”

It’s an essential truth that football environments too often forget. We often default to performance mode, rating players in the short term, based on whether they deliver immediate results.

But at Right to Dream, we’re committed to something far more valuable: long-term growth. That means understanding that during tough learning periods, performances may dip, and that’s not failure. That’s part of development.

You’ll often hear things like, “He’s not good enough.” Or “She won’t make it.”

But we encourage our coaches, scouts, leaders, and specialists to take a different view. One that recognizes that not everyone’s potential can be seen or evaluated short term. So instead of writing players off, we ask:

“What haven’t they learned—yet?”

This approach is key to creating a development-first environment. It pushes us to seek deeper understanding of where and how we can help a player improve and, ultimately, maximize their potential.

And when a player from one of our academies doesn’t make it into one of our first teams, we don’t blame it on the player. Instead, we ask ourselves: Did our environment do enough to help them thrive? Because it was our environment that couldn’t fulfill the player’s potential. Not the other way around.

Season Review: 2024/25

Our academies are our foundation.

International Academy Impact

This year, we saw a significant number of IA players transition into the FC Nordsjælland (FCN) men’s first team, earning valuable game time. The IA also welcomed the first Egyptian players from our young Egypt academy, adding even more quality and diversity to the program.

The success of the IA program is a reflection of the incredible work happening across all our academies. Many of our current IA players come from West Africa. Take Caleb Yirenki, who’s shown outstanding potential with FCN’s first team and has already made his debut for Ghana’s senior national team. Or Lucas Høgsberg, who continues to impress at first-team level and has earned two caps with Denmark’s A-national team.

These are just some of the powerful stories emerging from our model and exemplify what it means to win the future through long-term development.

Graduates Highlights

 And when it comes to creating pathways, we’re proud to follow the journeys of our graduates across the world.

Just a few of the many names include Emilia Asgeirsdottir, who is steadily growing into the RB Leipzig squad. Adamo Nagalo, who had a tough start with an injury at PSV Eindhoven but ended the season as a Dutch champion. In the Premier League, Mikkel Damsgaard had a record number of assists at Brentford FC, while Conrad Harder scored +10 goals in his debut season for Sporting Lisbon, including the winner in the Portuguese Cup Final. Daniel Svensson made the leap straight from FCN to Borussia Dortmund, helping push the German giants back to the top of the Bundesliga and holding a fantastic level even in the Champions League against Lamine Yamal.

Their journeys are another example of how our model is winning the future.  

Progress at Senior Level

Our girls and women teams continue to inspire.

FC Masar in Egypt finished third in the CAF Women’s Champions League and defended their domestic league title, while remaining the youngest winning first team in Africa.

In Denmark, FCN Women’s first team secured a second-place finish in the league, earning a spot in the UEFA Women’s Champions League qualifiers—a major development platform and benchmark for our young players. The season also saw a big milestone for Anna Walter, who earned her first senior call-up to the Danish national team.

Both teams created new pathways for top talent, with Emilia Asgeirsdottir joining RB Leipzig from FCN and Shadia Nankya joining the Washington Spirits from FC Masar, another signal that the RTD vision for women’s football continues to grow and create global opportunities.

On the men’s side, FC Masar made history with a very difficult promotion for the third season in a row—reaching Egypt’s second tier, a fully professional league and a major step forward in creating a new pro pathway for young male players from our academies.

At FCN, the men’s first team stayed true to its purpose: being a platform for young talent. A total of 14 teenagers got their debuts this season, with the total playing minutes for young talents going above 9000 minutes —a league record. The club’s commitment to the 2006 generation shows exactly what we stand for: creating space for potential to grow, not just today, but for the future.

San Diego FC: A Solid Start

Our newest addition, San Diego FC, made a promising start in their debut MLS season.

From day one, the focus has been on learning and development, creating an environment grounded in trust and psychological safety. These are non-negotiables for any Right to Dream academy or club and essential to our core belief in long-term, sustainable success.

In his opening speech of the season to staff and players, Head Coach Mikey Varas said it best:“We’re not creating a new family. We’re joining a (Right to Dream) family.”

Exactly, Mikey. This is a big, connected family and global football community.

We are already seeing how our global Right to Dream style of play is beginning to take shape at SDFC. Aligned with our International Academy and academies around the world, this shared style of play will, over time, become our competitive edge—minimizing transitions into first teams and fulfilling each player’s potential.

As it continues to evolve, we look forward to seeing more players from IA and our academies take their next step into SDFC, our new pro pathway in the US.

We know that none of this would’ve been possible without the belief, dedication, and hard work of every member of our global community. Thank you for continuing to shape the journey with us. Together, we’re winning the future.

Everyone has The Right to Dream.