Fox Sports en Español & Sears partner to launch ‘El Sueño de Tu Vida 2009’.

Fox Sports en Español announced today that El Sueño de Tu Vida presented by Sears, the only national tour to scout top Hispanic soccer talent for pro clubs & colleges, will be returning for its second year starting this month. The national amateur scouting program is the result of Fox Sports en Español’s partnership with Alianza de Fútbol Hispano and Sears, through which America’s most talented amateur Hispanic players are given the opportunity to showcase their skills and earn college scholarships as well as professional contracts in Mexico and the US. El Sueño de Tu Vida is the biggest grassroots program launched by a network across the nation’s key markets, and creates national media attention for sponsors at a local level.

“We’re thrilled to continue our partnership with the nation’s leading organization dedicated to the development of amateur Hispanic soccer,” said David Sternberg, General Manager and Executive Vice President for Fox Sports en Español. “Fox Sports en Español is committed to providing an integrated platform to showcase the top Hispanic talent in the country.”

El Sueño de Tu Vida presented by Sears had an extremely successful debut in 2008: 18 players from around the country received formal tryout invitations from MLS and Mexican professional teams, with four of the players eventually going on to sign professional contracts. One of the players discovered by El Sueño de Tu Vida scouts, Victor Sanchez of Chicago, is now a member of the U-17 Mexican National team player pool after signing a contract with Mexican Club Santos Laguna in November 2008. Most recently, two players from last year’s El Sueño de Tu Vida in Houston, were signed to the U-17 team of Puebla F.C., one of the elite Mexican club teams. The newly acquired goalkeeper Luis Manuel Pedraza is playing alongside forward Juan Francisco Sillero, who already scored 2 goals in his debut against Cruz-Azul U-17.

In 2009, the team of scouts will be comprised of some of Mexico’s most accomplished and influential talent evaluators, including Jose Enrique Vaca (America), Jose Luis Ortega (Santos Laguna), Daniel Ahmed (Atlas), and Jose Manuel Abundis (Toluca). As part of the scouting process in each city, 18 players will be chosen to compete on the El Sueño de Tu Vida Local All-Star Team, which will play a game against a visiting Mexican Primera Division A or MLS reserve team during the third weekend of the events. Four players from each city’s All Star team will be further selected to a national player pool of 40 finalists, where only 18 players from the player pool will make the National All-Star Team, which will play against America “Primera A” in Los Angeles in a nationally televised game by Fox Sports en Español on October 24th.

In order to expand the scope and reach of its professional and college scouting efforts in 2009, Alianza has added Copita Alianza a youth tournament to complement the Verizon Wireless Copa Alianza, and El Sueño de Tu Vida scouting program presented by Sears. The Copita Alianza tournament, which will be played concurrently with the adult tournament, together with the youth scouting program, will offer players 16 years of age and younger an opportunity to be scouted by both professional teams and college coaches, while providing professional talent evaluators access to an age group young enough to be groomed and trained to become future impact players at the professional level in Mexico or in the United States.