Bri McAllister, Contributing Writer
For some VCU soccer players, the road to Richmond begins just a few miles from campus. For others, it begins thousands of miles away.
VCU’s soccer programs recruit players from across the United States and around the world, bringing together athletes from different backgrounds, playing styles, and experiences. For international players, the process can mean leaving behind their family, friends and familiar surroundings to pursue both an education and a soccer career.
For men’s soccer head coach Dave Giffard, recruiting means getting personal, taking it slow and identifying players who can contribute to the program while fitting into the culture of the team.
“I’m looking for players that have characteristics, ideally more than one, but at least one that could translate to at least one level beyond us, ideally, multiple levels beyond us,” Giffard said. “Maybe it’s not the guy that’s the safest bet and most sought out after by all these other places. It’s a guy who has tools that could potentially develop over the course of a 3.5-to 4.5-year period, being something much more than what they are now.”
The men’s soccer 2026 incoming class includes international talent from Costa Rica, Spain, the Bahamas, South Africa, Portugal, Ghana, Ireland, Norway and Jamaica.
For fourth-year midfielder Andrey Solomon, a player from San José, Costa Rica, recruitment to VCU began while he was playing soccer in his home country.
“Since I was a kid, I always had this idea or dream to play soccer but study at the same time,” Solomon said. “I was doing a workout with my team and Coach Lucas came straight to me like, ‘Hey Andrey!’ and I was like, ‘What? How do you know me?’”
That first interaction became the beginning of a process that eventually brought Solomon to Richmond. His experience demonstrates how international recruiting can happen through opportunities far beyond the traditional American high school soccer pipeline.
For second-year defender Bo Price, an English player on the women’s soccer team, the decision to play college soccer in the United States meant adapting to a different style of soccer while also adjusting to life thousands of miles from home.
“The girls are so good, like they are great,” Price said. “They make me feel like it’s family away from home.”
More than 60 of Giffard’s VCU players have gone on to play professionally during his tenure, according to the Dave Giffard Soccer Camps website.
For coaches, recruiting is ultimately about finding players who can grow within the program. For international players such as Solomon and Price, the recruiting process has transformed a dream of playing soccer at a collegiate level, into a reality at VCU.