chris cleary, founder
Chris’ background as a player, mixed with his background in the corporate recruiting world gives him a unique blend of professionalism not found with any other college soccer recruitment consultants or companies.
As a nationally recognized elite youth player, Chris won multiple state and regional championships, along with one national title. He was a four year starter in high school and set a number of school and conference scoring and point records. Chris was honored with numerous local, state, regional and national awards during his high school career.
A three sport athlete in high school (soccer, basketball and baseball), and ultimately a three sport recruit at the D1 level, Chris’ recruitment experience was unique. Ultimately, Chris chose to continue playing soccer at the next level where he was a four year starter at Boston College and the recipient of the prestigious Tom McElroy Scholarship Award, given to the top student athlete who best exemplifies Boston College in the classroom, on the athletic field, and in the community.
During his time at The Heights, Chris started 68 of the 72 matches Boston College played during that four year stretch. He won a Big East title as a junior and as the Captain of the team his senior year, Chris garnered All-Big East and Regional All-American honors. Chris finished his career having scored 8 game winning goals and ranking in the top 10 in program history for assists and total points.
After college, Chris spent three injury plagued seasons as a professional player in Europe on the books at Karlsruher SC, Barnsley FC and Worksop Town FC. His professional highlight came in 2004 when he became the first American to score a hat trick in the FA Cup.
Unfortunately, the game after that hat trick, Chris sustained yet another ankle injury which sidelined him for quite a while. “In 2005, after my latest ankle injury, I decided not to accept any of the professional contracts I had been presented with and opted for a career without a shelf life. It was the hardest and easiest decision I’ve ever had to make.”
Upon returning to the USA, Chris spent time working at the world leader in sports and entertainment marketing, primarily focused on the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. Not long after the World Cup finished, Chris was recruited by a global leader in the staffing industry. Eventually, Chris launched his own executive search practice, spent time at the world’s leading executive search firm and as a practice leader, he built and ran the first ever in-house executive search practice at a Fortune 15 company.
In parallel, since 2012, Chris has also been helping talented local youth soccer players find their way onto university teams. As Chris explains, “executive search and college sports recruiting are not too dissimilar. Understanding a player’s strengths and having the right connections to programs that can benefit from those strengths (at the right time) is invaluable.”