How Soccer.com is capitalizing on U.S. soccer fever

But according to Soccer.com CEO Mike Moylan, this has been a long time coming. When Lionel Messi signed with Inter Miami last year, bringing the Argentinian soccer star to the United States, it was clear that the sport was becoming a mainstream pastime for Americans. But there were times before that also brought soccer to the mainstream U.S. — including when the U.S. women’s team won the World Cup in 1999 or when David Beckham joined the LA Galaxy in 2007.

Ever since the U.S. hosted the World Cup in 1994, “[there] has been sort of the meteoric rise of soccer from an interest perspective,” Moylan said.

Moylan joined this week’s Modern Retail Podcast and discussed the rising U.S. interest in the sport and how the company has grown and changed.

Soccer.com has been around since 1994 (technically, it began before that as a catalog business, but it acquired the single-word domain in 1994). It’s been a destination for people to buy the jerseys of their favorite players along with equipment like soccers and uniforms for leagues.

But as soccer has continued to grow in popularity, Soccer.com has grown out other parts of its business. This includes white-label partnerships with organizations like FIFA as well as stadium tie-ins.

For now, Soccer.com is focused on capitalizing on the current U.S. soccer fervor. And it is already in the throes of planning for the next World Cup.

“That moment in time will define soccer in the United States,” he said.

Here are a few highlights from the conversation, which have been lightly edited for clarity.

The different channels Soccer.com plays in
“For years, we were FIFA’s online partner. You could either buy from Soccer.com or, if you went to buy from the World Cup store, you were buying it from us as well. With FIFA, it was more of a white label. The same thing with UEFA. This summer, there were about 40 professional games of teams traveling from Europe and Central and South America, and we did a lot of the event retail at [the stadiums]. Some of that is Soccer.com and some of that is a white label where we’re actually doing fulfillment.”

The most popular products
“From a pure dollars perspective, [our biggest sales driver] is going to be footwear. Footwear is going to be the number one on that side. I think a lot of people say the only thing you really need to play the game is a ball, and that’s definitely true. But the reality is, there’s usually a pair of cleats, a pair of boots that go along with that. Then, outside of that, the next thing would be the individual player jerseys. So don’t think Messi or Ronaldo. Think: your nephew, your niece, your kids, playing on a team. That would be the next biggest thing that we sell. And we’ll do that through Nike, Adidas, Puma, New Balance, as well as some specific brands that are just designed from a soccer perspective, as well as Under Armour, of course.”

How soccer has slowly become more popular in the U.S.
“David Beckham having his moment… was massive. I think it sort of captured lightning in a bottle in a way that had this amazing player who also had sort of a Hollywood appeal, a fashion appeal — [he] was known not only for his looks but his playing style. When he came to play for the LA Galaxy, it was a moment in time that just showed the power of soccer in the United States. You fast forward about 17 years, and we look at the Messi effect now — going to Miami and coming off of winning the World Cup [and] being the Ballon d’Or, the best player in the world — and his appeal is different than Beckham’s in the sense that it’s purely about what he’s able to do with the ball. Certainly, people would know him, but when you look at the impact that he’s had, as well as other players that have come into the league, it is really going to the core of what we believe and understand, which is: The people that love the game love somebody with an immense talent. The highlights side of it is what drives them and that has sustained itself.”