Group Head of Football
Welcome to "Inside the Dream: Insights from the RTD Playbook," a column by Mads Davidsen, Group Head of Football at Right to Dream. In this series, Mads will be sharing ongoing insights into our unique philosophy, operations, and vision for the future of football.
As we step into 2025, it’s the perfect time to reflect on an extraordinary year for the Right to Dream community.
2024 marked our 25th anniversary, a milestone that brought together inspiring stories, record-breaking performances, and the continued expansion of our mission to create pathways for young talent around the world.
While it’s a challenge to capture every incredible moment, here are some of the standout highlights from an unforgettable year:
Inspired by Our Girls and Women
In 2024, our girls and women truly inspired us all.
In Egypt, FC Masar made history by winning The Double for the first time. Later in the autumn, the young team competed in the CAF Women’s Champions League, where they not only won their group but also reached the semifinals and secured third place.
It was the by far the youngest team and squad in the tournament, and they became the first Egyptian side to reach the competition’s semis, showing us all and to an entire continent how to dream big and make those dreams a reality.
Meanwhile, at FC Nordsjælland (FCN), the Women’s First Team also won The Double. They achieved this as the youngest team in the league, while giving the most playing minutes to players under 21 years old.
It’s another statement that underlines our commitment and approach as a model to create pathways
through deliberate development that lead to exceptional performances.
Kudos to everyone involved across our academies and Women’s First Teams for this remarkable work!
Celebrating Our Graduates
We are always proud when RTD graduates achieve their dreams.
In 2024, several of our talents took significant steps forward in their careers. Ibrahim Osman, Adamo Nagalo, and Conrad Harder have all moved on to exciting new opportunities. Our academies, led by Ghana over the past decade, continue to develop and nurture top-tier players.
Meanwhile, long-time FCN soldiers Martin Frese and Oliver Villadsen also embraced new challenges in Italy and Germany, respectively.
On the women’s side, Emilia Asgeirsdóttir’s club-record transfer to RB Leipzig highlights our progress as a model in developing talent in the women’s game.
IA Showing the Way
On the boys’ side, 2024 was a significant year for the International Academy (IA), where our best football talents from our locations come together at age 16 to train and compete globally.
This multicultural environment, which was launched some years ago, fosters rapid development and builds bonds across cultures, combining West Africa, Egypt and Scandinavia (and soon USA and Mexico). This year, we proudly welcomed the first two players from our Egypt campus into the IA—a milestone that signals much more to come.
Continuous Progress in Men’s Player Development
FC Nordsjælland's men’s team continue to push boundaries with our respected model that focuses on giving playing time to homegrown talents while competing in the Danish Superliga.
Our model is evolving as the timeline for players moving to major European clubs continues to shorten.
Previously, our biggest talents spent an average of two seasons at FCN before moving to big clubs in Europe, but lately that window has narrowed to just 12-18 months.
To meet this growing demand, we’ve expanded and strengthened our ecosystem by upgrading our IA program, opening an academy in Egypt, and preparing for the opening of our new academy in San Diego. These platforms ensure our talent pipeline remains strong, enabling us to continue to develop players into our first teams.
In Egypt, FC Masar’s men’s team currently lead the Egyptian third tier, showing continuous progress. As it continues to climb up in the Egyptian league structure, it aims to become another pathway for our talents. This journey reflects our belief that we can develop players while simultaneously performing —a core principle of Right to Dream.
2025-2032 Football Strategy in the Making
A new year is an opportunity to look ahead and plan, and we’ve been hard at work crafting a strategy for the next seven years.
Our mission and vision remain unchanged: to create even more pathways and provide opportunities for young people, both on and off the pitch.
As we expand our community, it’s crucial we ensure alignment and cohesion, so that our new strategy is a shared direction for the entire RTD group. We seek to grow together and succeed as we do on the pitch — through “collective moves” where the individual can shine in a well-defined framework.
With the addition of the San Diego Academy later in 2025, we maintain our vision of being a community of academies and clubs.
To clarify, we define ourselves as a Multi-Academy Ownership, with our core strategy focused on having more academies than clubs. This approach will give us a competitive edge by creating an oversupply of top talent for our first teams.
Welcoming San Diego FC
2025 already promises to be an exciting year as we prepare to welcome our newest member, San Diego FC (SDFC), into the RTD community.
The First Team will begin training in early January, with their inaugural MLS game set for February 23.
RTD has played a key role in laying the foundations for SDFC, helping assemble a strong sporting leadership team. We’re pleased to have some “RTD-pillars” joining San Diego from 2025, with a balanced representation of domestic, local and RTD-based experience.
Our RTD Academy in San Diego is set to open in the autumn of 2025. While there’s still a lot of work and planning ahead, we’ll approach it with our signature RTD philosophy: starting from the ground up and building from there.
Everyone has the Right to Dream.