About The Club
Leon Brown, founder and owner of Royal York FC, has followed and achieved the soccer dream. Born in Birmingham, England, Leon discovered his own love for the game at a very early age and grew up as a passionate Aston Villa supporter. He has been involved in soccer at an international level for over 30 years. His career launched with his first professional contract for England’s Bristol Rovers in 1980.
Over the course of 7 incredible years, he continued playing professionally in Sweden, Malta, Iceland and New Zealand before his final run with the Winnipeg Fury. He continued to play semi-pro for 10 years and began his coaching career in 2003. An accredited coach, he has extensive experience developing young soccer players of various ages and levels of experience.
Leon’s approach is highly motivational. He inspires, players, coaches and backroom staff to breath football on a daily basis. He is dedicated to developing players into the best they can be and relishes the excitement of playing soccer any place, any day, any time.
As President of Royal York FC, Leon has hand-selected all of Royal York FC’s coaches and ensures that they are driven with the passion, integrity and elite level professional performance that is the Club’s trademark. Playing with the right fundamentals and skills from the beginning is an essential part of every player’s success.
Even if you are new to the game, we provide you with top class coaching. Our certified and professional coaches work with players as young as three years old to build early confidence and proper soccer skills. With our approach, players establish a love for the game and a foundation for playing at a recreational or elite level. There is a player in everyone and the RYFC training and development philosophy develops each player to the best of their ability.
Whether you’ve never touched the ball, or you only play at the park or you’re an elite player we have a multitude of player development training programs to improve each player’s touch and confidence on the ball.
Regardless of where you want to take your game, our goal is for you to develop team friendships, learn on and off the pitch, and to share a love of the beautiful game.
Learn to play or develop your game the Royal York way.
Our Footballing Philosophy
At Royal York FC we pride ourselves on delivering first class training sessions resulting in match day excellence. Whatever your age or level of play, our philosophy is simple – we’re here to develop you. We strive to deepen your love of the beautiful game using a skills-first approach.
We cultivate a style of play that is athletic, fast and strong on ball control. We focus on the technical excellence that is the cornerstone of success for the world’s top football professionals.
While we enjoy winning games, it will not be at the expense of true technical expertise. Our players do not “kick and chase” their ball down the field.
Royal Yorkers are the team that consistently perform 3 and 4 pass moves, who are hard to get the ball from, and who understand that winning is an effort of both physical, mental and psychological proportions.
With the best professional coaches from across the globe, we expect players to invest as much in their performance as we do in top quality training.
Skills First
Physical literacy and FUNdamental skills are taught at the active start stage. From here, players move through our football pyramid knowing that they’ve received quality technical training from day one.
The Right Tools
Video recording and critical analysis of the playback helps us celebrate good plays as well as identify problems and target training.
Modern Football
We bring a modern day football approach to turn passion into inclusive participation for all girls and boys at any level.