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New youth general manager position the first of its kind in Major League Soccer

More than 400 youth soccer clubs who call the Delaware Valley home now have a point person at the Philadelphia Union who has been hired to oversee outreach and build relationships with youth soccer clubs in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey.

David Pettican, who was announced as the Union’s youth general manager by the team on Tuesday, was a youth player at Southampton FC and played professionally at Portsmouth FC before injuries cut short his career but it is his pedigree in the local soccer community that makes him such an intriguing hire.

Pettican founded the area club FC Europa in 2008 after establishing a presence in the Philadelphia area in the early ‘90s as the founder of British European Soccer Training.