Joe Keiser - Bukit Timah Juniors FC

BIO NOTES

Joe Keiser, principal shareholder and General Manager of Milan Soccer School Singapore was born in New York City and played his early Club soccer with a Croatian team in the Bronx, New York. His first “Business Houses” League experience was with Pepsi International in Westchester, NY, a team he co-founded in 1980. In 1983, Joe moved to Singapore and played with National Semiconductor’s team until 1986.

In 1987, Joe began training youth soccer teams in the International Junior Soccer League of the Australia and New Zealand Association (ANZA-IJSL), which later became the recreational ANZA Soccer, Singapore’s largest grassroots community soccer league. He holds trainer licenses from the United States federation and the states of New York and Florida. He also has a certificate in grassroots youth soccer from FIFA, and has attended many trainers courses.

After winning many ANZA-IJSL league and Cup trophies in the early years, Joe coached the ANZA U15 Select Team to win the Southeast Asia Cup (SEA Cup) in 2004, the most prestigious youth soccer tournament in its day. In 2009, he coached his team to the semifinals of the ANZA International Tournament, which was the Southeast Asia region’s largest youth soccer tournament

In late 2009, as ANZA Soccer Chairman, Joe initiated many innovations which included an early childhood program for 3 year olds, Singapore’s first all-girls program, and a men’s team for ANZA members. Joe also introduced a Coach Training program, bringing in Asia Football Confederation instructor examiners to introduce the role of coach/educator to ANZA Soccer’s 100+ coaches and assistants.

The most successful of the new programs was the Competition Teams, which gave Saturday recreational players the opportunity to compete in Sunday academy leagues and the possibility of playing at a higher level.

In 2009/2010, Joe brought in the academy coaches of Tottenham Hotspur for ANZA player training. In February 2010, ANZA Soccer hosted the SEA Cup tournament, and Joe facilitated access to the old Singapore National Stadium; both the U15 and U18 teams were given the opportunity to play in the prestigious venue before it was razed the following year

Later that year, Joe secured an invitation for the U16 and U18 teams to play in the FAS COE Challenge Cup competition.

Singapore Legends Malek Awab, Abdullah Noor, Jita Singh and Ismail Hussein at 2010 SEA CUP Gala

Overseeing the 2010 SEA Cup at the Singapore National Stadium with ex-Player and TV Pundit Paul Masefield

Singapore Legend Fandi Ahmad, ANZA’s COE Challenge Cup Coach

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At this time, Joe was approached with the opportunity to bring AC Milan’s Junior Camp to Singapore, with a program to be held in December 2010. The focus was the training of all players, but especially the U15 SEA Cup team. Coaches Luciano Torre and Alessandro Musicco led the program. (Today they hold senior positions in the FIGC (the Italian FA) national youth program.) Also brought in was the late Professor Horst Wein from Barcelona to train the coaches in The Football Development Model, which is the foundation of the training of La Masia, the FC Barcelona youth academy.

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For his contributions, the Australia and New Zealand Association awarded Joe the ANZA Excellence Award as Volunteer of the Year in 2011. In September 2011, Joe returned to his role as Coach, and subsequently founded FC Mustangs in June 2012. In April 2013, negotiations were reopened with AC Milan and, in June 2013, an agreement was reached for FC Mustangs to become the AC Milan Academy Scuola Calcio in Singapore. The agreement was ratified in November by Dr Adriano Galliani, CEO of AC Milan, and the soft launch was announced the following month.

Joe holds an MBA from New York University/Stern School in marketing and international business operations, a baccalaureate from Fordham University in sociology/psychology, and a diploma in Information Technology from the State University of New York. By profession, Joe is a management consultant specializing in human resources and organization development & dynamics, owning a management consultancy business in Indonesia. Prior to his entry into management consulting in 1985, he worked for Pepsi-Cola International and National Semiconductor, in finance, marketing and manufacturing operations positions.