By Ryan Makuch
Matt Braem traveled to the United States to pursue a career in the sport he loved then and now. Now, in 2022, closing in on a decade after Braem made the trip across the Atlantic, Braem takes on yet another aspect of soccer. Not satisfied with playing and coaching, Braem now hopes to reach and help even more youth athletes in the role of collegiate recruiting advisor.
The man beloved by the AFCAA faithful has been working on a step like this for a while, now. Even dating back to his latest season in AFCAA colors (2019), Braem’s individual training business was booming. On his work with those players, Braem beamed, “I have little brothers and sisters!” He would continue, saying, “I enjoy that one-on-one setting – teaching and creating a relationship and taking care of kids.” Braem now hopes to do that on a larger, broader, scale, with advice that can help everyone no matter their skill level or aspirations.
Braem launched his course, ‘The College Recruiting Guide’ in January with helping young athletes in need of some guidance as the primary motivating factor behind it. Noting the impact of his one-on-one sessions, and seeing high-level high school players feel stuck and lost in the college recruiting world, Braem noted how several D1/D2-level players that he worked with were landing below their talent level at D2 or even non-scholarship D3 schools. “The biggest thing was the frustration, like, man, if they knew how to market themselves they could get so much more money,” Braem said about the potential scholarship dollars going unclaimed by talented players.
Enter, The College Recruiting Guide. With videos, audio components, downloadable PDFs and guides, and Braem’s own personal wisdom and experiences used as a guide and interspliced within the learnings, Braem’s guide is a one-stop-shop in the collegiate recruiting world, and that’s on purpose. “I go from A to Z on how to get a scholarship,” Braem stated. He would also add, “I pretty much hold your hand the entire time,” emphasizing the hands-on nature of the course.
Hands-on teaching and leading are two things that Braem is able to do with ease. One of those, the leading that Braem does on the pitch, is something that has been apparent before for The Mighty Oak’s fans. Braem has been a staple in the history of The Mighty Oak on the field. Braem played every NPSL minute for the club in 2016, their first season in the league. For the next three years, Braem would return to Ann Arbor, his time on the field with the club culminating in 2019 where he would serve as captain for the club, play in the most minutes in the NPSL, score his first goal in a 2-0 road victory over Grand Rapids, and earn Men’s Team MVP accolades at the conclusion of the season.
‘Frenchy’ shone in the blues and white of AFCAA, but his journey to playing collegiately, and eventually professional, was not easy. A product of the Le Havre academy, and a former academy mate of the likes of Paul Pogba and Riyad Mahrez, which Braem discusses at length in a podcast appearance with Michael Lewis Cunningham, Braem spoke minimal English and lept into the deep end of the American soccer pool, shoring up in Iowa, before eventually moving on to Loyola-Chicago following two years at Iowa Western Community College.
“I didn’t know where I was going because I didn’t know the college scene at all, so I didn’t realize even that there were D1/D2D3/etc,” said Braem, highlighting his own lack of knowledge about the world he was thrust into, at the time. Now, well into a playing and coaching career of his own, Braem is ready to advise.
Offering up a sneak peek for those interested, Braem discussed some of the most important things to consider for an athlete interested in pursuing a collegiate career. One of the first, and most important, steps Braem says a young athlete needs to take is to put their priorities in order. Braem offers his own journey as an example: a full ride, playing for a D1 program and living in a large city with an international airport for easy travel back home.
That note of wanting to go ‘D1’ is something that Braem touched upon heavily, noting the amount of quality that non-D1 colleges and universities have in their programs. Using Yuri Farkas as an example by name, Braem knows that the best talent in the collegiate system isn’t all centrally located at the D1 level.
“It’s funny because I always think about it. If you look at AFC Ann Arbor, every single year we had 25-30 ballers, and not all of them played D1,” Braem said. “There was a lot of NAIA, lots of D2/D3 because they’re international or couldn’t afford D1, and kind of that’s the idea [behind the course]. Just because you play D1 or D2 doesn’t mean you’re better than that other player.”
Above everything else, though, Braem emphasized the need to be a good student. “We’re talking about getting recruited to play soccer, but at the end of the day that doesn’t even matter,” Braem says about the on-field aspect. Braem noted how his own scholarship money came from 80% academic funding, and how he needed to keep his GPA above a 3.4 to remain eligible.
It’s the focus on the off-field and it’s a willingness to break things down to the minute that makes Braem the perfect leader for this course. The awareness and understanding of the process make Braem, an AFCAA legend, former captain, and current MASL professional, the right man to help educate and inform incoming collegiate athletes of the world of recruiting.