Diogo Gama is the new Director of Soccer for Cal South. Most recently he served as SCP’s Director of Sport Projects and has been a leader in player development on Portugal’s sports scene for many years. He holds a master’s degree in youth development and a degree in sports science. At the start of his sports career, he was a professional rugby player, whose pinnacle was playing in the 2007 Rugby World Cup for Portugal.

His professional soccer experience began in 2006 when he took an internship in the Performance department for Portugal’s National first team. He then moved on to Real Madrid FC as a youth fitness coach (for their B, C, and U19 teams), and remained with the club for three seasons, when he then leapt over to the fitness coach role for Getafe FC’s first team.

In 2011, Diogo moved to Qatar to work with top tier club Al Ahli SC as their first team fitness coach. He was then invited to the same position with Qatar’s Aspire Academy, where after four months he was made the head of their Football Skills Development Centers. He also served as the methodology coordinator for the youth program run in tandem by Aspire and the Qatar National Team. In these roles for eight years, he also handled multiple projects like implementing the methodology of Independiente del Valle and was responsible for building OFC coaching courses programs as part of the Qatar 2030 strategic vision.

In 2019, Diogo moved to Sporting Clube de Portugal to become their Director of Sport Projects. Of his current position, Diogo says, “I’m the link between Sporting and the exterior world, and the strategic projects I undertake directly affect the performance and sustainability of the club. One such strategic project that we began in 2021 was our development partnership with Cal South. I started out my career on the pitch, and this experience moved me to gain the knowledge to lead people and organizations where personal development towards excellence is a common goal.”

Now a new challenge awaits!