Your Chance to Play Professional Soccer

The Philadelphia Union will be giving you the chance to be a soccer star.

The team will hold open tryouts this fall for anyone who thinks that they have what it takes to play in MLS in 2010, the Union announced Wednesday.

“This finally answers what has been one of most recurring questions since we were first awarded our entry into MLS as its 16th team,” explained Nick Sakiewicz, Philadelphia Union CEO & Operating partner. “It is our hope that we will find that unfinished product or gifted but unattached young player that we can mold into a productive member of our team, in the same town that helped discover ‘The Invincible’ Vince Papale.”

That’s quite the aspiration. But, heck the Union has nothing to lose by holding an open tryout -- well, maybe they will lose respect for some of the guys who really have no business out on the pitch.

But they hope to find a diamond in the rough.

“It’s a little storybook, but while Peter Nowak has been traveling around the world scouting talent, it’s also incumbent upon us to look around every corner we can locally,” Sakiewicz said.

“In soccer, you just never know where you will find someone who grew up playing the world’s game.”