FIFA Master Alumni – Where are they now? – Ami Otaki

Ami Otaki

Current Position: Professional Football Player – Paris FC Féminines

Year of graduation: 2017 (17th edition)

Nationality: Japanese

 

What does your current position in sport involve?

My current position in sport is now a football player. Immediately after graduating from the FIFA Master course in July 2017, I signed a professional playing contract with Paris FC Féminines. They are a French club playing for the Women’s 1st Division. Previously, the club was named FCF JUVISY, but from the start of the 2017/18 season we have been integrated into Paris FC who currently play in the 2nd tier of the French football league.

I am obviously involved in everything which happens on-the-pitch during the game, but scoring goals and helping my teammates to score goals are my main roles as a striker.

The Women’s game has grown so much in such a short space of time. With that we have seen the emergence of strong individuals who now have an important part to play as role models for younger girls who want to start playing Women’s football. As an international football player who has played in Japan and France (and also in England, Italy and Switzerland with my FIFA Master 17th edition classmates!), to encourage and inspire as many girls as possible to play football is also an important role for me as Women’s football is not able to continue to develop without these girls. Indeed, they are the future and will be the next part of the beautiful game.

 

Which aspects of the FIFA Master course have helped you most in your career?

Of course, everything I learnt from the FIFA Master’s multi-disciplinary course content of sports history, management and law was new and very interesting to me. All of these modules gave me a completely new point of view and understanding of both football and sport more generally. However, now I am back playing I am currently not able to directly use much of this newly acquired knowledge. However, the challenging and diverse classroom environment of the FIFA Master gave me a chance to get out of my comfort zone. My year of studies has made me much tougher mentally than compared to before I started the course. This aspect helps me enormously right now. Also, I would never have been able to make the decision to return to football without my classmates and FMA family who were always encouraging and supportive. They gave me advice from a completely different point of view. People that I was able to meet during the year of my studies have brought me to where I am right now.

 

What advice would you give to future students on the course?

The international experience that the FIFA master course offers over three modules, and which take place in three different countries with people from different nations, will definitely help you to deal with the multicultural nature of the global sports industry. It is not always easy to deal with people from different cultures and who often have a completely different point of view to you but this is a skill which is absolutely essential for the future leaders of sport. Also, easy access to such a diverse and wide network of course alumni and lecturers is definitely a huge advantage of the FIFA master. So, my main advice to future students on the course is just to make the most of all of these advantages. It will depend on you how fruitful this experience will be for the rest of your life. Make the most of it!

 

The FIFA Master - International Master in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport is organized by the CIES in partnership with De Montfort University (Leicester, UK), SDA Bocconi School of Management (Milan, Italy) and the University of Neuchâtel. In 2017 the FIFA Master was ranked as the No.1 course in Europe for the fifth time by the SportBusiness International global rankings.

Discover more examples of inspiring FIFA Master alumni career paths by clicking here.