Overseas opportunity: Two Stockton teens train in Germany youth soccer trial

The narrow scope of playing soccer professionally just expanded for two Stockton teens.

Giovanni Medina and Angelo Vieyra traveled to Germany to test their skills at a two-week youth trial called Moki Fussballakademie hosted by Yousef Mokhtari, an ex-Moroccan National soccer player. The out-of-country trip exposed the athletes to a new culture, some of the best young players in Germany, and the possibility of playing overseas.

“When I found out about this opportunity I was shocked like I didn’t know one of my coaches even knew people out there,” Vieyra said. “It felt good to get this chance to go overseas because no one has got a shot like this from Stockton.”

Opening doors to overseas soccer

Spearheading the boys' trip that spanned from June 16 to July 3, was Chris Hernandez, a Stockton native and founder of the semi-professional soccer club Stockton FC. Hernandez also coaches Medina,16, and Vieyra, 15, at Franklin High School.

As a freshman, Vieyra played his first year on varsity this past season playing at the left and right midfielder positions. Medina also played his first year of varsity for the Yellowjackets last season as a winger and defender. Both played a key role in leading the team to a 13-7-1 overall record and third-place finish in the San Joaquin Athletic Association.

After watching them shine in the 2022-23 season, Hernandez offered the opportunity to Medina and Vieyra.

“I’ve known these boys for close to three years and when this opportunity came up in January I thought it would be great for these boys specifically as two players at the top of the ladder in the Stockton area,” Hernandez said.

Getting Medina and Vieyra on board made them the first Americans to ever participate in the youth trial since it was founded in 2016.

“That’s the goal here,” Hernandez said. “Getting Angelo and Giovanni involved in this camp will help gather interest for any youth that wants to take soccer seriously and wants to see what’s out there for them in places like Europe.”

Testing the European waters

During their two weeks in Germany, Medina and Vieyra trained amongst some of the world’s best from the greater Frankfurt, Germany area. Quickly they learned the style and level and play were vastly different than what they were used to seeing in the 209.

“The intensity they play with out there is higher and they play very direct,” Medina said. “The players even had more physique like they’ve been training all their lives or every day. Compared to Stockton, we don’t really do that.”

It took the Stockton natives a few days to get acclimated to speedy play style. But according to Hernandez, they began to thrive and improve.

“At the beginning of the camp, my right foot movements weren’t as good,” Vieyra said. “ But as the two weeks went on it got better. I got more comfortable with using different skills with my right foot.”

Throughout the trial, they did individual training under Mokhtari as well as some days of training alongside 10 to 15 other young athletes.

One of Medina and Vieyra’s favorite parts of their training came at the close of each session — the crossbar challenge. The boys would compete to see who can hit the horizontal bar forming the goal post, also known as the crossbar, 10 times.

Getting the whole family involved

Hernandez, who has been building soccer connections in Europe for a decade, usually funds these cross-country trips himself for players. But this go round he got help from both boys' parents, Jose Medina and Angelica Vieyra turning this youth trial in Germany into an experience for the whole family.

Despite having to fund the trip out of pocket, Jose Medina felt that the memories made while in Germany outweigh the costs.

“I think it was a good experience for them to learn and train with a professional and we didn’t even think too much about the cost because it was worth it,” he said. “I mean if you have a chance you gotta take it.”

Taking that chance allowed the Medina and Vieyra families to experience new cultures and languages, a chance to see some neighboring countries such as Switzerland, and chow down on some exotic food — everyone’s favorite part of the trip.

For Angelica Vieyra, it was also a chance to give her son a once-in-a-lifetime experience of chasing his dreams to play soccer on the big stage someday.

“I’m really grateful for Chris and him offering us this opportunity and opening this door to experience a different level of soccer,” she said. “For those that want to give their child or children an opportunity like this and they can do so, I would definitely recommend it.”

Record reporter Shannon Belt covers sports. She can be reached at sbelt@recordnet.com or on Twitter @ShannonBelt3. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.

This article originally appeared on The Record: Two Stockton teens test their luck in Germany at youth soccer trial