Student buys 152-year-old soccer team for just $19

By Jack Fifield

A U.S. student has resurrected a 152-year-old soccer club — after "buying it" for just $19.

Matthew Evans moved to the capital in 2023 to study sports management at the University of Roehampton in southwest London.

The 23-year-old, from South Carolina, has been into soccer since before he was 10 years old — with his dad serving as his first-ever coach.

While studying at Roehampton, he realized that his new local area didn’t have a soccer club — so he checked a list of defunct soccer clubs.

There, he found that East Sheen, in nearby Richmond upon Thames — the setting of the fictional soccer series "Ted Lasso" — did used to have a team.

Evans said: “I read roughly 400 articles from the 1800s to figure out that not only did East Sheen have a soccer club, but they had a good one, and not only did they have a good one, they had a really good one.

“And it fell apart, it went away in the early 1900s — you could ask pretty much every single resident of the area, and I guarantee you none of them would know.”

It cost Evans just $18.75 to officially register the club on Companies House.

He says he’s since spent ‘less than $625’ in total on other setup costs, such as making the club’s website.

Evans said: “The questions I always get is ‘why don’t you just start your own, like Roehampton FC, or South West London FC, or anything?’

“Well, where’s the fun in that?

“Frankly, if I can bring something back that once was a great and trusted establishment in the area over 100 years ago, I think that has a lot more beauty to the story.”

While researching the club’s history, Evans found out that two of its former players, Percy Melmoth Walters and Arthur Melmoth Walters, had captained for England.

The club, which was founded in 1873, lost its enclosed home field in 1906, and its competitive activity came to an end.

More from this section

As more athletes speak openly about depression, anxiety and suicide, a minority of fans are weaponizing it

The 1994 World Cup helped rescue ‘the beautiful game’ from mediocrity. On its return to the US, expect more of that beauty

How human antibodies could help defeat drug-resistant superbugs

After a couple of relaunches, it failed to survive after World War II and has been dormant ever since.

Now, Evans — who has previously worked with several clubs — says he’s made agreements with his university to use some of its facilities and other partners including the Beyond the White Line Charity to bring the club back.

He’s also been handing out flyers to locals to raise awareness of the club’s relaunch — and he admits that the relaunch may come across as having a "Ted Lasso vibe."

He said: “It’s funny enough — as I decided to go to Roehampton, 'Ted Lasso' came out.

“It’s comical timing, an American guy from the southeast of the U.S. coming to the southwest of London, and I happen to mirror that kind of move.

“The story itself — it’s less of the ‘American working in soccer’ is what I take from it, I choose to take the positive attitude of putting people first, the development side of the story.

“When I think of 'Ted Lasso' I think of a positive role model for how all soccer professionals should be trying to conduct themselves, focusing on making better people on and off the field, instead of purely results and purely money.

“I think that the game, unfortunately at the grassroots level, at all levels of English soccer and worldwide, are starting to prioritize results and money over what the game is and always is about.

“It’s about people, making memories for people on and off the field.

“Even in professional category one academies, most players don’t make it pro — so why is that what we choose to focus on?

“Why do we choose to focus on the top 1 percent of the talent while the rest have to sit there and struggle?”

Despite it all though — the young club owner is prepared to do what it takes to get results.

Evans said: “For me, this is a long-term project, something I want to stay stuck-in with for the next five to 10 years.

“I hope to have my career outside of this as well with soccer, but this is definitely a passion project — I want to get this club to where it used to be, winning Surrey senior cups.

“They produced two England captains, they toured abroad in France and were one of the first clubs to do so, they had players who moved to Argentina, Australia, India, New Zealand.

“If we can get back to the place of being an early set of the next wave to come of what soccer’s going to be, that’s the goal.

“At worst, we’re a community club that shines a light on East Sheen and the beautifulness of that part of Richmond and Southwest London, that’s not a bad place to be.”