Soccer taught Dan Helfrich many life lessons: Humility. Dealing with frustration. Accountability. Working with different cultures to create cohesion. Improvisation. Flexibility. Goal-setting. Time management. Organization.
Other sports teach some of those lessons too. But, he says, because of the “fluidity” of the game, and its international diversity, soccer occupies a special niche.
Helfrich relied on those lessons often, following a soccer career that included captaining the Georgetown University team, and earning Academic All-America honors. He spent his 27-year professional career with Deloitte, the international consulting firm.
In January, after retiring a month earlier as Deloitte’s chair and chief executive officer, Helfrich – who spent more than 40 years in soccer as a “player, fan, broadcaster, volunteer and parent,” and whose four children all played – returned to his roots.
He is now four months into his new role as U.S. Soccer’s chief operating officer. It’s a way to give back to the sport that, he says, “has given me so much, as a leader, colleague, competitor – and human being.”
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