IMMORTALS PROJECT AWARDS ITS FIRST YOUTH CONTRACT IN LA

Xavier Sotomayor spent more than a decade writing brand campaigns for Adidas, Nike, Justin Bieber and Cardi B. This month he handed a Los Angeles teenager something none of those clients ever gave out. It is called the first Immortals Contract, a professional soccer opportunity built entirely outside the traditional academy pipeline, and the player leaves this summer. Fifty other kids are still on the current roster, and the program's own claim is that every one of those fifty spots is scholarship based, none of them paid for.

The gap between how an industry builds a brand and how it builds an athlete is smaller than either side usually admits, and the Immortals Project just closed it in one Instagram post.

50 Players, One Contract, No Combine Required

The Immortals Project is a Los Angeles youth soccer program that runs 50 players at a time, drawn from what the organization calls the city's most overlooked neighborhoods. There is no tryout fee model attached to the pitch. The group frames every roster spot as earned, not purchased, which puts it directly against the pay to play structure that dominates American youth soccer, where a single club season can run families several thousand dollars before travel and gear.

The Immortals Contract is the program's newest mechanism, its first one ever awarded. One player from the current 50 is leaving this summer carrying it, a marker the organization is treating as proof of concept rather than a one off.

Xavier Sotomayor Ran Campaigns Before He Ran an Academy

Xavier Sotomayor built the Immortals Project after years based in Los Angeles working brand identity and strategy for Soho House, Adidas, Nike, Justin Bieber, Cardi B, Diddy, Lil Wayne, The Chainsmokers and YG, according to his own professional profile. He also founded other Los Angeles community programs, including Gusto35 and Goodbye Summer, before the Immortals Project.

That resume matters because it explains the method. A creative director who spent a career finding underexposed talent for record labels and sneaker brands applied the same scouting instinct to a soccer field. The program says it began during the pandemic, aiming to get overlooked local players scholarship offers rather than wait for a traditional club system to notice them first. That same acceleration is visible across Los Angeles right now, from a Melrose Avenue streetwear label opening its own flagship store to a soccer academy handing out its first professional contract in a single summer.

The World Cup Is in America. The Search Never Left the Block.

Spain beat France this week to reach the 2026 World Cup final, and Argentina eliminated England to join them there, a run so unexpected it got tagged the Ishowspeed curse. The tournament is being hosted by the United States together with Mexico and Canada, and that is the backdrop the Immortals Project picked to announce its first contract. The timing is not incidental. Every major federation and club academy is watching American youth soccer closer than it has in a generation, chasing the next domestic breakout the way labels chase the next viral single.

The Immortals Project is betting its 50 player roster produces that breakout from a neighborhood level, not a federation pipeline. It is the same logic that drives a streetwear brand to scout a designer off the street instead of out of a fashion school, applied to a sport that has historically rewarded families who can already afford club fees.

"We're Not Waiting for the System to Find Them"

The program's own caption on the contract announcement put it directly: "We're not waiting for the system to find them. We built our own." The post also tagged Landon Donovan, the former LA Galaxy and USMNT forward who remains the most recognizable Los Angeles name in American soccer, calling him an LA legend meeting the city's next generation.

Donovan has not publicly responded to the tag. But the ask fits a pattern already visible in his own post playing career, including community soccer access work with the LA Galaxy in the Los Angeles area. A tag from a fifty player scholarship academy is a small ask next to a mini pitch build out, but it is the same audience, and Sotomayor's background suggests he knows exactly how to engineer that kind of attention.

The Immortals Project is early, one contract into a model it wants to repeat. Whether it becomes a real pipeline or a well marketed roster depends on where that first contract holder ends up playing next, information the program has not released yet. Sotomayor built his career finding the story before anyone else framed it. This time the story is his own academy, and the first receipt is a single kid leaving Los Angeles this summer with a contract that did not exist a year ago.