Milos Bajic

Role

Program Director, PSG Academy Chicago.

Background

Professional youth soccer coach in Chicago for 20+ years. Coaching since 2006. Holds a UEFA C license.

Founded West Loop Soccer Club, Inc. in August 2015 as an affordable, high-quality youth program across the West Loop, West Town, and Lincoln Park neighborhoods of Chicago’s near-west side. The founding thesis was access: providing a college-pathway-quality program at a price point well below Chicago’s traditional north-side competitive clubs. Bajic recruited a roster of former professional and All-American collegiate players as coaches and built the club from a sub-100-player launch into a multi-hundred-player operation across both genders by 2022.

In May 2023, Paris Saint-Germain Academy partnered with West Loop Soccer Club to launch PSG Academy Chicago — PSG’s first North American academy in Chicago. The deal converted West Loop’s existing player base, coaching staff, and community relationships into a PSG-branded program operating under license from Strive Football Group (psg-academy-usa). Bajic took the Program Director role, retaining day-to-day operating control while gaining curriculum support, branding, and the international PSG network for ID camps and player transfers.

Also affiliated with Chicago Stars FC (coaching staff) and previously with Chicago Blast SC.

Connections

• psg-academy-chicago — Program Director
• psg-academy-usa — Local operator under Strive Football Group license
• Chicago youth coaching network: cross-affiliations with Chicago Stars FC, Chicago Blast SC

Context

Bajic represents a local-operator archetype seen in many secondary-market youth soccer transitions: a coach founds an independent club, builds operating scale and community equity, then trades equity (or licensing rights) for brand affiliation under a global or PE-backed platform. Understanding this archetype matters for mapping how independent clubs in major metros end up inside platform brands — and for identifying which independent operators are likely flippable to a license/partnership versus a true equity acquisition.

Bajic’s case is illustrative because the West Loop → PSG Academy transition was a license/branding deal, not an equity sale — he retained operating control. This is structurally different from the typical 3STEP / Pioneer / Surf acquisition model, where the original club entity is rolled into the platform’s corporate structure.