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For six months, Julian Portugal lived out one of his professional dreams.
Now, he’s going to dedicate all of his time and focus to pursuing and living out the next one.
One of six players with Las Vegas roots who were the first signees in club history back in December, Portugal came to a mutual agreement with Las Vegas Lights FC earlier this month to leave the club after making 13 appearances and five starts through the first half of the 2018 season.
The former UNLV standout, who for years has built a successful business in training local soccer players of all ages, will be enrolling in a Master’s Degree program at his alma mater. The goal is to complete a Kinesiology degree, which will help him earn further Strength & Conditioning certificates that can take his endeavor to the next level.
Portugal aims to head back to school when the fall semester begins next month.
“The timing just felt right – There was a 3-week process of thinking about it, and I just started thinking a lot about what comes later on in life after soccer,” Portugal said. “When I took on the journey of trying to make the Lights FC roster, I just focused on myself for five months. I trained, and I documented it all along the way. I think I proved to myself that my training helped me get on the team after going two years without playing professionally.”
After moving with his family to Las Vegas from Mexico at age 10, Portugal began his serious pursuit of a soccer career after arriving in the United States. He took himself a long way within the sport, becoming a 4-year standout at UNLV after graduating from Palo Verde High School.
Following a start to his professional career that saw him play in the USL previously with Tulsa Roughnecks FC, Portugal took a hiatus from playing to focus on both training and coaching younger players in Las Vegas.
The chance to earn a spot with Lights FC just months after the franchise was born invigorated him to make one more run in his playing career, still at just 26 years old and in his athletic prime.
Late in 2017, Portugal placed all of his focus on preparing himself for the Open Player Combine that Lights FC hosted. After standing out within a group of 500-plus Lights FC hopefuls, Portugal was eventually invited to the club’s training camp and earned a contract and roster spot playing for Chelís and his staff.
“My mindset going into (tryouts for Lights FC) was if I made the team, it’d be great, and If not, I’d still have my strength & conditioning program to fall back on,” he said. “I was lucky to make the team, and to get the months I did with the team. I gave it my all. I just felt like it was the right time for me to move on.”
While playing for Lights FC in the first half of 2018, Portugal still maintained a regular schedule of training youth players at Phase 1 Sports in the evenings.
Now, as the facility plans opens a second location locally – this one in Summerlin – he will pursue his next degree while carrying the title of Director of Soccer Development at Phase 1.
He said the opportunity to play for Lights FC locally was not only one he cherished, but one he also knew gave him credibility with both current and prospective clients.
“The opportunity to play for Lights FC meant a lot,” Portugal added. “Getting the chance to play and represent for my hometown was meaningful. I couldn’t think of any opportunity professionally presented to me that offered me something better than the chance to play in front of my friends, my family and my community that I’ve been involved in so heavily.”
Of the memories he draws back on from the last six months, Portugal said the one that stands out first is the first match in club history – A February 10 exhibition match against Major League Soccer’s Montreal Impact, which featured a sell-out crowd of 10,387 faces.
Now, as he remains involved with the thriving and deep local soccer community, those memories he experienced firsthand make him hopeful for the future of the professional franchise that he played a role in helping to launch.
“We showed (on that night) that there’s a big soccer community here, and that a pro team really has been wanted here for the longest time,” he said. “And it also showed there is a diverse community here. That crowd at that first game was very diverse.
“We showed that if things are done right, it will draw a big crowd.”
