Daily Inspiration: Meet Victor Parra

Today we’d like to introduce you to Victor Parra. They and their team shared their story with us below:

Victor Parra is a Colombian-American professional soccer player who is currently a free agent and has played professional soccer over the last 6-7 years. He is also a serial entrepreneur in the San Francisco Bay Area where he currently resides.

Victor is a former NCAA Division 1 college soccer player. He attended and played at San Jose State University on a full athletic Scholarship. He was a double major and received his bachelor’s in Hospitality Tourism and Events Management, as well as international Business.

He was the “Valedictorian” of his graduating class and keynote speaker of the graduation for 2017, where he double majored and received his BS in Hospitality tourism and events management, as well as international business.

The first ever NCAA Division 1 student-athlete to accomplish this and the first ever in the university department in 24 years. He made history for both the NCAA and his university as well as being the first-ever Latino American to be chosen as the Valedictorian in the university’s history.

Upon graduation, Victor signed a professional contract in Portugal and has played professionally for different teams all around the world over the last few years including teams in Europe, the United States, and Asia.

Victor was a part of the reality TV show “Every Street United”, which looked for the best street soccer players in the world and aired on ESPN and Xbox Live.

In November 2023, Victor got inducted to his high school’s athletic hall of fame. Central Falls High School in the state of Rhode Island.

While still playing but unfortunately picking up some injuries, Victor has always realized sports isn’t forever. He started to turn his sole focus on entrepreneurship and business during his free time.

The last few years, Victor has been in real estate. Flipping homes in the Silicon Valley as well as becoming a realtor and getting his real estate license. He also has a soccer skills training academy for kids and is a motivational public speaker where he gets flown all over and has spoken around the United States.

He has been featured in big news outlets such as ABC News, NBC News, Fox News, and Telemundo.

Be on the lookout, Victor is also writing an autobiography on his free time, where he will touch base on his upbringing and how he overcame extremely rough obstacles to achieve some of his early life goals.

Victor is well known and has over 100 thousand followers from all around the world across his social media platforms.

A little more about Victor Parra:

Not only was he a talented athlete, but very intellectual, intelligent, and business-oriented.

Victor was born in Providence County in the state of Rhode Island, the smallest state in the United States.

He grew up with a single mom and his two older sisters. Victor never met his dad and had to overcome many tough obstacles in his life from an early age.

Growing up in a tough environment was not easy, but Victor used his love, passion, and talent for soccer to create opportunities for himself to move forward and never looked back.

Victor started playing soccer around nine years old on local street courts with his friends where the love for the game grew. He would spend all day there playing during summers and after school as well. Many would say that’s where he learned a lot of his dribbling skills.

He then joined his local city recreational league where his uncle would take him to play on the weekends. He started to stand out by scoring lots of goals and coaches started to take notice.

Early on, his resume includes professional stints with the USA national youth teams and regional teams throughout the USA from U13- U16. He traveled to Italy with the top players in the region at 12 years old. He played academy soccer for the prestigious Boston Bolts Academy based out of Boston, Massachusetts where he had plenty of interest from US colleges as well as pro teams. They competed in the US Development Academy now known as MLS PRO.

He had some great coaching staff over this period of time which included Chaka Daley, University of Michigan head coach, Craig Stewart, Providence College Head Coach, and more.

Victor was recruited to many big Division 1 programs all over the country, including Georgetown, URI, St Johns, and more.

Unfortunately, Victor was not able to get into these schools due to his grades. He has been going through a lot on his life and was not able to prioritize school in his young years.

Victor also spent some time living in a group homewhere life was very difficult for him as well.

Victor ended up playing the next two seasons at the #1 junior college in the nation Monroe College. They are located in New Rochelle, New York about 20 mins from Manhattan.

Victor adapted at Monroe quickly and scored over 35 goals in his two seasons there. He was able to make dean and presidential scholar academically while excelling on the field.

Top division 1 schools were back ready to sign Victor. Eventually, he chose San Jose State in California after going on a few official college visits.

Upon college graduation, Victor signed a professional contract in Europe for Argozelo in Portugal’s second division Liga Pro in 2017. He played there for two seasons. In 2019 he signed to play professionally in the MASL for California Express.

Also in January 2019, he launched his nonprofit org/ business Limitless Goals, which provides different services such as elite training to top-level players of all ages.

It is also a nonprofit for disadvantaged youth which will provide support through soccer, tutoring, and case management mentorship to those who qualify from low-income middle schools in the area. He plans to expand with time with partnerships. It was put on pause due to the pandemic.

In 2020, during Covid Victor signed for Global FC in the top division in the Philippines premier league in Asia.

In 2021, he was back in California with Bay Cities FC in the professional NISA league.

During this time, he was a member of the United States Indoor Men’s National Soccer team. He made his debut in an International Friendly vs. Mexico played on September 14th, 2019 at Stockton Arena. Teammates included USA soccer legends Landon Donavan and Jermaine Jones. He has been a motivational guest speaker at many schools in both the East and West Coasts.

He switched to represent Colombia most recently in 2022 for the upcoming 2023 indoor World Cup as he is eligible due to represent Colombia through his mom.

Victor is very passionate about mentoring the youth. He has many accomplishments and accolades both on and off the soccer field.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Lots of struggles in life.

Growing up in poverty in a small town in Ri.

Growing up with a single mom as I never met my father even until this day.

Not much resources or anyone to look up to growing up.

Spending time in group homes as a teen with troubled youth.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am an Entrepreneur doing a few different things:

1) Real Estate/Construction:
I am flipping homes in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as Austin, Texas and looking to expand as well.. I hold my California real estate license, so I have been helping clients buy/sell homes in California as well. I am project managing our projects from start to finish on the construction side as well. For example, if the home needs a full remodel. We are now offering full construction services to clients as well.

2) Soccer Academy:
I have my own soccer academy in the San Francisco Bay Area. It started off with boys and girls aged 5-18. I have now opened it up to adults as well as I would get lots of inquiries from adults working in tech for example, that wanted to join so I decided to expand. we focus on skills such as shooting dribbling, passing, and game essential parts of the game. Trainings are throughout the week and on weekends as well.

3) Motivational Public Speaker:
I am also a public speaker. I focus on speaking on things such as the power of positivity, resiliency, and overcoming obstacles. I have spoken at college graduations, including my own being the valedictorian and speaker, as well as public middle and high schools all over the country, I have also spoken at business galas as well as seminars.

Non-Profit Organization:
4) Running a nonprofit for disadvantaged youth, which will provide support through soccer, tutoring, and case management mentorship to those who qualify from low-income middle schools in the area. Planning to expand with time with partnerships. It was put on pause due to the pandemic at one point.

5) Some of my side projects include currently writing an autobiography about my life thus far.

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
I learned that anything can be taken from you. In this case, time, moments, and many other life experiences that sometimes I took for granted.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victorparra_official_/