Aged 45, and with a CV that includes a decade coaching at one of world football’s most historic clubs, Inaki Beni grudgingly admits he is now a “dinosaur”.
“Everywhere, there are people that are influencers,” he says. “And I'm not an influencer guy. I'm not a social media guy.”
Even for football coaches, though, it is impossible to function without some basic social media savvy. During Covid, he reluctantly entered the modern world, just so he could reconnect with the players he had coached in the Real Madrid academy as Under-12s.
“If I don't have social media, I don't have their phone numbers,” Beni says. “I found them, and I DMed them. And I look like a dinosaur.”
Five years on, Beni is a central figure in what started out fully as a social media project. He is now coach of Palm City FC, a club born from an idea to set up a professional football club in 365 days.
Soheil Var, its creator, has a habit for such projects. Still only 27, the Austrian national once held the dream of every aspiring young footballer: to play the game professionally.
He committed that project to video, setting himself a deadline of precisely a year to go pro. His quest brought with it plenty of challenges, and took him on a journey across the world.
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Palm City is a club born from an idea to set up a professional football club in 365 days. All images Antonie Robertson / The National -
Soheil Var created Palm City FC after taking up the challenge of getting a competitive side up and running within one year -
Palm City FC have now set a target of making it to the first division of UAE football - the second tier of the professional system -
Palm City FC coach Inaki Beni oversees training -
Palm City winger Luis Romero -
Palm City coach Inaki Beni said the main focus is to lay the foundations for long-term success
From starting out in Canada, where he grew up after his Iranian parents migrated there from Vienna when he was a child, via semi-pro football in Spain, he finally ended up in Dubai.
“I came here on a one-way ticket,” Var says. “I didn't really have any money. I had enough for a one-way ticket and an Airbnb for a week. But I felt the energy.”
He built relationships that meant he was able to stay on, and, on day 634, he signed a pro deal with Gulf United in the UAE League Second Division.
The interest in his journey ballooned in cyberspace. Once his target was finally achieved, he thought: So, what next?
When he was released by Gulf United, he was annoyed by the perception he thought potential new clubs had of him – that his social media presence was a distraction rather than a bonus.
“I was frustrated one day in my living room and I thought, 'Why not build my own club?'” Var says.
“We make it a great football club, but instead of not encouraging players to do the social media, we support that.
“Of course, we want their first priority to be football, and make sure they're focused, and they do what they need to do, but we also want to make the social media great.”
And, as had by now become customary, he made his new project time-bound. “My idea was I did the 365 days to signing a pro contract,” Var says. “That got millions and millions of views. That got me to about a million followers across my social media.
“I thought, why not do 365 days to try and build a pro football club? So that was the next challenge.”
His plan was hatched on October 1, 2023 – his birthday – and the club officially started operations a year later.
Against all expectations, Steven Taylor, Var’s former coach at Gulf United, helmed the club to promotion from the third division in its first campaign. Now the target has been readjusted: 365 days to make it to the first division of UAE football – the second tier of the professional pyramid.
Var says “every month we now drive between 15 to 30 million views on our content platforms”, and they have made some influential impressions.
Vinicius Jr has been photographed with a Palm City shirt, while the campaign has also led to some powerful backing. Var met Sheikh Ahmed bin Sultan bin Khalifa bin Zayed at the UAE Super Cup. They became friends, and Sheikh Ahmed is now the president of the club.
Var’s reach has opened doors in other unlikely ways. Looking for a new manager at the start of this season, the club settled on Beni, a coach who did years of work in Real Madrid’s academy before being brought to Dubai at the invitation of Michel Salgado.
Beni says the new club “was attractive because it is a different challenge.” It also came with a strong endorsement: that of his 12-year-old nephew.
“He told me, ‘You are going to be the coach of Soheil's club,’” Beni says. “And I was like, ‘What?’ Then I realised the impact he has on that generation. This is important for them, that's what they consume.”
In his interview for the job, Beni acknowledged “I need your support because of the way the world is moving on,” but said he had skills they needed, too.
“It's not only about having football in the iCloud,” Beni says. “You need to download the iCloud, put it on the ground, and you need to make sure it impacts people in a good way.”
After being appointed, Beni consulted his contacts book to try to bolster his new team. He found one of his old Real Madrid academicians playing in Iceland.
Luis Romero, 27, was happy to hear from his childhood coach. He moved to Dubai, signed up, and his goals have helped fire the club into the promotion places midway through the season.
“I remember my first day here because first I went to Spain for one week after I finished in Iceland,” Romero said.
“And it was like, 'Wow, what is this? It's so hot.' It was difficult for me because I came from a country which was maybe five degrees. And here it felt like 50 degrees or so. It was crazy for me.”
The side’s captain is Juma Al Falasi, who arrived from Al Wasl. He says the experience of the startup club is entirely different to that which he grew up with at one of Emirati sport’s longest established institutions.
“It was really hard coming from a team where you don’t even need to carry your boots home,” Al Falasi said.
“To come here and then having to bring your own kit, not only your shoes, your kit, your shoes, and even your towels, was a really big transition.
“Then when you come here, the coaches, Soheil and everyone in the team has big ambitions. In your head, you think, 'I don't think it's going to happen.'
“Then it happened in the first season. When you least expect it is when it happens.”
Given the breakneck speed with which the club has come into being, Beni knows they don’t want to wait around for continued success. But he says they need to enjoy the journey as much as the destination.
“There are lots of mountains to climb, and there are lots of obstacles to go through; and they feel that doesn't exist,” Beni says.
“[With the] generation barrier that I am dealing with, they think the process happens as fast as sending an email.
“But, no, you need to enjoy the process. What is a good job? To be a champion straight away? I don't think that's the case. Being champion is a consequence of doing lots of good jobs in between.”
