Marcus Walfridson, an entrepreneur and former semi-pro soccer player, recognized the need for a professional soccer team in the Sarasota area after emigrating to the United States from Norway in 2018.

After years of coaching various teams throughout Europe, including a professional women’s soccer team in Sweden, Walfridson decided to move permanently to the United States to create his own soccer club. Walfridson’s career playing soccer for his home country was previously cut short by a sports injury at which point he transferred his passion for soccer into coaching.

While his initial plans to launch a professional soccer team in 2019 were put on hold by the pandemic, Sarasota Paradise finally got the greenlight to embark on its first season this past year in 2023. Now having been named New Organization of the Year by the USL League Two, this up-and-coming soccer club has just wrapped up its first season and is getting ready to kick off a new one.

Sarasota Paradise is owned and operated by Audigr Group Inc., a global sports and entertainment enterprise created by Marcus Walfridson and Kenneth Bethune. Walfridson shares that the mission of the club is to foster a culture of unity, excellence, and innovation, uniting fans, players, and the community under the banner of soccer, while driving forward to become a model club in terms of performance, community support, and financial sustainability.

“Just seeing the passion of the crowd when they were yelling at the ref to blow the whistle and seeing how much they cared,” says Walfridson reminiscing about Sarasota Paradise’s first official home opening game against Miami City FC. “We had over 700 people there. That was personally my highlight by far.” After four years of hard work and dedication, Walfridson is living his American dream of creating a soccer club right here in the paradise of Sarasota.

Charlie Cleland Stadium at Ihrig Field, 1000 S School Ave, Sarasota. 

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