How RicFit and Eric Friedlander Are Rebuilding Modern Football Development

Eric Friedlander has spent his entire life inside the football system, first as a professional player, later as a professional General Manager in Europe, and now as a FIFA-licensed agent and performance architect. Moving between those roles gave him a close view of the biggest problem in football development: most players aren’t lacking talent, they’re lacking structure. Clubs want to individualize development, but staff are stretched thin. Players want to improve, but they’re usually guessing. Pathway programs help athletes get seen, but not always prepared.

RicFit, the company Friedlander founded, grew out of that frustration. What began as a training-focused platform has evolved into RicFit OS, a full operating system used by clubs, academies, and pathway organizations that need a scalable, organized, and modern approach to developing players. Rather than offering workouts or motivational content, RicFit OS gives organizations a complete framework for training, monitoring, and preparing athletes across physical, tactical, technical, recovery, nutritional, mental, and lifestyle pillars.

Over the past year, RicFit has entered real, evidence-driven partnerships that show how quickly the football world is shifting toward more complete systems. Southend United, one of England’s longstanding professional clubs, extended its partnership with RicFit for two more seasons after a successful first year working together. The club initially used the RicFit App in its academy and foundation environments, then committed to a full deployment of RicFit OS to centralize development data and strengthen the pathway between youth and first team levels. Their staff credited the system for raising their overall professionalism and supporting the standards they want to build toward.

FTF Canada, the country’s top football showcase platform, reached a similar conclusion. They partnered with RicFit to integrate RicFit OS into their national ecosystem, so players coming through their events would receive professional-grade development rather than just visibility. With college coaches, scouts, and professional clubs attending FTF’s showcases, this partnership gives athletes tools that improve their performance, preparation, and ability to compete at higher levels, not just be scouted for them. FTF described RicFit OS as the most advanced performance system they’ve worked with and a major step forward for Canadian football development.

Even outside of club partnerships, Friedlander has been speaking directly to overlooked players through a recent free live training, sharing insights he gained over 11 years playing overseas in five countries and later as a general manager responsible for helping youth players transition into the professional ranks. In that training, he walked through what non-academy players need to do to get noticed, how to build a truly professional physique, how to approach networking effectively, and why most players struggle when they try to figure everything out on their own. The training made clear that becoming a professional is rarely about luck. It's about organization, clarity, and having a system that removes guesswork from the process.

Taken together, RicFit’s partnerships and Friedlander’s direct work with players reflect a larger shift happening across football. Development is no longer a collection of drills or scattered advice. Clubs, pathway organizations, and overlooked athletes are all starting to look for the same thing: a complete, repeatable structure that supports every part of a player’s growth. RicFit is positioning itself at the center of that shift, not as a training program, but as an operating system for the next era of football development.