We are pleased to announce that Joe van der Sar will be transferring to the Pittsburgh Panthers, one of college soccer’s truly elite programs, for the remainder of his undergraduate and graduate studies. Joe will be transferring to the University of Pittsburgh from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences where he completed his first two years of undergraduate study. van der Sar is a graduate of AFC Ajax’s academy where he won the national championship at the U19 level and competed in the UEFA Youth Champions League. In 2017-18 In 2017-18, he was part of Eredivisie side ADO Den Haag making the playoffs, and the following season he celebrated promotion to the top division with RKC Waalwijk.
The Panthers who are coached by the two-time national coach of the year, Jay Vidovich, compete in the ACC, college soccer’s most prestigious conference. The Panthers won their first conference championship in 2021 and narrowly missed out on the national championship, losing in the semifinals. van der Sar will be joining a team that boasts other graduates of top European academies, including players from FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Valencia, Bordeaux, and Leicester City.
The team’s state of the art training facility which cost $29m was renovated in 2021
Beyond its state-of-the-art athletics facilities, the University of Pittsburgh regularly ranks in the top 60 universities in the US. The university is noted for its prestigious business school and MBA program which is ranked in the top 40 in the US. The business school’s reputation has a global reach as the school’s MBA program was ranked 76th in the world by the Financial Times.