Andrew Alexander Kean (born 11 September 1978) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

. Kean played

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United Kingd ...

for the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...

and became the program's first

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

n award winner. He was inducted into th
Bearcats Hall of Fame
in 2010, alongside

NFL Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

winner Brad Jackson and

Olympic Gold medal Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

list

Mary Wineberg Mary Wineberg (née Danner, born January 3, 1980) is an Americans, American track and field athlete from Cincinnati, Ohio.sports scholarship An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university or a private school, private high school awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport. Athletic scholarships are common in ...

agenc
FirstPoint USA

Playing career

Kean was born in

Irvine Irvine may refer to: Places On Earth Antarctica *Irvine Glacier *Mount Irvine (Antarctica) Australia *Irvine Island *Mount Irvine, New South Wales Canada *Irvine, Alberta * Irvine Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom *Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotla ...

, Scotland. During his four years at the

, he was named

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

Defensive Player of the Year Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY or DPOTY) is the name of an award given in sports for outstanding defensive play by a single player over the course of a season. Many sports leagues award this type of award. League awards for Defensive Player o ...

, Conference USA All-Conference 1st Team, a two-time

NSCAA The United Soccer Coaches (formerly known as the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)) is an organization of American soccer coaches founded in 1941. It is the largest soccer coaches organization in the world, with more than 30 ...

All-American, the

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

Player of the Year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is he ...

, NSCAA All-Region, and the Cincinnati Bearcats Player of the Year. As captain, he led the team to its first NCAA Soccer National Tournament appearance in 1998. Despite signing professional terms with

Partick Thistle FC Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. The club have been mem ...

, Kean opted to focus primarily on his business interests and moved to Port Glasgow Juniors FC and then to Largs Thistle FC, before retiring in 2008. He completed an undergraduate degree in Nutrition & Physiology whilst at the University of Cincinnati.

Background

In 2001, Kean founded the sports scholarship agenc
FirstPoint USA
with the assistance of a £1000 loan from the Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust. The company has gone on to provide assistance to over 7,000 sportsmen and sportswomen, brokering over $150 million in scholarship deals on their behalf. Andrew Kean was named as a finalist for the Shell LIVEwire Entrepreneur of the Year award and the Royal Bank of Scotland Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. In 2002, he was a finalist for the Scotsman of the Year award alongside

Sir Jackie Stewart Sir John Young Stewart (born 11 June 1939), known as Jackie Stewart, is a British former Formula One racing driver from Scotland. Nicknamed the "Flying Scot", he competed in Formula One between 1965 and 1973, winning three World Drivers' Cham ...

, Sir Ian Wilmut, and Baron George Robertson of Port Ellen. In 2009, Kean was appointed to the Board of the

English Women's Golf Association The English Women's Golf Association (EWGA) was the governing body responsible for many aspects of women's and girls' amateur golf in England. It ran from 1952 to 2011, until it merged with the men's English Golf Union to form England Golf. It ...

(now

England Golf England Golf is the governing body for male and female amateur golf in England. It represents over 1,900 golf clubs with over 740,000 members and is affiliated to The R&A, the joint global governing body of golf. It was formed in 2012 as a merg ...

) and served as an Aftercare Advisor for the

Prince's Trust The Prince's Trust ( cy, Ymddiriedolaeth y Tywysog) is a charity in the United Kingdom founded in 1976 by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) to help vulnerable young people get their lives on track. It supports 11-to-30-year-olds who are u ...

. Andrew Kean was educated at

St Columba's School, Kilmacolm St Columba's School is a 3–18 Mixed-sex education, mixed Independent school (United Kingdom), independent day school in Kilmacolm, Inverclyde, Scotland. It is split across two sites and is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conf ...

and

Dunoon Grammar School Dunoon Grammar School is a secondary school in Dunoon, Cowal Peninsula, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It was founded in 1641. It is currently a non-denominational comprehensive school which covers all stages from S1 to S6 (ages 12–18). Buildin ...

References

* http://www.gobearcats.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/022210aaa.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20151025232139/http://sportingchanceinitiative.co.uk/winners-of-the-sports-business-innovation-awards-2015/ * http://www.soccerbanter.org/andrew-kean * https://web.archive.org/web/20150923210234/http://www.conferenceusa.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/080900aaa.html * http://ucwhereyouare.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/scottish-bearcat-talks-about-uc.html * http://enquirer.com/bearcats/1999/11/17/uc_uc_soccer_captain.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20150923210234/http://www.conferenceusa.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/070300aak.html * http://www.thejournal.co.uk/sport/other-sport/golf/new-directors-for-the-ewga-4487244 * https://web.archive.org/web/20150924000815/http://www.englandgolf.org/news.aspx?itemid=3396&itemTitle=EWGA+appoints+four+non-executive+directors&sitesectionid=38&sitesectiontitle=News {{DEFAULTSORT:Kean, Andrew 1978 births Living people Cincinnati Bearcats men's soccer players Scottish businesspeople Scottish men's footballers Men's association football defenders Footballers from Irvine, North Ayrshire Scottish Junior Football Association players Port Glasgow F.C. players Largs Thistle F.C. players People educated at St Columba's School, Kilmacolm People educated at Dunoon Grammar School University of Cincinnati College of Medicine alumni Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Scottish expatriate men's footballers