Former Galaxy player Lewis revolutionizes soccer with TOCA Football

LOS ANGELES -- When former United States National Team and LA Galaxy member Eddie Lewis first envisioned TOCA Football, his hope was to make a novel training tool that made all the difference to his own development as a player accessible to others. Lewis had come upon a fork in the road as his playing career that spanned over a decade was coming to a close in 2010 – he could stay with the Galaxy in a coaching path, or he could create something new. He chose the latter, and TOCA Football was born. 

Lewis had the first inklings of his now patented soccer training equipment when he was at UCLA as a student. He’d watched the Bruin’s basketball team practicing with smaller baskets and smaller balls. He translated the concept to his own ball control growth and began using a tennis ball throwing machine to help him level up his abilities. He credits this as helping him gain enough prowess to play for eight years in England at Fulham, Preston North End, Leeds United and Derby County before he joined the Galaxy where he played for two seasons. 

That relationship with LA Galaxy continued as he was releasing his new TOCA innovations. “As I was first inventing and rolling out the technology, the Galaxy was a big part of helping me from a product testing environment. They bought some of the first equipment that we were delivering,” Lewis explained. After developing a prototype, the first location was opened in 2014 in Costa Mesa, California. Ten years later the company has expanded to more than 36 venues across the globe, with the majority in the United States and Canada.  

TOCA also has a 10-year partnership with MLS that began in 2022 and continues to grow. TOCA, an official training and facility partner of MLS, is integrating MLS content throughout its training centers and hosting events together. As part of this, TOCA recently sent four youth who won their national summer TOCA Skills Showcase to the MLS All-Star event in Columbus, Ohio.  

They are also developing training curricula involving data capture and analytics together. “We currently have a pilot program with FC Dallas, Lewis said. “They have a performance center in Dallas and they've installed three of our total studios in which their players from their first Team, and their academy players train. And we allow them to collect real objective data in terms of where the players are technically, and then use that to measure against the progress over time.”

The future of TOCA isn’t just for professional athletes and development of youth players. As the 2026 FIFA World Cup approaches, Lewis is looking to reach into the societal sector for public consumption similarly to how Topgolf has revolutionized the entertainment industry. TOCA Social is their answer to an untapped market in the United States. Their first location, a 30,000-square-foot venue at the O2 Arena in London, opened in 2021, provides food, drinks and soccer-specific games. 

“For next spring we have two that are currently open in the UK but for me personally I am extremely excited about bringing this concept to the U.S. because although it's been wildly successful in the UK, the US market it's going to be you know an amazing experience and hopefully a lot of fun for and certainly everyone in that area but yeah that that will be the first of you know what we believe is you know an opportunity for you know 40 or 50 total TOCAS across the U.S.”

They are slated to open a location in Dallas next summer. It will be followed by new locations in other major U.S. cities and Mexico. With less than two years until the U.S. cohosts the World Cup and presents their best in the world of soccer, Lewis admits this is the golden opportunity to showcase TOCA's potential. 

"It becomes this sort of once in a generational moment.  All eyes around the world will be focused on the U.S. for the tournament, but also really the entire year running up to the to the World Cup," Lewis elaborated. "I think it's just a fantastic opportunity to really step into the limelight and show everything that we're doing, the opportunities that we're creating, the moments, the connections to the sport that we're developing," he concluded.