The Toledo Celtics Soccer Club was founded with great vision and influential perspective by Dr. James King and Lee Aliakbar in 1987.   As the club started out and began to establish a foothold within the Toledo and Northwest Ohio soccer community, the teams were primarily focused on the older, high school aged age groups to grow the game in these age groups.  But as both Dr. King and Lee soon realized, there was so much more that they could offer to the Northwest Ohio soccer community and decided to expand the club to incorporate a full lineup of teams from all age groups. 

In 1991, the Club made the old DeVilbiss High Scholl stadium their home field.  This facility was furnished with lights in 1992.   After the club was able to acquire Celtics Stadium and stabilize its facilities, the Board of Directors decided to establish a youth program in 1994 and success came rapidly.   As the club success and impact began to grow through the fall of 1995, the club directors decided to establish the Toledo Leprechauns recreational soccer program, which is designed to allow all children ages of 3 -14 an opportunity to learn, grow and develop at the grass roots recreational level of soccer.  Since its inception, the Toledo Leprechauns has proudly worked with thousands of youth players across the Northwest Ohio area, and has coupled with the Toledo Celtics Soccer Club to offer all levels of soccer to the community.

As club offerings expanded to both the boys and girl’s youth soccer and instruction, rapid success soon followed, and the club quickly established itself as one of the pillars of the competitive soccer not only in Northwest Ohio, but also across the state and Midwest region.  With the new standards of success leading to new offerings and opportunities for players and coaches in the area, the board then decided to venture into the adult amateur and semi-professional ranks, and became the first organization to offer professional development level soccer in Toledo since the long defunct Toledo Pride professional indoor soccer team. 

The board decided to purchase a United Soccer Leagues franchise and brought the Toledo Slayers – a USL PDL team – into existence in 2003 and immediately offered the best pathway for the Toledo area and nationwide youth to work their way into the professional soccer landscape.  From there, club and community inclusive youth USL Super-Y league teams were formed and offered to all interested and operated in successful coordination with the Toledo Slayers PDL team for the next 4 years.  Ultimately, the franchise operation and growth costs proved to be too much in a market that just wasn’t quite ready to embrace those visions of soccer at the time, and the Toledo Slayers franchise was forced to cease operations after 5 years of successful and meaningful competition for the Toledo community.

Even with facing this setback, the Toledo Celtics continued to pursue the pathway for success for the area soccer community and has surged with success once again up to the present day.  Some of the highlights of this success include being a participating member of the best local, regional and national conferences and competitions in the country, and the countless success of so many of our teams, character and personal accomplishments of so many of our club alumni.  The club has achieved success at every level possible across the country, qualifying for the USYS and Super Clubs National Championships, 11 USYS and US Club Soccer Regional Championships qualifiers, won 10 Ohio North State Cup Championships, and countless state finalist, semi and quarterfinalist teams.  The Toledo Celtics have helped to foster and develop players and teams that have achieved numerous awards and recognitions, from top 5 national rankings to individual accolades including All-American, All-Region, All-State, All-District and All-Conference teams, and have helped hundreds of aspiring youth soccer players to reach their goals in the collegiate and professional arenas.

The club has been able to feature, compete and succeed at the highest levels of competition across the country, with participation and championships at major events such as the Dallas Cup, USA Cup, Disney Collegiate Showcase, Jefferson Cup, Las Vegas Mayors Cup, Annandale Premier Showcase, Crossroads of America Showcase, Blue Chip Showcase, St. Louis Cup, Memphis Invitational and Best of the Midwest just to mention a few.  On the international stage, the club has taken upon itself to participate and fully compete and win at world renowned tournaments such as the Gothia Cup in Sweden, Dana Cup and Cup1 Cup in Denmark and Holland Cup in the Netherlands, electing to provide actually meaningful international games and competition for our teams, not just arranged friendlies.     

Toledo Celtics has been a part of the Toledo community for the past 33 years and is truly the definition of a resilient Toledo entity who fully believes in that “You Will do Better in Toledo”. We take great pride in the city of Toledo and have worked tirelessly to give our time to enhancing the game of soccer for the youth in the greater Toledo area.  The Toledo Celtics fully believes in promoting the positive aspects of what the city of Toledo has to offer and have endless belief in the abilities that our Toledo area youth possess. 

The Toledo Celtics believes that first and foremost players should enjoy the experience, creativity, and spontaneity that the game of soccer encourages so that players have a never-ending love of the game. The coaches at the Celtics believe that the game is the best teacher when guided by quality and qualified coaches. Toledo Celtics believes that when early development, technical training, and physical fitness are nurtured in a competitive environment that this presents opportunities for the youth player to grow and at the same time emphasizes the performance over the result or winning. Player development comes first.

The Toledo Celtics is committed to you and your player. That commitment is to provide the best opportunity for your player to compete and learn at the highest level in the region.