World Cup and Champions League winners are learning about the soccer industry at FIFA alongside club founders and front-office leaders.

All were teammates in the classroom this week at the soccer body’s headquarters in Zurich to study all fields of the industry for the FIFA Diploma in Club Management.

Graduates this week included Juan Mata and Angel City founder Julie Uhrman, while Cesc Fàbregas, Esteban Cambiasso and Radamel Falcao are among the latest intake for the 18-month course.

Now in its third edition, the FIFA course aims to give former stars a pathway to careers off the field and better educate soccer industry executives about the players’ perspective.

FIFA started its diploma course in 2021 following the UEFA masters course taught since 2015 by the European soccer body with input from universities in England and France.

FIFA’s course focuses on club operations rather than national federation issues and a keynote lecturer is Arsene Wenger, its head of global development after 22 years as Arsenal coach.

“You could have heard a pin drop in the room when he spoke,” said Karina LeBlanc, the storied former Canada goalkeeper and now general manager at Portland Thorns in the National Women’s Soccer League.

Portland and Angel City were created in recent years and are now trying to learn and share from clubs that have more than 100 years of history, said Uhrman, the Angel City president who was an entrepreneur in the gaming and entertainment industries before founding the soccer club in Los Angeles.