Mick Hoban

Born in Tipton, Staffordshire, Hoban attended St. Chad's College in Wolverhampton.

As a schoolboy Hoban played for Brierley Hill and Dudley Schoolboys' teams, Staffordshire Schools, and, eventually, the England Schoolboys U19 team for two seasons. He was appointed England Schoolboys Captain in his final year with the team.

In 1969, he played with English first division club Aston Villa as a youth player. In 1970, he signed as a professional with AVFC. Mick debuted in Aston Villa's first team in an international friendly against Santos (Brazil) and was fortunate enough to be presented with Pele's jersey following the match. He was in the first team squad for other international friendlies against Gornik Zabrze(Poland) and FC Bayern Munich (Germany). He was substitute for Aston Villa for games against Port Vale and Fulham FC in the former English 3rd Division. He was loaned out to the Atlanta Chiefs during the summer of 1971 and, thus, started his career in the US.

In 1971, Hoban played for the Atlanta Chiefs of the North American Soccer League during that season the Chiefs reached the final of the NASL championship and Hoban received an 'honorable mention' in the All-Star selection. In 1973, the Chiefs were sold to Omni Corporation (owners of the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA and the Atlanta Flames in the NHL)who renamed them the Atlanta Apollos. During his time with the Atlanta Apollos served as team captain and 'Business Manager'. At the end of the 1973 season, Hoban moved to the expansion Denver Dynamos for the 1974 season. Similarly, in Denver Hoban worked as the Director of Community Relations and served for part of the season as the team captain. In 1975, he was the first player signed by the expansion Portland Timbers . As he had with both of his other NASL teams, Hoban served as the Timbers Director of Community Relations. In 1978, he resigned his position with the Portland Timbers to accept the opportunity to start Nike's soccer program. Consequently, he became Nike's first-ever soccer employee in his position as Soccer Promotions Manager for the Beaverton, Oregon-based company.

After retiring from playing, Hoban was hired by Blue Ribbon Sports – which eventually became Nike, Inc., as the company's first-ever employee in soccer. As BRS's 'Soccer Promotions Manager' Hoban created sports marketing programs centered on the NASL, NCAA Soccer and US Soccer youth programs. Hoban led Nike in establishing the first-ever integrated youth soccer promotions program which resulted in support programs for targeted youth soccer associations and, ultimately, the Nike 'Friendship Cup'.

Hoban became Nike International's first-ever European Soccer Promotions Manager and in this position he was responsible for co-ordinating contracts with some of Europe's leading players at the time including Glenn Hoddle, Ian Rush, Mark Hateley, Steve Nichol, Steve Archibald, Charlie Nichoas, Arnold Muhren, Dossena and Nike's first ever successful footwear contract with Aston Villa, who became champions of Europe wearing Nike footwear in 1982.

He joined Umbro USA in the late 1980s and became Vice-President of Soccer Promotions for the Greenville, SC based company. In this capacity he was instrumental in signing the first-ever women's soccer endorsement with Michelle Akers of the US Women's National Team.

Following his time with Umbro he left to become a soccer sports marketing consultant and in 2000 formed Soccer Solutions with a former co-worker from Umbro, Warren Mersereau. Hoban and Mersereau were joined later that year by a 3rd partner – Juergen Klinsmann.

While with Soccer Solutions, the partners worked with leading brands such as Coca-Cola, ING, McDonald's and adidas. In connection with Klinsmann's endorsement contract Soccer Solutions worked closely with MasterCard and Hyundai.

In November 2010 Hoban left Soccer Solutions to assume his previous role as an independent contractor working in soccer sports marketing and maintains a working relationship with his former partners and clients including adidas International.