We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Victor Parra a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Victor , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s go back in time a bit – can you share a story of a time when you learned an important lesson during your education?

I was very blessed to get a full ride scholarship to San Jose State to play soccer. This journey opened up many doors for me so for that I am very thankful.

I met some great people and learned some valuable life lessons along the way.

One thing that stuck with me after graduating college was in that very moment it is the beginning of a whole new life.

Whatever you majored in, everything you did up until that point is now in the past.

It was then time to prove yourself once again with your next steps in life. For me, I played professional soccer after college in Europe Asia, etc.

For me I always tried to understand that no matter how good you are at something you can always learn more and more.

In this case higher levels of sports, or when you get into the working world, many experienced people in the field you can learn and grow from. It’s all about being open minded.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Victor Parra is a Colombian-American professional soccer player who is currently a free agent and has played professional soccer over the last 6-7 years. He is also a serial entrepreneur in the San Francisco Bay Area where he currently resides. Victor is a former NCAA Division 1 college soccer player. He attended and played at San Jose State University on a full athletic Scholarship. He was a double major and received his bachelor’s in Hospitality Tourism and Events Management, as well as international Business.
He was the “Valedictorian” of his graduating class and keynote speaker of the graduation for 2017, where he double majored and received his BS in Hospitality tourism and events management, as well as international business.
The first ever NCAA Division 1 student-athlete to accomplish this and the first ever in the university department in 24 years. He made history for both the NCAA and his university as well as being the first-ever Latino American to be chosen as the Valedictorian in the university’s history.
Upon graduation, Victor signed a professional contract in Portugal and has played professionally for different teams all around the world over the last few years including teams in Europe, the United States, and Asia.
Victor was a part of the reality TV show “Every Street United”, which looked for the best street soccer players in the world and aired on ESPN and Xbox Live.

In November 2023, Victor got inducted to his high school’s athletic hall of fame. Central Falls High School in the state of Rhode Island.
While still playing but unfortunately picking up some injuries, Victor has always realized sports isn’t forever. He started to turn his sole focus on entrepreneurship and business during his free time.

The last few years, Victor has been in real estate. Flipping homes in the Silicon Valley as well as becoming a realtor and getting his real estate license. He also has a soccer skills training academy for kids and is a motivational public speaker where he gets flown all over and has spoken around the United States.
He has been featured in big news outlets such as ABC News, NBC News, Fox News, and Telemundo.
Be on the lookout, Victor is also writing an autobiography on his free time, where he will touch base on his upbringing and how he overcame extremely rough obstacles to achieve some of his early life goals.

Victor is well known and has over 100 thousand followers from all around the world across his social media platforms.

Currently, I am an Entrepreneur doing a few different things:
1) Real Estate/Construction:
I am flipping homes in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as Austin, Texas and looking to expand as well.. I hold my California real estate license, so I have been helping clients buy/sell homes in California as well. I am project managing our projects from start to finish on the construction side as well. For example, if the home needs a full remodel. We are now offering full construction services to clients as well.

2) Soccer Academy:
I have my own soccer academy in the San Francisco Bay Area. It started off with boys and girls aged 5-18. I have now opened it up to adults as well as I would get lots of inquiries from adults working in tech for example, that wanted to join so I decided to expand. we focus on skills such as shooting dribbling, passing, and game essential parts of the game. Trainings are throughout the week and on weekends as well.

3) Motivational Public Speaker:
I am also a public speaker. I focus on speaking on things such as the power of positivity, resiliency, and overcoming obstacles. I have spoken at college graduations, including my own being the valedictorian and speaker, as well as public middle and high schools all over the country, I have also spoken at business galas as well as seminars.

Non-Profit Organization:
4) Running a nonprofit for disadvantaged youth, which will provide support through soccer, tutoring, and case management mentorship to those who qualify from low-income middle schools in the area. Planning to expand with time with partnerships. It was put on pause due to the pandemic at one point.

5) Some of my side projects include currently writing an autobiography about my life thus far.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Lots of struggles and obstacles growing up. The odds were against me.

Growing up in poverty in a small town in Ri.

Growing up with a single mom as I never met my father even until this day.

Not much resources or anyone to look up to growing up.

Spending time in group homes as a teen with troubled youth.

Growing up in poverty in a small town in Ri.

Growing up with a single mom as I never met my father even until this day.

Not much resources or anyone to look up to growing up.

Spending time in group homes as a teen with troubled youth.

Yet I was able to leave that behind and not use it as an excuse for failing but fuel to move forward and get to know where I am today.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

For me, I started to get a lot of followers from all over throughout my college and professional soccer career.

People loved to see the journey as I would post playing in different countries etc.

I would also post a lot of soccer videos doing tricks or highlights and that had a big crowd.

My advice is whatever your trying to do stay consistent and post content that your passionate about and that can teach something to others, or entertain them.

If it isn’t servicing or helping others in some sort of way then why would they watch it or follow right?

Contact Info:

• Website: www.victorparraofficial.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/victorparra_official