The story of the largest soccer academy in South Texas begins not with Tony Parker, but with the wide-eyed young Frenchman who packed his family’s bags to follow him here.

Back then, Olivier Pheulpin never saw a day like Thursday coming. And if someone in those early times had told him what he eventually would bring to San Antonio, he knows exactly how he would have responded.

“Give me a glass of wine,” Pheulpin said, laughing. “No, give me a bottle. It makes no sense.”

Pheulpin was a 30-year-old sportswriter in 2001 when he received an opportunity too compelling to turn down. His employer, French newspaper L’Equipe, offered him the chance to cover the country’s new teenage NBA draftee on a full-time basis.

But he and his wife had two preschool kids, and the assignment meant they all would have to move. They loved Europe, and they loved the mountains. Pheulpin looked at a map.

“San Antonio is pretty flat,” he said. “We were supposed to be here two years. That was it.”

But just as Parker entrenched himself as an NBA star, the decidedly non-snow-capped Alamo City dug itself into the Pheulpins. L’Equipe agreed to let them stay here as long as Parker did, and somewhere along the way they were surprised to realize they wanted him to stay forever.

Pheulpin, inspired by an early interview he had with Gregg Popovich, decided to start coaching his kids’ soccer teams. He stuck with it from the time his oldest son was 8 until both of them left for college, earning national rankings for those North Side youth squads along the way.

And through it all, a crazy idea in the back of Pheulpin’s head kept growing. Everyone knows the United States lags behind much of the rest of the soccer world in terms of developing elite players. But what if someone really decided to take youth training seriously?

And what if San Antonio could build not just a run-of-the-mill complex, but a world-class one connected with one of the most prestigious soccer brands in Europe?

Pheulpin started meeting with real estate developers interested in a soccer project.

“You know what?” Pheulpin remembers telling them. “We can do this thing big.”

The key, he realized, was finding the right partner. He set up meetings with multiple European clubs, and several of them saw money-making potential. But it wasn’t until he met Carlo Mastellone, the director of Juventus Academy International, that he was sure he had a group whose vision matched his.

Juventus, the most popular and successful professional club in Italy, has a huge youth program with 51 worldwide academies and three in the United States. They were looking to expand, particularly to the middle of the country. But they never thought of San Antonio until Pheulpin’s pitch.

“Olivier is the man,” Mastellone said. “We wouldn’t be here without him.”

On Thursday at the Weston Centre downtown, Mastellone and Pheulpin unveiled plans for Juventus Academy San Antonio, which will open in June at a $6.2 million venue called Soccer Central, on land north of Ingram Park Mall and west of Bandera Road. The complex will feature 15 fields, 24 residential dorm rooms, state-of-the-art machines, a classroom and more.

Pheulpin will serve as technical director. The academy will be open to local kids at a yet-to-be-determined cost (“Soccer is expensive,” Pheulpin said) and will host tournaments and international camps. That it has the official backing of Juventus, the club of international star Cristiano Ronaldo, only adds to its prestige.

The plan is for the Italian club to work with local coaches to educate kids to follow the “Juventus Way,” combining style of play and technical ability with social and emotional learning.

Mastellone stressed that Juventus’ participation is not just symbolic.

“People ask, ‘Is this the real Juventus?” Mastellone said. “Yes, it’s real. We would like to bring a piece of us here.”

At Thursday’s announcement, representatives from the Italian consulate and the Christopher Columbus Italian Society rubbed elbows with representatives from Bexar County and with Russ Bookbinder, the president and CEO of San Antonio Sports.

Everyone agreed this was a big deal for not just soccer’s growth in Texas, but also for the city.

And standing in the middle of it all, a beaming 48-year-old man in a black button-down shirt shrugged when he was asked how it all came to pass.

Eighteen years ago, Pheulpin flew across the ocean to chronicle the exploits of a trailblazer in one sport. That he became one in another wasn’t supposed to be part of the story.

Parker left San Antonio last summer, but Pheulpin remains.

“It makes no sense,” he said again.

Some of the best stories never do.

mfinger@express-news.net

Twitter: @mikefinger