Discover how Amir Donath, Co-Founder and CEO of Game1.ai, is using computer vision and standard smartphones to democratize youth soccer development. By turning sideline tests into clear, actionable feedback, Game1.ai gives young players, coaches, and parents a smarter roadmap for long-term growth.
Amir Donath’s route to Game1.ai began on the pitch. Born in Switzerland, he played competitive soccer, captained youth teams, and later coached young players. Along the way, he saw a familiar problem in youth soccer: players can train hard and still not develop the way they anticipate.
Today, Donath is Co-Founder and CEO of Game1.ai, an AI-powered player identification platform built to make player development more accessible and actionable.
Turning Tests Into Useful Feedback
Game1.ai works with youth soccer players aged 10 to 16. Players run through a set of standardized tests that any club can set up on its own field — no lab, no special equipment, just a smartphone on the sideline. The company’s computer vision technology captures the results, which are then compared against a model trained on more than 500,000 historical data points from youth athletes, including players from elite European academies.
For young players, this helps answer a simple question: what should I work on next? Game1.ai turns test results into feedback they can understand and use.
For coaches, clubs and parents, it offers another way to follow a player’s progress and support development with clearer information.
Why Youth Soccer Needs Better Signals
For most young soccer players, useful data is hard to find.
At best, they may have match highlights or basic stats. But clips do not always show development, and numbers without context can be hard to use.
Selection decisions often favor the players who are already bigger, faster or stronger — which usually means the ones who matured earliest. Late developers with equal or greater long-term potential get overlooked, sometimes permanently. Standardised testing that accounts for biological maturity helps separate what a player has developed from when they happened to develop it.
That is the gap Donath wants Game1.ai to address. The platform turns test results into feedback that helps players, parents and coaches see what is changing and what needs more work.
Coaches still remain central to development. Soccer depends on judgment, encouragement, leadership and trust. Better information can make those conversations clearer.
Learning From Startups, Stanford and Sport
Donath built Game1.ai with his brother Yaniv, the company’s CTO. Yaniv holds a PhD in physics from Cambridge and worked in AI research at Stanford.
Donath’s background connects naturally to Game1.ai. He grew up playing soccer in Switzerland and later studied Economics and Sports Science.
He later worked in consulting and startups, including roles at McKinsey & Company and Bird. Those roles gave him experience in strategy, operations and building in fast-moving environments.
At Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he completed his MBA in 2025, Donath spent more time around AI and the U.S. sports industry. He was active in the AI Club and Sports Management Club and worked as a teaching assistant for the Sports Business Management class.
That background helped shape Game1.ai as a practical tool for youth player development, built around sport, technology and real coaching needs.
A Clearer Path for Young Players
Game1.ai has launched across four continents and received backing from professional athletes and club presidents.
For Donath, the goal is to keep building the platform for young players, coaches, clubs and parents who want clearer feedback without making development harder to understand.
The company is starting with soccer, with plans to expand into other sports over time.
For young players, the main question is simple: what should I work on next?
Game1.ai is on a mission to help answer that.
