I am Youvale van Dijk. Born and raised in The Netherlands, I have always loved sports. Growing up I spent countless hours on tennis courts improving my craft, but unfortunately injury cut short my path to a professional career.
With YD Sports Desk I use my professionalism, skills and determination to help sports organisations with their day-to-day business and by providing quality content.
I studied International Economics and Business Economics at the Erasmus University Rotterdam and it was there that I shifted my focus to the business side of sports. I started writing for the faculty magazine and often chose sports business and economics as the focal point of my articles.
But I did not only write articles about sports business. After having studied a semester at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, I wrote my thesis 'Scoring in the European football market under Financial Fair Play Regulation'.
Upon graduating cum laude, I spent time as a Coach Education Intern at the International Tennis Federation in Valencia, Spain. Among other things I improved the social media numbers, translated and edited educative material and created promotional material.
Before starting YD Sports Desk, I invested time in learning more about sports business, I researched and analysed sports data and I launched the sports business website scoreandchange.com.