Fabio Belli: young entrepreneur of the year.

At 23, Fabio Belli wondered whether he should not be out enjoying the bar scene with his friends. He knew opening a new business meant long hours, but it was a sacrifice he says he is now happy he made.

"There were many times when I sat here and thought of my friends at the bar, but I look at it now and I am the one who is driving an Envoy and they are not," Belli, owner of Just Soccer says.

Belli started Just Soccer, formerly known as Sports Excellence, as the manager. Six months down the line the owner offered Belli the opportunity to purchase it. It was around that time another soccer store in the south end of Sudbury announced its closure. Belli believed that would provide him an opportunity to capture the specific soccer market in the city.

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"We had the opportunity to take Umbro, Adidas and the other brand names and run with it," he says.

That night he attempted to sell the idea to his father, Gian Franco, who would eventually co-sign for the business loan.

"He said to me, 'no you are not ready yet. You are only six months through school with no experience. I can see two, three years, once you have some experience behind you.'"

But that did not stop the eager entrepreneur. Instead he set up an appointment between his father, himself and the previous owner of the sports store to help his father understand the business opportunity that could be missed. Gian Franco began warming to the idea. By October of 1999, Fabio Belli was the proud owner of Just Soccer, a Sudbury based business that in its first year collected $175,000 in sales and has grown to $475,000 in 2002. In four years, Belli has managed to diversity his business to include silk screening and promotional products.

"Every number we have projected, we have achieved, and then some," he says. "Each year we have built."

This year Belli expects business sales to be close to $500,000, a moderate estimation, when taking into account an increase of staff and overhead expenses.

Originally, Just Soccer started out with only one employee in a rented building in the New Sudbury area. Today, it has a current staff of four full-time and two part-time employees, each knowledgeable in the sport of soccer.

Belli initially rented space from a landlord, but after a year in business he bought his own 12,000-square-foot building that now houses Just Soccer, as well as other tenants on LaSalle Boulevard and Auger Street. Despite all the success in owning his first business, Belli never thought he was to become a businessman.

"This is not what I was planning on doing," he explains. "When I was in high school I was supposed to go into architecture at the University of Toronto, but again my parents were not keen on me leaving the city."

Belli did eventually move to Toronto to study, but, again fortune changed and he decided to stay home and take a business program at Cambrian College. Looking back now he could not have imagined how that fateful decision would carve out the beginning of his career path. His instincts in business have proven to be fruitful, however, he is the first to admit he was never been an exceptional ball player. He never professed to be the next Alessandro Del Piero, soccer captain for Italy. He started playing soccer at five and quit when it became competitive at about the age of 13 to focus on refereeing, giving 13 more years toward the sport.

However, it soon became evident that refereeing games was a conflict of interest for his business, since he believed he could never please everyone with refereed calls.

So instead, Belli decided to become an instructor for up-and-coming referees. In fact, he became president of the Sudbury Soccer Referee's Association and began coaching the Sudbury Pan-Hellenic Just Soccer team, Sudburnia Soccer League, and a women's recreational team. Currently Belli sits as vice-president on the Sudbury Regional Soccer Association, which is the governing body for soccer in this region, and also occupies the position as president for the Sudbury Soccer Centre.

Being in the thick of things allows Belli to work in a more administrative roll and keep in contact with people in the soccer community.

His customer base is predominantly in Greater Sudbury; however, Belli has been asked to open stores in Ottawa and North Bay.

"I can see me opening up a store in North Bay because it is easy to commute. It is only an hour away."