Alex Fairchild enters his sixth season with Harvard men’s soccer in 2024-25. He brings several years of English Premier League experience to the program, as he serves full-time as an Insights Analyst at Arsenal FC and has worked with the club since 2017.

The Crimson sustained its rise up the Ivy League standings during the 2023 season, finishing in second place in the conference – its highest finish since 2015 – after coming in third in 2022 and fourth in 2021. Harvard qualified for the inaugural Ivy League Tournament behind its second-place finish. Alessandro Arlotti ’25 earned Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year honors while the Crimson totaled five All-Ivy honorees and six Academic All-District selections.

Harvard continued its upward ascent during the 2022 season, posting a 9-4-4 record and challenging for a berth in the NCAA tournament. Harvard closed the season unbeaten in its last eight games (5-0-3) and undefeated in its last six Ivy League contests (3-0-3). The Crimson claimed third place in the Ivy League standings with 12 points, marking its highest finish in the conference table since 2015. Harvard concluded the season with a 7-1-1 record at home.

As a team in 2022, the Crimson ranked second in the NCAA in assists per game (3.00), eighth in points per game (7.35), fifth in shots on goal per game (7.71), sixth in shots per game (16.35), 10th in total assists (51), and 17th in goals per game (2.18).

In 2021, Fairchild helped lead the Crimson to eight more wins than the previous competitive season as Harvard finished above .500 (8-5-3, 3-2-2 Ivy) for the first time since 2016, placing fourth in the conference standings. Harvard closed the year on a three-game Ivy League winning streak and went 4-1-1 in its last six games. Fairchild helped guide Ivy League Rookie of the Year Alessandro Arlotti as one of four All-Ivy selections.

At Harvard, Fairchild assists with player development and video analysis, and he also provides opposition scouting and post-match analysis to the staff and student-athletes. During matches, he live-tags tactical events using Spiideo to help the coaches provide in-game analysis.

During the team’s absence from play in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he was integral in virtual tactical sessions which began an implementation of Josh Shapiro’s style of play. As a volunteer assistant coach in 2019, he executed training sessions with the coaching staff and worked with the team’s goalkeepers.

At Arsenal, his analysis is used to aid the club in its transfer decision making process. He also assists the first team coaching staff with scouting opponents. His work is applied to the evaluation of the club’s academy prospects and loan players as well as other first team performance projects. He assesses players for Arsenal through use of the cutting-edge statistics and video review process of StatDNA. During his time with Arsenal, the club has won the FA Cup (2020) and reached the Europa League Final (2019).

Outside of Harvard and Arsenal, Fairchild has worked with The Pro Project. With The Pro Project, he has coached and conducted analysis sessions with the best young talent in the region. Fairchild earned his United States Soccer Federation ‘C’ License in 2020 with TPP, which trains players from the New England Revolution academy, Seacoast United, Boston Bolts, other local clubs, and prep schools.

Fairchild previously gained Division I soccer experience at Boston College. As an undergraduate at BC, Fairchild was the men’s soccer team's student manager during the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Responsible for video, statistical analysis and scouting upcoming opponents, he also assisted the coaching staff with day-to-day operations, camps, and travel arrangements. His use of analytics and video analysis helped the Eagles back to the NCAA tournament after a two-year absence. In 2015, he contributed to wins over No. 10 Virginia, No. 12 Syracuse and helped the program reach the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament after beating No. 3 Georgetown in the Sweet Sixteen. In 2016, he contributed to a draw against No. 9 Louisville and a win over No. 3 University of North Carolina on the way to another NCAA tournament appearance.

For his contributions, Fairchild was recognized by Boston College Athletics with the Unsung Hero Award, which is presented at the annual Boston College Athletics Department awards ceremony to a member of the athletics community, whose efforts toward, and passion for, the program go above and beyond. He returned to the team for the 2018 season as its Director of Analytics.

He has also spent time providing pre-game scouting reports and in-game statistics to the New England Revolution’s television broadcast team.

In addition to his college and professional soccer backgrounds, Fairchild served as an assistant coach at Seacoast United of USL League Two during 2019. He also co-authored with Konstantinos Pelechrinis of the University of Pittsburgh and Marios Kokkodis of Boston College, Spatial Analysis of Shots in the MLS: A Model of Expected Goals and Fractal Dimensionality, which was published in the Journal of Sports Analytics in 2018.

Fairchild holds a “C” license from the United States Soccer Federation.

He graduated magna cum laude in 2017 from Boston College with concentrations in both finance and business analytics. He attended Boston College High School and played three seasons of varsity soccer.