After graduating from Ryerson's Civil Engineering program in 2020, Rams men's soccer veteran goalkeeper Ali Ghazanfari is now a Ted Rogers Master of Business Administration candidate living through a chapter of his life he never would have imagined. 

"I didn't expect to be doing a master's at all," said the reigning OUA East First-Team All-Star, who became a Ram in 2015. "Thankfully I accepted this journey. It's going well and I'm happy. But yes, I never expected to be here six years later."

Ghazanfari is still grateful, yet surprised, at his current post-grad endeavours for a variety of reasons, the first being his initial struggles with university workload. 

"I remember the first week of school I called my mom and told her 'I don't know if I can do this,'" Ghazanfari recalled. "My first two years were a struggle. It was difficult. I didn't know how to cope with the level of intensity of both training and school so it all hit me at once."

The ANB Futbol Academy product and Bill Crothers Secondary School graduate explained how he developed better habits when his third year of school rolled around, allowing him to become a much better student. 

"It was almost like I was cruising...And more than anything I was enjoying what I was doing," said Ghazanfari when describing the second half of his undergraduate experience. 

When looking retrospectively, Ghazanfari views his time juggling academics and athletics as a valuable life lesson, noting that "balancing the engineering program with soccer made me realize that there aren't that many things in my life that I won't be able to do, eventually. Things will be difficult at first, but once you get through it and understand it, you will deal with adversity and you will prosper."

Aside from his initial struggles as a student-athlete in a particularly demanding program, Ghazanfari did not expect to be an MBA candidate today because he originally anticipated burning through his OUA eligibility during his five years of undergrad. 

That was until September 2nd, 2017—Ryerson's fourth game of the regular season— when Ghazanfari tore a ligament in his thumb, effectively putting an end to his junior season. Luckily, he was able to redshirt the campaign and recover a year of eligibility.

"At the time, it felt devastating and it sucked. But now if you look back I probably wouldn't be doing my MBA if it wasn't for that guy hurting my thumb. It's crazy. I would have had no eligibility, and I would have had a lot less interest in coming back to school.

"I look back now and I'm actually grateful for what happened," Ghazanfari shared. 

Rams men's soccer head coach and lead assistant coach Filip Prostran and Kasy Kiarash have each graduated from Ryerson's MBA program and were advocates for Ghazanfari's enrollment. 

"They told me it could be something I could do and still have time to do things on the side," Ghazanfari explained.

Ghazanfari is taking two academic years to complete his MBA, thus giving him time to train, look for work, and continue to grow his newly founded business, Clean Sheet Goalkeeper Academy. 

With seven years of coaching experience, Ghazanfari's academy provides training for up-and-coming goalkeepers around the GTA.

"Soccer is huge to me," expressed Ghazanfari when discussing the sport and coaching. "I plan on coaching for the rest of my life. Hopefully, at a certain point in my life, I can stop whatever else I'm doing and just coach."

When looking ahead, a potential 2021 season would give Ghazanfari the opportunity to close out a remarkable six-year career as a Ram. 

"It'll be crazy. When it comes around, I think my dedication is going to be at an all-time high," said Ghazanfari on a possible season. "I'm just going to want to win and enjoy every moment that much more. Showing up to practices and games early, leaving late, etc. Just living in the moment and enjoying it."

Follow @csgacademy on Instagram to see Ghazanfari's growing goalkeeper academy.

For more profiles on our student-athletes, stay tuned to ryersonrams.ca