The Kansas soccer program fields the most international players of any Big 12 team this season, with 5 players hailing from different countries. These players have had to adjust to the faster style of play in the US as well as cultural and language differences. Despite challenges like being far from family, the international experience has benefited both the players and the team, and some players hope to remain in the US after college to continue their soccer careers.

1. rock chalk weekly
heKansassoccerprogramhasalwaysbeenadiverse
squad. With the head coach hailing from England
and the team having fielded numerous players from
WRITTENBYCASEYCRAIG
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2. rock chalk weekly
countries around the world, KU soccer continues to be a team
of many flags.This year, the Jayhawk coaches have taken it to
another level, boasting five internationals on the 2014 roster.
Junior midfielder and Bogotá, Colombia native Liana Salazar,
junior midfielder and Emmerting, Germany product Hanna
Kallmaier as well as sophomore defender Aurélie Gagnet, who
hails from Montepellier, France are all returners to this year’s
Jayhawk squad. And with the addition of freshmen strikers
Lois Heuchan of Castle Douglas, Scotland and Eli Mayr from
Brunnthal,Germany,KU will field the most international players
of any of the nine Big 12 teams this season.
Entering his 16th year at the helm of the Jayhawk soccer
program, head coach
Mark Francis has
created dynamic and
successful rosters
year in and out. But
what stands out is his
ability to overcome
the challenges and
barriers of discovering
talent beyond this
country’s borders.
“In this country, when you are recruiting a kid, we correspond
a lot with the coach, so it allows us to find out a little bit about
the kid and what kind of kid they are,” the London native said.
“The biggest challenge with recruiting internationally is usually
the coach doesn’t want the kid to leave, so they are less willing
to work with us.”
The competition, itself, also presents a challenge to any
American coach looking to steal talent away. Instead of trying
to convince a high school student just to leave home, the coach
has to convince a player to, in some cases, fly halfway around
the world and leave world-renowned youth systems and clubs,
likeBayernMunich,Liverpool,ChelseaandParisSaint-Germain.
These professional
teams instill in their
youth programs a
professional attitude,
which is a benefit
Coach Francis likes for
his players to have.
“Most of these kids are
coming from the youth
teams of some of the
biggest pro clubs in the
world,” Francis said.
“Eli (Mayr) and Hanna
(Kallmaier) played at
Bayern Munich. They
are one of the most
recognized teams in
the world, so they are coming from that environment that is run
like a professional environment. They bring that mentality to
our training and game environment, which is very good for our
American players.The thing I would say about the international
kids is their culture and how important soccer is in their country,
their approach to the game here as a college athlete is more
like professional.”
Perhaps the most accomplished international Jayhawk is
Gagnet, who has tallied numerous minutes for France’s youth
national teams. Most recently she played for her country’s U20
national squad in the U20 World Cup in Canada last month,
starting in two matches during her team’s run to the semifinals.
In all, she has started in 11 matches and played nearly 1,000
minutes, while participating in two U19 UEFA Championships
(2011-12,2012-13)andthe2014U20Women’sWorldCup.With
her playing a vital role, the French team was crowed European
Champions in 2013 in the Under-19 UEFA Championship.
Gagnet competed
for three seasons
on Montpellier’s first
team in the Feminine
Division 1, the highest
level of women’s
soccer in France.
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Since arriving in Lawrence a year ago she made a quick
impression on both the Kansas coaches as well as the rest
of the Big 12 soccer staffs. Gagnet started 13 games as a
freshman and was named to the 2013 Big 12 All-Newcomer
Team despite missing the first month of the season playing
for her national team last fall. Again this year, she and her
KU team has fallen victim to her own international success.
Gagnet was absent for the Jayhawks’ preseason camp as well
as their first two regular-season matches while she competed
in Canada at the World Cup.
For Francis,this presented a tactical problem,as he was losing
a crucial piece of his lineup during this year’s preparations.Yet
he is convinced that
in the long run this
experience will benefit
not only Gagnet, but
also the entire team.
“It’s always a great
problem to have when
one of your players
is playing in the U20
World Cup,” Francis
said. “She was at
the [French National
Team Training] camp
this summer. She was
obviously very excited
when she heard she
had made it. Going
to a World Cup is a great experience and she’ll bring that
experience back with her. I have no doubt and it will indirectly
benefit us.”
On top of the international competition experience, Gagnet
competed for three seasons on Montpellier’s first team in the
Feminine Division 1, the highest level of women’s soccer in
France.
Two of the five international Jayhawk players come from
Germany, freshman Eli Mayr from Brunnthal and junior Hanna
Kallmaier from Emmerting. Both have played in Bayern’s U17
junior teams and started for FC Bayern 2, the latter being
second-highest level in all of German’s women soccer. Both
have accumulated an impressive number of starts across all of
these teams, Kallmaier (50) and Mayr (57). Each has won their
own share of trophies as well. At the under-17 level Kallmaier
and her teammates were crowned Bavarian Champions twice
(2009, 2010). Mayr and her under-17 teammates sat atop
the Bayern League table in 2012 with an undefeated record
of 17 wins and a goal differential of 67 in their favor. After a
second-place finish in the Southern Bundesliga Division, Mayr
and her teammates qualified for the under-17 championship,
eventually winning it all. Mayr started all three games of the
tournament and scored once.
“It was a really good year for us and I was proud to play on
that team,” Mayr said. “It was a super feeling to win.”
The Germans have played together and they look forward to
replicating their success here in the States. Kallmaier has
played a crucial spot in the Jayhawks’ midfield the last two
seasons. She played in all 20 matches for the Jayhawks in
2013 and amassed
13 outings for KU as
a freshman in 2012.
Mayr, who amassed
54 goals in her youth
career, will also look to
be a constant threat to
score for the Jayhawks
this year.
From the British Isles
“When I was younger I
always wanted to come here
because I knew female
soccer was a big deal.”
LOIS HEUCHAN
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and the country of Scotland is forward Lois Heuchan. Like
her other international teammates, Heuchan has played for
her country and in the highest of levels in her country’s club
soccer system. She has appeared twice for her national team
(2011, 2012) and for the Scottish Women’s Premier League
Club Celtic in 2012. For Heuchan, it has never been a question
of if she would come to the U.S. to play soccer, but more of a
question of when and where.
“When I was younger I always wanted to come here because
I knew female soccer was a big deal,” Heuchan said. “It was
only really the start of this year though when I really got serious
about coming here and playing.”
While the decision to
play in the U.S. was
almost a guarantee
for her, the final
destination was not.
Heuchan was highly
sought after by many
collegiate programs,
but she was unsure
on where to go.
“I didn’t really know what the good schools were and what
the bad schools were so I talked to some friends of mine in
Pennsylvania,” Heuchan recalled. “I told them who had sent
me offers and when I said KU they were like, ‘Wow, you’ve got
to go there. That’s a big deal to get an offer from them.’ So
after that it was a pretty easy decision.”
RoundingouttheinternationalgroupismidfielderLianaSalazar.
The junior, along with Kallmaier, makes up the backbone of the
Jayhawk midfield. Salazar appeared in all but one game last
season, averaging 79 minutes per match. Unfortunately, for
Salazar, Colombia does not have the women’s league for its
girls to develop their
skills. However, this
has not kept Salazar
from participating in
the world’s biggest
women’s soccer
tournaments.
In her short three-
year career on the
Colombian Women’s
National Team, Salazar
has played in the U17
Women’s World Cup
(2010), FIFA Women’s
World Cup (2011)
and London Summer
Olympics (2012).
Before the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Salazar described what it
was like to represent her country on the world stage.
“Ithinkitisthebestfeelingintheworldjusttohearyournational
anthem. I don’t know how to explain it,” said the Colombian.
“It’s a happy and excited pride with everything together. It
definitely is a good feeling.You can’t believe you are playing for
your national team, that you are representing 34,000 people,
but at the same time, when you have big challenges, like the
World Cup, people will come to you saying, ‘You have to win.’”
One thing all of Kansas’ international players can agree on is
that the United States is very different from their various home
countries; not only in culture but also in the way the soccer is
played. Unlike Europe, which, for the most part, features one
or two different styles, the U.S. features dozens of different
styles of play and skills. This is just another aspect that these
players are forced to quickly adjust to.
“The first thing I noticed was how different the game, itself,
“I found a nice family to
stay with over the breaks,
but it takes some getting
used to. It certainly helps
you grow up and to be
independent.”
HANNA KALLMAIER
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5. rock chalk weekly
was played,”said Mayr.“It’s more athletic and fast and it takes
a little while to get used to that.”
Heuchan agreed and expanded on Mayr’s thoughts by saying,
“There are certain aspects of the game that are played at a
higher level here and played at a higher level back home. The
speed is one thing I noticed when I first got here. Everything
moves much quicker here. I came in the summer and I think
that really helped me adjust to some of the changes.”
Understandably, for Mayr, Kallmaier, Salazar and Gagnet, the
language barrier added another hurdle during their acclimation
to a new country. While English is taught in most education
systems in Europe and
South America, there
are challenges faced
when learning how
people actually speak
it in the States.
“I picked up a lot
of slang,” said
Kallmaier. “My English
has become more
‘Americanized’andmy
grammar got worse. It
gets really confusing
when everybody starts
talking at the same
time.”
HerColombianteammatesays it was her teammates that helped her
master English.
“It wasn’t that hard (to learn English) and with my teammates
I tried to talk all the time,” Salazar said.“I would listen to them
and they would try to help me, so it took about two months
for me to start understanding what people said. At that time I
couldn’t speak it as fluently as now, but I knew what people
were saying.”
The coaching staff has the vital responsibility of making sure
that the international players understand the terminology used
in the game.
“I would say one of the biggest challenges [was] the language
aspect with Gagnet coming in last year,” Francis said. “We
have to make sure that they understand those phrases when
we are yelling at them in the heat of the game.”
With an average distance from home being around 3,000
miles, the five international Jayhawks had many challenges
facing them in adapting to life in the U.S. On top of redefining
their craft to fit the American style, learning to communicate
in a foreign language and adapt to its culture, they must do
it without being able to easily get in touch with their families.
Gagnet, Heuchan, Kallmaier and Mayr must time their calls
home with a six to seven hour time difference, but they still
manage to make it work. Many of them don’t get the chance
to go home during the course of an academic year, because of
the cost and distance of flying home.
“It was really difficult,” said Kallmaier. “The first two years I
didn’tgohomeforChristmas,soitwouldbe10-monthstretches
where I didn’t see
my family. We would
Skype and I found a
nice family to stay with
over the breaks, but
it takes some getting
used to. It certainly
helps you grow up and
to be independent.”
While playing soccer
The first thing I noticed
was how different the game,
itself, was played,” said
Mayr. “It’s more athletic
and fast and it takes
a little while to get used
to that.”
ELI MAYR
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6. rock chalk weekly
and studying in the U.S., is good for numerous reasons, it
conflicts with the main goal for these young women, which is
to represent their home countries on the international stage.
Other than the U20 World Cup, which took place in August,
most women’s national teams are either holding training
camps or are already competing for World Cup qualification.
To participate would mean for any of the Jayhawk players
missing not only a large chunk of their collegiate season with
Kansas, but also risk falling behind academically.As a primary
component of the Colombian National Team, Salazar faced a
tough decision this summer.
“I said no, because of school,” said Salazar on her decision
to join the national
team for World Cup
qualification this fall.
“I think this year is
really important for
us, not only because
of Rock Chalk Park
but everything else. I
had to say no to my
national team, which
hurt, but for me, right
now, KU is first and if the team qualifies this September, I will
be there in Canada. This year is just KU for me.”
Despite some of the practical challenges and adjustments to
living in the US, Heuchan and Salazar intend to stay in the
states following their time as a Jayhawk.
“I will stay here,” Salazar said with conviction. “I would love
[to keep playing and] I am looking to do that. I have two more
years, so I don’t know if my playing is going to change, but for
now that is my goal.”
With the reestablishment of the National Women’s Soccer
League (NWSL), the
U.S. is beginning to
attract players from
around the world. In a
pollbyTheInternational
Federation of Soccer
History and Statistics,
Thorns de Portland,
champion of inaugural
NWSL season in 2013,
was the third-best club
in the world in 2013.
The Thorns, along with
FC Kansas City, make
up two of the eight
teams in the league,
which is looking to
expand.
“I definitely want to live and play in the U.S. once my college
days are over,” Heuchan said. “The level of female soccer is
higher in the States and I would love to stay here once I’m
done playing at KU.”
Studying abroad is a once in a lifetime opportunity that
gives a person a unique view into another culture and better
understanding of themselves. The five international Jayhawks
on the 2014 roster are making the most of that opportunity
given by Coach Francis and his staff. Not only will they leave
with a world-class education, be able to speak English and
improve their on-the-field skills, but they have also created a
second home.
SalazarsaiditthebestwhentellingaboutherKansasexperience
up to this point, “I am glad and happy to be here, because it
feels like home.”
“It is the best feeling in
the world to hear your
national anthem. I don’t
know how to explain it.”
LIANA SALAZAR
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