Many American high school soccer stars have had to make the choice between turning pro and going to college. Espen Baardsen, a high school senior at Lafayette (Calif.) Acalanes High School, will have the opportunity to do both.
English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur has signed the 6-5 goalie to a three-year contract. Through a special Professional Footballers Association (PFA) program, Baardsen will be able to attend college next fall on a union grant.
Spurs signed Baardsen, who turned 18 Dec. 7, in late summer, but they allowed the Parade all-America to complete his high school education.
Four years ago, Tottenham’s veteran Norwegian goalie, Erik Thorstvedt, discovered Baardsen playing in his family’s native Norway during a visit there with relatives, and Thorstvedt invited the Californian to the London club’s preseason training camp.
“The summer before last,” Baardsen says, “they wanted to sign me to an apprentice contract, but I wasn’t prepared. I wanted to finish high school.”
Baardsen signed a three-year pro contract last summer. He figures to start out as the club’s No. 3 goalie — Thorstvedt is a free agent at the end of the season — and he’ll train under the legendary Pat Jennings.
Baardsen learned about the PFA college program by accident.
“They had billboards at the training ground,” he says, “and I was looking at the various sheets when I saw one about educational grants the PFA gives. Players in the union and under the age of 22 are given 100 percent tuition payments. I’m not going to take a full number of classes, but I’ll take some.”
Baardsen is lucky because he holds both U.S. and Norwegian passports. Since Norway has an economic treaty with Britain, he can work in England without meeting the stringent PFA requirements that have kept out other Americans, notably goalie Brad Friedel and Jovan Kirovski.
Baardsen joins a large contingent of American keepers with London area clubs:
Kasey Keller (Millwall), Juergen Sommer (QPR), Ian Feuer (Luton) and Mike Ammann (Charlton).
Ironically, the success of young goalies like Keller, Sommer and Friedel has dissuaded Baardsen from playing for the U.S. for the time being.
At the recent ODP national camp in Cocoa, Fla., Baardsen told U.S. under-20 national team coach Jay Hoffman that he did not intend to play for the U.S. at the CONCACAF under-20 qualifying tournament next spring in Mexico. If Baardsen plays for the U.S. in this official competition, he’d be ineligible to play for Norway.
“It is an agonizing decision,” Baardsen says. “I want to keep my options open and not burn any bridges.”
Norway’s top goalies, Thorstvedt and Frode Grodaas, are both getting on in years, while the U.S. has Friedel, Keller and Sommer, none older than 26.
by Soccer America managing editor Paul Kennedy