American Joe Lapira made his international debut in New York 14 months ago, playing for his mother’s Republic of Ireland against Ecuador at Giants Stadium. Now he’s turning out for Nybergsund Idrettslag Trysil in the Norwegian second division in front of home crowds of around 700, but he’s not complaining.
The former Notre Dame player has not added to his sole cap, but told Aidan Fitzmaurice: “I haven’t even thought about international football recently. Because of where I am and the level I am playing at, I am in no position to think about or talk about international soccer.” He’d have to do “a hell of a lot better in my own game” before he could think about playing at that level again.
Lapira, who caused some controversy in Ireland by saying after the Ecuador game that he still wouldn’t mind playing for the U.S., went for trials in Scotland with Glasgow Rangers and Aberdeen, but they didn’t work out due to injury and fitness problems. The standard of the Norwegian second tier is “okay,” there are plenty of other U.S. players in Norway, and he enjoys the laidback lifestyle of living in a log cabin in Trysil (population 500), and occasionally getting to play road games in front of crowds of 12,000. One other advantage (or not): “You don’t get bothered by journalists too much out here.”