Colorado Rapids’ midfielder Greg Dalby, 22, has no illusions that the awards he received as a college player mean anything in the professional game. “Accolades from previous years are great,” Dalby told Mark Zeigler, “but it doesn’t add up to a whole lot once you make that leap to a professional.”
Zeigler’s piece on Dalby reflects the determination it takes to succeed at the professional level. The Notre Dame product ignored the 2007 college draft, where he was no. 17 pick, in favor of trying his luck in Europe. After a year in the reserves at Charleroi in Belgium (“It was a pretty tough situation. But I learned a lot, and it was still a great life experience.”) he returned to the U.S. in July to give MLS a try.
At $33,000 a year in Denver, and with just three first-team appearances to his name in an injury-affected season, he still has a way to go, but Dalby thinks he’s now at a place which “might be the best environment to encourage a young pro to develop, an environment to set myself up to do well. I felt it was important to be somewhere where I had a chance to play, and that was here.” If the Rapids fail to make the playoffs again and Dalby survives an offseason clear-out, that chance to play could increase considerably in 2009.