Rather than sign the required four-year contract with Major League Soccer at the Superdraft, Notre Dame graduate and 2006 Hermann Trophy winner Joe Lapira opted, like so many young U.S. prospects, to try his luck in Europe instead. He ended up in a log cabin at the top of a Norwegian mountain, but he has no regrets.
Midfielder Lapira has scored eight goals in 32 games for Norwegian second division club Nybergsund this year, at the same time as coping with cultural, climate and linguistic change. After trials at English and Scottish clubs at the start of the year didn’t work out (“I wasn’t in the best shape”) and the transfer window closed, the Louisiana native was able to move to Scandinavia, where the transfer window was still open.
“If you ask any player in the States if they want to play in MLS or Europe, they’d say Europe because that’s the center of football,” said Lapira, who has learned to understand Norwegian even if he can’t yet speak it. “I didn’t want to wait four years for a chance to come overseas.” Although his coach at Nybergsund isn’t “my favorite person in the world, to say the least,” he’s happy with the payoff — the log cabin on the mountain paid for by the club, with hiking, fly fishing and skiing on his doorstep.
His contract ends this month, but although he has long term ambitions to play in the English Premier League, Lapira has told his agent “that I don’t want to worry about that until the time is closer.” He cited “fitness, patience, and confidence,” as key to being a first-class soccer player. “Confidence is the most important of the three,” he added. “Confidence can turn a bad player into a good player and a good player into a great player. If I can get my confidence under control as well as my fitness, I think I’ll be well on my way to achieving my goals.”