Former Lehigh University standout is climbing the ladder in the Superligaen with tiny Viborg
Will Orben never was on the fast track to a soccer career abroad. His preferred sport in high school was hockey. Studies meant as much as soccer, often more, at Lehigh University, where his chief honor was an engineering degree. His time in the A-League made him certain of at least one thing: “I really wasn’t ready for MLS.”
Orben is trying these days to prove he’s good enough for Denmark’s top league, with aspirations of bigger and better things should he succeed in doing so. He has every confidence he can, but he knows the time to show what he can do has arrived.
He’s been in Denmark for two years and has six Superligaen games to his credit – three last season with FC Copenhagen, three this season with Viborg. He hasn’t seen first-team action since mid-September but hopes to soon fight his way into Viborg’s lineup.
“I need to start playing the best I can and score goals and take it from there,” says Orben, a 26-year-old striker who has done everything required – from scoring in second-team games to manicuring the field – to get his chance. “This is really the final test for me. I need to start scoring in the Superligaen – a striker has a very simple job.”
Viborg, an up-and-coming provincial club that picked up Orben in August on loan from FC Copenhagen, could use the goals. It’s in seventh place after opening up with three wins and two ties in its first five games. It trails Spanish club Rayo Vallecano, 1-0, going into the second game of their UEFA Cup second-round series Nov. 9 in Viborg.
That’s Orben’s target date to be back in the team. He can’t wait much longer – the loan expires Jan. 1, when Viborg must decide if it wants to purchase the Columbus, Ind., native.
‘I FEEL LIKE I’M READY.’ “That’s the reason I came over here, to find out what I can do,” says Orben. “I feel like I’m ready, I just need to put it all together.”
It’s the most important step in a journey that began when Orben arrived in Copenhagen after the 1998 A-League season with the Hershey Wildcats. The path hasn’t followed that of most aspiring soccer players, veering off into a stint in an international master’s program in architecture and a position assisting FC Copenhagen’s groundskeeper.
Orben hit it off at the start with Flemming Pedersen, the club’s second-team manager, who was willing to work with the American.
“I got really lucky, I think,” Orben says. “Here was a guy who had a lot of really organized plans about how to develop players. He saw me as someone to work with.”
FC Copenhagen – the country’s biggest club, a publicly traded giant operating with a budget its rivals envy – wasn’t willing to pay Orben, but it permitted him to play with its second team, and he gained Danish residency while studying architecture. After six months, Orben received a contract that enabled him to practice with the first and second teams and play for the reserves and the second team. He also had to help keep the field in shape.
He made his first-team debut last season, but a broken toe ended his campaign after three games. When Englishman Roy Hodgson arrived as coach during the offseason, Orben was back at square one.
“There were a lot of strikers,” he says, “and I was back to where I’d have to work all the way up again.”
Viborg expressed interest, so Orben made the move. He played in three of the first four league games following his acquisition, starting one, but hasn’t been in the team since a 1-1 tie with Silkeborg on Sept. 17. A back ailment hasn’t helped things, but he’s been productive for Viborg’s second team.
Will Orben saw action last season for FC Copenhagen, which loaned him to Viborg in August.
FOUR AMERICANS. Orben is one of four Americans playing in Denmark. Derk Droze has been an effective forward for First Division club Olstykke, Mike Mucino has moved from B93 to FC Copenhagen’s B team, and Gabe Provenza is with First Division Hvidovre.
They’re close friends, providing support for each other and attending each other’s matches when possible. All are in or near the capital except Orben; Viborg is a good three-hour drive away.
“The biggest difference is the size,” he says. “At FCK [K for Kobenhavn, the Danish spelling of Copenhagen] we have, I don’t know, 25 people working in the office. At Viborg, we have five. The press is not out at training every day. We don’t have 30 guys in training every day. It’s just a much more close-knit environment.”
Seven other Americans, including Brad Friedel (Broendby, 1994-95) and Mike Burns (Viborg, 1995-96), have been on Danish rosters since 1990.
Orben says the Superligaen is “very close to MLS” and that the A-League is comparable to “the middle” of the First Division. The presence of reserve teams, providing games for all players, is a “major difference.” So is the Danish approach to developing talent.
“One thing that really made an impression on me when I first got here,” Orben said, “Flemming sat down with me after a few weeks and said, ‘You know, I like what I see, there’s some good things to work with, but I think you’re a year and a half away from playing in the Superligaen.’ It blew me away to hear a coach say that; I’d never been looked at by any coaches that thought that far ahead in terms of what he knew I needed to play at the next level and how long it would take.”
More than a year and a half has passed, and Orben wants to make good on Pedersen’s prediction. He’s ready to see where the path will lead from here.
“I knew I had something inside of me to work with, knew I could be a good player,” he says. “My goal at the beginning – and it’s a goal I still maintain – is I just want to find out how good I can be.”
by Soccer America senior editor Scott French.