Royce Smith has always been a big planner.
“But when it comes to a sports career, I’ve figured out you can’t plan at all,” Smith told the Register.
Smith, 24, continues to make his way through the professional soccer ranks in Europe, although his most recent stops had a few extra twists and turns along the way.
The Iola native signed in June as a goalkeeper with Tvøroyrar Bóltfelag, the oldest soccer club in the Faroe Islands, a self-governing country within the Kingdom of Denmark in the North Atlantic.
The move is a step up from Smith’s former stop with the Miðvags Bóltfelag, also in the Faroe Islands.
“It’s a constant progression to be the best who I can be,” Smith said.
It’s been anything but a smooth ride.
Prior to last August, Smith had played in Sweden, although his team had been struggling mightily, “and it really didn’t work out,” he said.
Smith left the club and considered returning home to the States, but reconsidered and instead remained in Sweden to continue training.
An opportunity arose last August, when the club in Miðvagur had an opening for a goalkeeper, although the squad was in the Faroe Islands’ second tier of clubs.
“Even though it was in the second division, it was a better opportunity financially versus trying to do something in a similar league in Sweden,” he said. “It was something where I was able to take care of myself, regroup, and get everything figured out.”
When the season ended in October, Smith was faced with another decision. Remain with the second-division club, or try his hand as a free agent with no guarantees of a roster spot.
“A lot of guys will go ahead and try to get promoted to the first division,” Smith said. “I decided to stick around and make it work with them to get promoted. It’s much easier to stick with a team than jump into a new environment.”
Smith’s next big opportunity came this spring, when his club was entered in a large-scale tournament featuring several higher-tier clubs from across Europe. (Smith compared the environment to basketball’s March Madness in the U.S., but where a small college like Allen Community College would get a chance to play the University of Kansas.)
Sure enough, his club had one such opportunity to play shocker against a Division 1 squad. “Ironically, I knew a couple of guys on the team, and was friends with their goalkeeper.”
Smith figured he had at least a fighter’s chance of making a good impression, enough to get promoted to a Division 1 club.
