Royce Smith knows a thing or two about soccer: playing goalkeeper and taking the field overseas.
The Iola native will head back to Sweden in March to begin another season of professional soccer, but this time with a new team, Järpens IF of Division IV. It will be Smith’s sixth professional soccer team he has suited up for internationally.
The goalkeeper wrapped up last season with his Division IV Swedish IFK Umeå team by setting a league record for fewest goals allowed in a single season as well as most matches without allowing a goal.
Smith will stay put for now at the Division IV level but take his talents farther south in Sweden to the small town of Järpens where the population is only 1,400 people.
The decision to join Järpens IF was a fairly easy one for Smith because of the higher level of coaching.
“They’re bringing in a coach from Division I, so he’s very experienced,” said Smith. “They’re also bringing in another coach from Division I who’s a goalkeeper coach and he has his highest goalkeeping license. There’s an organization called UEFA and that’s where coaches get all their licenses around Europe, he has the highest goalkeeping one.”
Smith will miss his former team but understands his new squad offers a better opportunity to move up divisions in the professional soccer ranks.
“They’re doing a lot of development stuff where they have some youth players in their academy,” Smith said. “If the academy players are good then they’re going to come up and play with the first team. I think they’re working on a good system where they are bringing a lot of young guys in and it’s not older guys who have played professionally elsewhere.
“It looks like much more of a sure system rather than just going out and spending money,” Smith added.
Smith’s goal in the next few years is to reach the Division I professional soccer level in Sweden.
“With them bringing in a good coach and them bringing in guys from Division I, it could help turn me around and send me to Division I or a club,” said Smith. “For me, it was just a much better situation with connections, the coaching staff being better and a more professional environment, while the other one is just a couple of international players.”
Smith helped his last team move up a division to Division III and hopes to accomplish the same task with his new club.
To do so, Smith knows he has to be a leader with his play but also with his voice to relay what he sees from the goalkeeper box.
“I just want to bring the same mentality of not losing games,” said Smith. “If we do have faults and let in goals, my teammates are able to usually listen to me well. I think they’re going to have a mindset of moving up to and staying at Division III after they moved down last year.”
Smith enjoyed watching the World Cup but had a hard time figuring out which teams to root for with his friends scattered across the globe. He did enjoy all the upsets and nailbiter matches and was rooting for America the most because it’s his home.
“There were so many upsets and I know a lot of football fans who were baffled by all the upsets and how everything was, it was bizarre,” Smith explained. “Obviously Argentina won and they’re a really good team but Mbappe also did very well with his hat trick.”
