A town 243 miles north of Oslo, Norway, opened a new realm of Syracuse men’s soccer recruiting. In 2012, Ian McIntyre spent time in Trondheim, Norway, making home visits and sitting on sidelines in frigid cold temperatures that dropped near -4 degrees Fahrenheit.

“Those guys are far tougher than we are,” McIntyre joked of the cold.

Between tiny airports and a cross-country trip in his car, McIntyre spent “the coldest night of my life” alongside Kim Moe Krohn, watching Oyvind Alseth train at 11 p.m. Alseth, part of a 2013 class which included SU’s first two Norwegian players ever, had worked with Krohn to help find a way to a United States college.

Krohn is the co-founder of College Scholarships USA, an Oslo and United Kingdom-based company predicated on finding Scandinavian and U.K.-based recruits a path to U.S. colleges. The company has grown tremendously since its birth in 2007 as a U.K.-based service established by former college roommates Krohn and Stewart Stanbra. It has since provided SU some of its top talent over the last five years.

SU’s current team features four players that found their way through the service: Jonathan Hagman (Sweden), Severin Soerlie (Norway), Sondre Norheim (Norway) and Petter Stangeland (Norway). They’ve accounted for 15 of the Orange’s 47 points, including a three-goal performance from Hagman on Monday.

CSUSA has helped 16 players find homes at ACC schools, 11 of them currently enrolled. Syracuse tops the list in both categories, receiving six players total from the agency, which doubles Virginia Tech’s second-place total of three.

“I think we are always in a position to get their best players,” SU assistant coach Jukka Masalin said.

While U.S. soccer culture was once thought of as inferior, Emil Kumlin said, the improvement of the talent level in college soccer is consistent with the progress Major League Soccer has made. It’s now seen as an attractive path for top international soccer players — continuing education while competing in high-level college soccer.

Nicolay Netskar, a sports consultant at College Scholarships USA and a former client, said when he began playing at Buffalo, he was the only one from any of the three clubs he played for in Norway to attend a U.S. college. Now, there are four to six.

“People have maybe opened their eyes a little bit for soccer in the states,” he said.

Monday against Akron, Hagman cracked a smile as he locked his eyes on Soerlie. Seconds earlier, Soerlie challenged the goalkeeper and sent a sliding shot at his feet, which was deflected.

But Hagman was right there to clean it up. His first goal of the season quickly became his second and third. Soerlie hopped on Hagman’s back, and the team celebrated around its hero. If not for two forged paths to the United States 15 years prior, he may have never been there.

Max Freund | Asst. Photo Editor

Jonathan Hagman plays on the ball. He’s one of the four SU player to find their way to the Orange through College Scholarships USA.

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Fifteen years ago, Stanbra like most young soccer players in the United Kingdom, looked for a path to professional soccer through the club system.

In the U.K., like many countries outside of the United States, there is typically a split between people pursuing athletics and people seeking an education at a university. Stanbra said he had grown used to the mindset that when you didn’t go pro, your career was over.

When it dawned on him quickly that he “wasn’t quite good enough,” he remembered an older player on his club team had found his way to a U.S. college. In the early days of the internet, Stanbra searched the web to discover what options he had. Though unsure of what he wanted, he found his way to Canisius College in 2003.

He realized where he stood: He fell short of his soccer goals but salvaged his career through his pursuit of an education at a U.S. college.

“It dawned on me quite quickly that this is a fantastic route for people like me who were aspiring athletes,” Stanbra said.

He helped his brother find his way to the U.S. Then a few friends. He recognized his knowledge about a relatively untapped market and began writing a business plan in his freshman year. The next year, he transferred to South Carolina Upstate and was randomly assigned Krohn as his roommate, who also self-found his way to the U.S.

Krohn acknowledged the Norwegian market hadn’t been touched. Since English proficiency and financial grants are all at a higher level in Scandinavia than many other European countries, Krohn said, attending a U.S. college is a seamless transition in Scandinavian countries.

As they developed the idea, they employed the help of USC Upstate business Professor Jeff Smith, then a first-year teacher of entrepreneurship.

Immediately intrigued by the idea, Smith found an office on the third floor of the administrative building for them to work.

“They created a potential industry,” Smith said.

Stanbra and Krohn’s first financial statement listed just a cell phone and a laptop. They established themselves as middlemen while they determined, with Smith’s help, the direction of the business.

Each day, Krohn and Stanbra spent hours going over their plan and took detailed notes on their business model. They wrote questions down for Smith and went to his office to talk. One day, Smith, Stanbra and Krohn had been conversing for a while.

“I have to step out of the room for a minute,” Smith remembered he said at one point, rising anxiously from his seat.

Smith didn’t quite know how to say why he couldn’t wait any longer. He needed to go to the bathroom. As if Stanbra and Krohn didn’t even notice, they followed him down the hallway and into the restroom, continuing to bounce ideas off each other the entire way.

Stanbra admitted they made early mistakes — including funneling 50 percent of their money into Google ads. But it helped them create an understanding of what they had. This is a personal business: They’re asking someone’s son or daughter to move 3,000 miles away, Stanbra said, and they should be trusted to do it.

“You can’t sell that through an ad or a poster,” Stanbra said.

The 10 to 12 month process with a certain player is often initiated by an email, and then a CSUSA employee matches up with a client and forms a checklist: taking SATs, acquiring student visas, contacting schools, applying and determining scholarship eligibility.

To contact clients, the two traveled to Denmark and other Scandinavian countries, presenting 20 times in five days. They slept some nights in Krohn’s mother’s car, Stanbra said, and others in a tent.

They formed relationships with coaches at all levels. Some, like McIntyre and Masalin, they met in their early days of coaching, during the SU duo’s time together at Hartwick. Now, they have a network of “thousands” of coaches.

Looking back at the the business plan he helped the two put together, Smith immediately highlighted the executive statement. It’s the first page of the business plan, but Smith always instructs it to be written last. Make it quick — under two pages — and to the point, he said.

He singled out the first line: “College Scholarships USA will be a market leader in recruiting and placing talented student athletes in US colleges and universities.

“Boom,” Smith said.

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Syracuse is among the most intimate of the relationships that the company has formed over the years. Krohn and Masalin have had a consistent stream of contact throughout the years, and the two have conversed about players when they come up.

Kumlin estimates that he speaks to Masalin about three or four times a year, and Masalin said he checks in with Krohn a couple of times a month. Krohn contacts Masalin whenever he finds a player fit for Syracuse, Kumlin said, and Masalin trusts Krohn enough that Masalin visits the player in person.

“He’s going to come to me and say, why don’t you have a look at this guy?” Masalin said.

Max Freund | Asst. Photo Editor

Sondre Norheim kicks the ball up in the air.

In 2012, Stanbra accompanied Masalin as he scouted striker Emil Ekblom. Sensing the height of the moment, Ekblom missed badly a golden chance on a penalty kick. Most are obsessed with results, Stanbra said, but he was impressed by how good a “soccer analyst” Masalin was by looking past the mistake. Ekblom came to SU the same year as Alseth, and the two scored a combined 74 points in their time with the Orange — Ekblom scored 42 in two years before he left to pursue a professional contract in Norway.

One year, Masalin made three trips to Oslo over a four-month period. Other years, when SU doesn’t have a specific need, are quiet.

“It doesn’t matter if I have a five-star right back,” Kumlin said. “If Jukka and Ian (don’t) need that, then I need to go somewhere else.”

But when SU needed a center back, Krohn recommended Norheim. When Kumlin left Blue Chip, another recruiting company, to head CSUSA’s expansion to the Swedish market in 2014, his idea for a Scandinavian showcase attracted the likes of Hagman. Kumlin had seen Hagman play for AIK-Stroudsburg. As team captain, his touch on the ball, passing ability and leadership immediately stood out.

Kumlin said Akron and Duke “wanted Hagman bad,” but Kumlin contacted Syracuse first, thinking Hagman would be a good fit. When Hagman and Masalin first spoke, both were hooked.

Soerlie first came to the U.S. through College Scholarships USA to attend Gardner-Webb. He admitted “Syracuse” and “Gardner-Webb” didn’t trigger a difference in his mind at the time. After his freshman year, he told his parents that if he played well the next season, he’d transfer. After the season, he called Krohn.

Many preached the company stays with players throughout the college years. If all seems well, Kumlin will check in with his clients once in the preseason and once at the end of the season. But if there’s a need for a switch, they’ll jump on it.

Recently, Masalin said the “transfer market” has exploded, and four-year players are rare. The Orange take advantage of this, though. The NCAA has blackout periods in recruiting, but there aren’t restrictions for schools like Syracuse contacting College Scholarships USA.

The company can do recruiting of its own, gathering data from players they feel are fit for U.S. colleges. CSUSA settles the logistics, so when the recruiting gates open, the Orange are ready to pounce.

SU attracted Soerlie via transfer, and he’s started four of his first five games for the Orange. With no American equivalent to recruit transfers, schools like Syracuse have the advantage.

Max Freund | Asst. Photo Editor

Severin Soerlie slides in for a goal in SU’s matchup with Hofstra. It was the first goal of the season for the transfer from Gardner-Webb.

College Scholarships USA has grown from a staff of just Stanbra and Krohn to 16 full-time members. Its first class sent out 38 students in 2009, Stanbra said, and the most recent one sent 275. Next year, the company expects to help 350 to 400 international players get to U.S. colleges.

Already benefiting more than any other team in the ACC, the Orange are in a position of power.

“You get the players’ videos. You get to know them, talk to them,” Masalin said. “If you feel like it’s a good fit, you’re going to go on with it.”

Published on October 3, 2018 at 12:14 am

Contact Michael: mmcclear@syr.edu | @MikeJMcCleary