Youssef Mourchid: transitioning to USUE

This archived article was written by: Solomon Rolls-Tyson

French soccer player Youssef Mourchid had a great season this year playing at the striker position; scoring 12 goals in 13 games. At the end of the year, Mourchid received the Golden Boot as he was a great competitor throughout.
Mourchid said, “In my freshman year, I found it hard to communicate with my teammates as my English wasn’t very good! However I believe that soccer is an universal language and if you can play, than it talks for you, this made my sophomore year a lot easier for me because my team mates respected me for my skills, which made communicating a lot easier.
Furthermore, Mourchid looks to take his talents to the next level. He would like to play at either a four-year school or go back overseas to France and play for a pro club. “Playing soccer in the USA has been a great experience for me and I would recommend it to any foreigner back home.”
“When I was younger, I used to kick ball with my older brother as he was my inspiration. I would follow him to practice and watch him play so I could repeat the skills that he would perform on the soccer field. Eventually I became old enough to practice with his team, so I started banging with the big boys.
Playing with the older guys was hard as they were a lot stronger and faster than me. However; this just made me strong not just physically, but mentally as well. I started to grow as a soccer player and now these so called “men” were struggling to keep up with me.
“Anyway, one of the coaches from a university in America came to watch my older brother play at practice. The teams were split into two and we were placed on the same team. We both played really well together and the coach was really interested as he came over to our house after practice for dinner.
“He explained to my parents that my brother and I were really talented. The coach told my parents that he would not only give my brother a scholarship to his university, but would help me find a community college in the USA.”
Mourchid explained that he was happy when he found out that he was going to be playing in Price, Utah. “I guess all of that hard work paid off. Everyday I would play soccer and work on my game after school, not caring about anything else but soccer. My parents would tell me that all I had to do was concentrate on school work, but I learned how to balance both school work and soccer and I guess that’s the reason why I am here today.”