THE OFFICIAL DELAWARE DYNASTY WEB SITE

STOP IN SWEDEN
By Kevin Tresolini, The News Journal
Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Even Colin Burns' friends had begun calling him a "gypsy" as he roamed Europe in search of a professional soccer career.

There were moments Burns, a 2000 Newark High graduate, wondered if he was doing the right thing.

"Plenty of times, when I sat in a hotel room somewhere in Europe, I said to myself, 'What am I doing? What is the purpose of all this?' " Burns said.

He knew the answer. He was good enough and wanted it badly enough.

Now, he knows for sure.

The 25-year-old goalkeeper recently signed a two-year contract with a club, Ljungskile SK, in Sweden's top professional soccer league, called the Allsvenskan. Burns has been in Sweden since late January, after a couple months of training back in Delaware. The season begins in March and runs into November.

"It's a dream come true," he said, "but I want to show people anything's possible. I just refused to give up."

It's not England, Spain, Italy or Germany -- the most prestigious European soccer addresses. But it is the latest, and most important, step in a somewhat nomadic trip that began when Burns, determined to play soccer professionally in Europe, traveled to Scotland in 2005.

He spent time training with three Scottish clubs, including five months with one, Partick Thistle, that didn't sign him but covered his living expenses.

Tryouts with French, Swiss and Danish teams would come before his big breakthrough in August 2006, when Burns landed a contract with the Olimpia Balti club in Moldova's Premier League.

In Burns' first game, his team lost 1-0 to a bigger club at the national stadium and Burns was chosen "Man of the Match." He once played through a game while fans rioted in the stands.

That would lead to stints in 2007 with two clubs in Finland, where Burns played well enough to be noticed by the higher-rated league in Sweden.

"I did well my senior year in high school and I started in college," Burns, who graduated from the University of Massachusetts, said in a recent telephone interview. "But I was never a high school All-American or an all-conference college player.

"You'd never expect to see a guy like me in a league like this."

But if there was an All-Persistence team, Burns likely would be on it. Burns was told "no" dozens of times in numerous languages. But he had been talented enough, as a 19-year-old, to make a U.S. Eastern Regional team that traveled to Holland and Switzerland.

That taste of the soccer culture, deeply ingrained in European society, made him want to go back.

"I saw it and I wanted to live the life and experience everything Europe has to offer," Burns said.

After graduation from UMass he took off, even though he'd excelled studying plant science and could have stayed and pursued a master's degree at the school's expense, said his father, Sam. By then, he'd had some of his work published.

"He said, 'I'm going to Europe to play soccer,' " said Sam Burns, who was surprised but, along with Colin's mother, Linda, encouraged their son to pursue his dream.

"That's the type of person Colin is. If he makes his mind up, he's going to do it."

Tragedy also had driven Burns. While in Washington, D.C., to play against George Washington University for UMass, he received word that his only sibling, 23-year-old brother Scott, had taken his own life.

"It pushed me to do something with my life," Burns said.

Burns began the process in summer 2005. Many American soccer players have made a living in Europe, despite the presence of Major League Soccer in the United States.

But American goalkeepers have long been particularly highly regarded. For instance, four of the 20 clubs in England's Premier League feature an American goalkeeper -- Everton's Tim Howard, Fulham's Kasey Kelley, Blackburn's Brad Friedel and Reading's Marcus Hahnemann. Several American goalkeepers also are plying their trade in Norway.

Keith Duncan, who has trained Burns during visits to Delaware in recent years, sees no reason why Burns can't keep climbing the ranks.

Duncan, 41, is a DuPont Co. biologist and nationally certified goalkeeping coach. He's coached at the Tatnall School, Wilmington University, the University of Delaware, with the Delaware Dynasty amateur team, on which Burns played, and with various club teams.

"Most of your best strikers peak before the age of 30," Duncan said, noting that goalkeepers peak closer to 30.

"Colin, at 25, has at least five more years before he even peaks. He's going to get himself noticed because he's a young man with a great deal of talent and a great deal of potential."

At 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds, Burns is sturdy enough to withstand the inevitable jostling. But he's also extremely quick and perceptive, said Duncan, who held several weekly training sessions with Burns at the Kirkwood Soccer Club in the two months before his January return to Sweden.

"There are a number of folks who have his physical attributes, his height and his quickness," Duncan said. "But Colin thinks about the game and he thinks about the position."

Last fall, Burns had e-mailed Ljungskile SK officials after he read that the club needed to improve its goalkeeping after earning promotion to Sweden's top division. That correspondence was relayed to a coach who did need a keeper in England, where Burns has not been able to get a work permit.

But Burns kept in touch with the Swedish team, which eventually decided to give him a look. "Another hoop I had to jump through," Burns said. When he blanked Sparta Sarpsborg, a Norwegian side, in a Feb. 2 preseason game 1-0, Burns had earned his spot and his contract.

Then came a glitch. FIFA, international soccer's governing body, had recently passed a rule forbidding players from appearing with more than two teams in a season. Burns had played for the two Finnish sides last fall.

But most European leagues follow an August-to-May schedule, and this would be Burns' third team in that span. The Scandinavian leagues, because of the cooler northern climate, follow their March-to-November schedule, similar to Major League Soccer. The Allsvenskan had not yet re-written its rules to be in compliance with the FIFA directive and count last fall as a separate season, which it was.

Now, it has, in the wake of a gut-wrenching week for Burns, who suddenly saw his future imperiled, and considerable news coverage in Sweden in support of Burns and the rule change.

All he has to do now is go to work. Burns is among two goalkeepers on the roster -- the other is Michal Slawuta, 31, of Poland -- and two Americans, the other being Etchu Tabe, a striker born in Cameroon whose family moved to Georgia when he was a teenager.

Burns returned to Sweden having added 20 pounds, at the club's insistence.

His many travels have allowed Burns to become conversationally fluent in French, Russian and Finnish. Now, he's working on Swedish while delighting in the professional opportunity that awaits and the Swedish landscape he now calls home.

"I've read a lot of books on perseverance," he said. "I feel if you look straight at what you want to do and don't listen to the naysayers and stay focused, you can accomplish anything you want.

"That's how I feel now. I feel stronger than ever because of what I've gone through to get to this."