Over the past few weeks, students have filled Ackerman Union, worshipping their favorite European soccer teams and international players competing in Union of European Football Associations Champions League.
On the Intramural Field, students don jerseys of their beloved teams and players, trying to replicate the mystical artistry displayed on the pitch.
Little do they know, there’s a player of that caliber in their midst.
Meet Alex Yi, a third-year history student. As unassuming as that introduction sounds, he has lived the experience most aspiring soccer players could only dream of.
His soccer career began as many do. Yi began playing at a young age, competing in his local region of eastern Maryland before his potential was realized.
“As I got older, I guess I progressed pretty well as a kid and got to play at really competitive levels, and it just kind of took off from there,” Yi said. “It wasn’t anything planned or anything within my ambitions, so it really exceeded my expectations how far it actually went.”
Progressing “pretty well” can be considered an understatement, considering that Yi was accepted into Bradenton Academy in 1999, the pinnacle of youth soccer training in the United States.
Yi was recruited as a member of Bradenton’s inaugural class, which consisted of the 23 best soccer players in the nation, including household names such as Oguchi Onyewu, DaMarcus Beasley and Landon Donovan.
“Bradenton was kind of an experiment, so to speak, for U.S. Soccer and Nike, sticking them in a really small town in Florida and training them everyday,” Yi said.
After graduating from the academy in 2000, Yi became a Bruin.
“He came in with massive expectations, being a national team player and all,” then-teammate Tim Pierce said. “He was a starting center back for the youth national team, so he was a huge recruit for us.”
Yi lived up to the expectations and had a prolific career with the UCLA men’s soccer team as a defender from 2000 to 2001. As a freshman, he started all 19 games and was honored as the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year while earning second-team All-Pac-10 and Soccer America’s All-Freshman Team honors.
His stellar performance continued into his sophomore season as he was a nominee for both the Hermann Trophy and the M.A.C. Player of the Year Award, both of which recognize the nation’s best player. Yi was once again named to the second-team All-Pac-10 and was also selected as a third-team All-American.
Yi racked up all these accolades and seemed to be budding into a star for the Bruins, not to mention for the United States Under-20 National Team, where he solidified himself as a consistent starting defender. However, although his level of play as a Bruin only heightened during his sophomore year, it also concluded.
After passing up the opportunity to play in Italy’s Serie A league and being the second American ever to do so, Yi wasn’t about to let his next professional chance slide.
Yi signed with Royal Antwerp Football Club of the Belgian First Division. Royal Antwerp is a feeder club of Manchester United, where many young players are sent for development prior to being called up by arguably the world’s greatest club.
“The thought process with Antwerp was, to be honest, I don’t think there was one. I think I was ready to take the next level, I thought I was ready on a personal level,” Yi said.
Yi’s teammates were losing an important part of the team, but understood his decision.
“We were obviously bummed out he was leaving because he was such an important part to the team,” Pierce said. “But we understood that he was going on to further his professional soccer career, so there weren’t any hard feelings.”
Nelson Akwari, Yi’s teammate at Bradenton and at UCLA, said, “All of us at Bradenton, from our teenage years, were expecting and ready to take offers to play professionally.”
Yi enjoyed the euphoria of achieving his dream of playing soccer in Europe. He was immersed in the new soccer-obsessive culture, dealing with the supporters who were, according to Yi, “taking things a little too far.”
From the occasional slap on the back on the street to being surrounded by riot police, Yi experienced the stereotypical fanaticism of European soccer in addition to the immense pressure to succeed.
His career goals shifted after two years of playing at Antwerp. Yi’s new focus was on making the 2004 Summer Olympic team that would compete in Athens. And in order to do so, then-coach Glenn Myernick emphasized that Yi needed to be playing regularly to have a shot at making the team, and Yi simply wasn’t getting consistent playing time at Antwerp.
“My immediate thoughts were to come back to (Major League Soccer), come back to the United States and join a club and really try to re-establish myself. I had been injured for a really long time, breaking my foot, so that was my push to come back to MLS,” Yi said.
Through a lottery draft, Yi was placed at F.C. Dallas. Although he didn’t make the Olympic team, he contributed regularly in Dallas, finally debuting in 2005.
But with this newfound success came another knock to his career. According to Yi, a few days before the opening game of the 2008 season, he tore his hamstring, effectively ending his playing career.
“At that point, for me, my whole world kind of fell apart and I really had to evaluate the situation,” Yi said.
And at the age of 27, Yi retired from playing professional soccer.
He tried to remain close to the game, becoming an assistant coach at the University of Dayton for the men’s soccer team. He helped lead the Flyers to the Atlantic-10 Conference title and the first NCAA Tournament berth in school history before heading back to the school where he first made a name for himself.
Yi has now returned to UCLA with a new perspective on his future. Before, he merely used UCLA as a stepping-stone to his professional career. But now, he treats the campus quite differently.
“When I was here (before), all that was on my mind was soccer. I don’t think I knew what Royce Hall was until last quarter,” Yi said with a laugh. “I am what it says on paper; I’m a third-year. I don’t know exactly what I want to do, but I’d love to finish.”
“Before, we came because UCLA was great at soccer, but now we return because of the school’s academic prestige and rigor,” added Akwari, who has also returned to UCLA after playing professionally, to finish his degree and now takes classes with Yi.
Yi now takes school as seriously as he did soccer. He hasn’t exiled himself completely from the game that he loves, as he has begun a career coaching the Los Angeles Galaxy youth teams. As for playing, Yi hasn’t continued, but perhaps an intramural debut is imminent.
“I had an offer to play intramural,” Yi said with a grin. “I think it was co-ed intramural soccer, and I would love to do that.”