One's football journey can begin in any place. For Mount Royal Cougars forward Jordan Grundl, that quest began in her hometown of Munich, Germany, over 7000 kilometers from where she currently resides in Calgary, Alberta.
As a young soccer player, Grundl spent her early years playing locally in Munich. She credits this time with helping her develop into the competitor she is today.
"I started playing for my hometown club in Munich, called PSV. It's a small club. At the same time, I was training with an organization called the Munich Soccer School, where I really developed a competitive side to my game."
From there, Grundl spent time with an all-boys team when she was 13 before transferring to Bayern Munich's U16 team and eventually ending up at FC Bayern Munich.
When it came time for Grundl to begin her post-secondary soccer career, she felt the best opportunity to accelerate her skills would come outside of Europe. It was through an online soccer recruitment website that she put herself on the map and caught the attention of MRU Cougars head coach Tino Fusco.
"It's pretty hard to play at a high level in Germany or anywhere in Europe and at the same time focus on studying. We don't have varsity teams at home or in Europe anywhere; it's really hard for it all to align. When I found out that in North America there's varsity soccer, I felt that could be something that would work for me."
"I signed up with this online agency called Athletes USA, and they have a big portal where a bunch of coaches can see you. I put my highlight videos up, and Tino (Fusco) reached out to me and said, "Hey, do you want to come here?" From there, we started chatting, and that's how I ended up here."
Grundl admits that moving across the world was a tall task, and although her mother is from Eastern Canada, Grundl was largely unfamiliar with her surroundings when she arrived at MRU in 2021.
"My first year was a little tough, a little tougher than probably the following years. My first semester was like, Whoa, what's going on here? It took a little bit to process and figure out what was going on around me."
"The team was great at supporting me through that time, and especially being away from home and not having any family here, I definitely leaned on them."
"I felt like it was the first time in my career that I had that team feeling, which is really important. That's been the best part of the past four years."
Now nearing the end of her fourth season with MRU, Grundl has fully settled into living in Canada. With that, she hopes to pass down her knowledge to the next generation of foreign Cougar players. One of those being first-year Dutch keeper Diede Van Laar.
"We've chatted about things that we've both experienced, and Dutch and German are quite similar in some ways. I remember we were out for dinner, and I couldn't think of a word in English, so I said it in German, and it's a very similar word in Dutch. So she was like, "Oh, I know what you mean." We were both laughing because it was funny, because we both understood each other.
"I feel like it's good for her to have someone that she can relate to. Hopefully, she can look at me and say it'll all work out. I'm definitely there to support her if she needs anything."
No matter how far soccer takes her, Jordan Grundl has proved that she can adapt to any situation. Her story serves as an inspiration to those who embrace the challenge of chasing the game far from home.
