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Going Dutch: Verona's Melin signs with legendary club AFC Ajax

09/12/2014, 7:00am CDT
By ERIC ANDERSON
Alex Melin

If things had gone the way she'd planned, and had gone well, Alex Melin (Verona) might have been enjoying the offseason after her rookie season in the National Women's Soccer League right now.

Instead, the former Wisconsin Soccer Coaches Association Player of the Year left July 21 for the Netherlands. And after finally acquiring her work visa, she officially signed with AFC Ajax on Thursday and will start her professional career with the Amsterdam club.

While Ajax is a legendary club in world soccer, its women's team didn't exist until 2012.

They play in the Vrouwen BeNe League, a unique setup that brings the top teams from Belgium and the Netherlands into one league. Ajax (16-4-6) finished third in the 14-team league last season, then earned its first women's trophy in June by beating PSV/Eindhoven 2-1 in the KNVB Women's Cup final.

The 22-year-old Melin concluded her solid college career at Iowa last fall – she was a second-team, All-Big Ten Conference selection as a senior and finished with 14 goals and six assists in 82 matches (all starts) for the Hawkeyes – but wasn't selected in the NWSL draft in January.

She was in contact with a few league teams about potential trial opportunities, most notably the Chicago Red Stars and Boston Breakers, but an ankle injury derailed those plans.

"It was frustrating," she said before departing for Europe. "It's hard to get in contact sometimes with these clubs, especially when you don't really know how to go about it.

"I knew I wanted to keep playing. I didn't exactly know where or with who. There are a lot of options, and I was kind of new to it, so I didn't really know and I don't have a ton of people that I'm close friends with that have done it. It's so broad."

Melin decided to get in touch with some of her former coaches to see if they had any contacts that could help her find a team. Phil Nielsen, a native of Denmark who coached her during an Olympic Development Program Under-19 team tour of Germany in 2011, helped her connect with Ajax.

"What I learned is you have to wait a little bit, because I was trying to rush it," she said. "They're not signing new people in the middle of winter, or in like March and stuff. They're in the middle of their season, so they don't really know who's signing next year and what their numbers will be, so I just had to wait around. I wasn't liking that too much, but ..."

Obviously, things turned out well for Melin.

After looking over some game videos, Ajax officials asked her to fly over for a trial in May. Melin was in Amsterdam for eight days and spent four of those days on the training ground, playing in the center of midfield in Ajax's 4-3-3.

"That's the same as what I played in college," she said of the formation. "It was a little different than what I have been used to playing in the U.S. They were very skilled. Their possession was very clean. They said it's always funny, when the American players come in ... they play more physical and that kind of style. It was neat to be able to be pushed a lot more technically and possession-wise. That will help me improve as a player."

So did Melin have to dial down her physicality during the trial?

"I didn't really dial it down," she said, "but I guess just go along with their style, play a little more ... A lot more 1-2 passes, and just a lot more pretty soccer, so I just need to be able to play that."

Melin, who graduated from Iowa in May with a degree in elementary education, said that while most Ajax players speak English, there still were some communication issues.

"They're all bilingual. A lot of them can speak three, four languages, too, so it wasn't that hard conversing with any of them," she said.

"But usually on the field, the coach would yell in Dutch and the players, I think it was easier for them to yell in Dutch on the field, as well. That was a little bit difficult. ... It was interesting to be in the midfield and not be able to really yell a ton and communicate as much. I caught on to a few of the little words, but it was definitely different."

There was one player she could easily talk to: American defender Whitney Sharpe. The Iowa native, who played collegiately at UCLA, Texas Tech and Loyola Marymount, signed with Ajax in January 2012 and played with them through the 2013-14 season before returning to the U.S. to become an assistant coach in the Iowa State women's program.

"It was great to be able to talk to her about it, just to have an American there, be able to ask questions," Melin said.

Before Melin left Amsterdam, manager Ed Engelkes and Ajax club officials invited her to join the team for the 2014-15 season, which kicked off Aug. 29. 

"I wanted to go over there, so it wasn't too hard," she said of her decision to accept the offer. "The club was neat, and the players were friendly. The style of play was something I like, so I told them that I'd like to sign with them. It was very exciting.

"I think getting a new idea of culture and everything is an experience that I'd like to have. It's a great opportunity to do that and play the game I love at the same time."

The delay in acquiring a work visa means that Melin missed the first three matches of the BeNe League season; Ajax is 2-1-0 with its next game Sept. 26.

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