Wisconsin Soccer Central

Taylor Diem (Middleton) and Malcolm Calbert (Stoughton) played together for six years with the old Middleton-Yahara Soccer Club.

Now the defenders will be teammates again – on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Diem and Calbert are headed to the Richmond International Academic & Soccer Academy in Leeds, England, where they will play and pursue master's degrees at Leeds Metropolitan University.

RIASA will field seven teams within its program this season, playing against top professional youth academy sides from the Premier League to League Two in addition to non-league clubs. Some of its players play with Garforth Town and Eccleshill United in the Northern Counties East Football League – the league has divisions in the ninth and 10th tiers of English soccer – and those clubs' reserve teams, or with the Under-21 developmental squad of League One pro club Bradford City.

Diem recently completed his second season with the Des Moines Menace of the USL Premier Development League, finishing with a goal and an assist in 13 games.

The 6-foot-3 defender made the Daktronics NCAA Division II All-America first team, was a second-team pick by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and the defensive player of the year in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference as a senior last fall for Regis (Colo.).

Diem had nine goals and five assists in 44 matches for the Rangers after transferring from Division I Hofstra.

Calbert graduated from Loras (Iowa), recording eight goals and three assists in 84 career appearances for the NCAA Division III Duhawks, and was named to the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference first team in 2010 and '12.

He earned an invitation to the USL PRO Combine in January in Florida, then joined Madison United for the second straight year – but his season ended early when he suffered a separated shoulder during a match in early June.

This will be at least the second straight season with at least one Wisconsin player in the RIASA program, as midfielder Caleb Burst (Bayfield) played for the Eccleshill United Under-19 team last season.