Blunschi shares fascinating soccer journey

Jordan Blunschi is home for the holidays. And he wasn’t about to fib.

If I had told him in December 2020 that this would be his soccer story in December 2021, he would have called me crazy.

“I would have been planning for my next high school season at Weston,” Blunschi said, “and talking about trying to play in college.”

The fascinating journey that has sent Blunschi to Switzerland and Italy started last January, in of all places, Costa Rica. Blunschi’s club coach Joe Funicello started an independent professional player development center in Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast.

“He invited me and my friend Max Weiss in December down there to see what it was like, play and practice, that there’d be a couple of scouts there,” Blunschi said. “My initial outlook was to go, get a great experience, be around really good players and improve.”

He wasn’t expecting anything more.

Blunschi played in a couple of games. A scout from Italy saw him and offered him a spot on an academy team there.

“The rest is history, I guess,” he said.

While in Europe, Jordan Blunschi turned 17 on Nov. 12. His is a short history.

While still technically a junior, Blunschi worked with Weston to make sure he could graduate early with his high school diploma. This was the COVID year. He did his work online from Costa Rica, returned home and completed all his necessary credits online in the summer.

He left for Switzerland on July 31 for a month. He trained with the BSC Young Boys. He trained with the Zurich Grasshoppers, FC Zurich and FC Luzern. He went to Italy for three months and played for Tre Valli that had offered him a spot while in Costa Rica. Blunschi was called up to the first team a couple of times.

Afterward, he returned to Switzerland and trained with FC Luzerne for another month.

Blunschi returned home on Dec. 12, surprised his friends and now is deciding if he will play in Switzerland or Italy. He has been offered contracts with the Tre Valli first team and AC Bra in Italy.

Blunschi was born in Switzerland and moved to the U.S. when he was 3. He came up through the Weston soccer system.

“It’s something we are very proud of,” said Kevin Fitzsimmons, who coaches Weston and runs Weston Soccer Club youth program. “From third grade

“His father is Swiss, his mother is from the Caribbean. I tell everyone he has both a laid-back mentality and a European fight.” Weston coach Kevin Fitzsimmons on Jordan Blunschi

right, he never left town to play premier or academy until the 11th grade.

“His father is Swiss, his mother is from the Caribbean. I tell everyone he has both a laid-back mentality and a European fight. For me he was beautiful on the back, smooth on the ball, amazing at starting the attack. He wouldn’t panic. Big in the air, strong powerful. He is a leader.”

Blunschi made his Weston High debut as a freshman, was all SWC as a sophomore. As a senior, his good friend Weiss was named All-SWC, All-State, All-New England, AllAmerican. Fitzsimmons said he is convinced Blunschi, who would have been a senior captain, would have earned the same distinctions.

“When there were rumors of Jordan leaving, I told people, ‘I’ll wait until Aug. 27,’” Fitzsimmons said. “If he’s there, he’s there. If he’s not, he’s not.”

He wasn’t. He was headed to Mondovi, about 80 kilometers from Turin in Piedmont of northwest Italy where Tre Valli plays.

Although he isn’t totally fluent, Blunschi said he understands almost everything in Swiss German. That’s what his dad Raphael speaks. Beyond some rudimentary phrases, he doesn’t speak Italian.

“Honestly, in the beginning it was rough,” Blunschi said. “I knew I was going to miss all my friends and my family. Luckily I’ve been raised to be mature, I guess, on my own.”

He had traveled to Switzerland alone previously. He does have extended family there and was able to see them at times.

“What I did was to try to stay focused on my goal the whole time,” Blunschi said. “It really helped me.”

Interestingly enough there were more Brazilians than Italians on the team. Columbians and Mexicans as well. He was the youngest guy on a team ranging from 16 to 26.

“They were all very nice,” Blunschi said. “The coaches speak a little English and when it comes to playing soccer, the language is universal.”

Sports like soccer, ice hockey, gymnastics, are fascinating. Forget prep schools, top young talent is engulfed by the sports infrastructure. In soccer, it is the academy structure. Yet even by those standards, Blunschi’s decision to play in Europe at 16 is an unusual one.

“That trip to Costa Rica made all the difference,” Blunschi said. “I loved soccer before, but that trip, being exposed to an environment where everybody is working toward the same goal, everybody lives and breathes soccer, it really made me fall in love with the sport and made me want to commit my life to it.”

Funicello, who grew up in Norwalk and whose family owns Tutti’s restaurant in Westport, played pro for various clubs in Europe. He returned to Connecticut, served as director of SoccerViza and since has made the grand adventure of building a pro club from the ground up in Costa Rica. He turned down chances himself to play in college to go pro.

“It’s interesting, Jurgen Klinsmann said he thought the biggest downfall with American soccer is high school soccer,” Fitzsimmons said. “Being from Europe, I can see where’s he coming from. I actually think college soccer is the biggest downfall for the pro game and the national team in America.

“I think a lot of kids get their hopes pinned on college and nothing after in their minds. College is the pinnacle. Even if you aspire to play pro you’ve only played maybe 18 months of soccer while the rest of the world played four years while you’ve been in college.”

Players leave high school soccer and Fitzsimmons said it forces you to be a better coach. Others, especially in the FCIAC and SWC, know this.

“We had some good incoming players. You can replace speed, power, skill, but you can’t replace his experience,” Fitzsimmons said. “When we went out (in the state playoffs) against Bacon Academy, that’s when I realized how much we missed his experience. Jordan was a great loss.”

Fitzsimmons pauses for a moment and repeats how proud he is of him.

Blunschi’s goal to advance with his team, get more exposure and a bigger team from, say, Serie C spots him and picks him up. He’s young. He’s looking to climb the ranks. When he figures out where he’ll play, he plans to start his college studies in Europe.

“My family and friends have all been really supportive of what I’m doing,” he said. “I would not have been able to do it without their support. Particularly Max Weiss. We’ve played with each other for so long. We push each other to improve.”

Blunschi returns to Europe in January. Until then he says he will surround himself with friends and family.

“I’m really family oriented during the holidays,” he said. “They all come to our house.”

His Weston classmates? They are finishing up their high school studies and are still six months away from their senior prom. Crazy when you look at it that way, isn’t it? Like Jordan Blunschi said, in December 2020 he wouldn’t have believed this story.