haven't seen a previous theat for this school so just wanted to post that the Knights made an excellent pickup with the signing of intent of former German youth international, Sarai Linder. Sarai starts at right fullback for division 1, Hoffenheim, a team thats currently 1 point behind Bayern Munich even though it doesn't have one NT player that made last year's WC(BM got about a dozen). From watching some of HOF's streamed game, Sarai's very quick & one of the club's better players, I think she's just a couple of years way of the senior German NT squad(ranked #2 in the world. Here's the only news feed about(it's on facebook) TSG Hoffenheim Frauen - Home unfortunately don't look like UCF was even ranked in the top 25 last season, hopefully they'll improve with Sarai on the team!
Wonder how they got her eligible. A couple of other schools on the east coast were looking at her but felt she may not be able to play or perhaps have to sit a year or two because she was being paid.
I think you can sign anyone. Does not mean they will end up being ncaa eligible. Sign and hope. Need a really good compliance office to help you. Other state of Florida schools have been able to do it in the past. One school in particular.
I saw UCF signed a lot of internationals. Wonder if the impending budget cuts will impact schools being able to do that (out of state scholarships cost more). Just curious if this will be another result of all this.
NBA star Domantas Sabonis first played for the Spanish pro club, Malaga, before signing & playing for Gonzaga good point, probabilities, while TSG Hoffenheim is an pro men's club, their women's could be an amateur side/or Sarai might just of wanted to remain on amateur status(like Sabonis in my previous example) anyways, it's a stunning pickup for UFC, at age 20, Sarai has 46 starts for Hoffenheim. has a lot more creds than some of the other top German girls that went to US colleges; Melissa Kossler also 20,, only had 10 starts for Turbine Potsdam before moving last year to U Mass & tallying 11 goals, 7 asists in her freshman year Lena Petermann had no starts in 1st div Bundesliga before joining UFC same with Laura Freigang, zero starts before joining Penn St( she just capped this March for the senior GER NT)
if she is that good I don’t think she will be playing as an outside back at the college level. Perhaps a wide forward. She has the credentials and was on a couple of other big schools radar. I could see the ncaa looking at this to make sure she wasn’t actually paid because of the team she played with, but I’m sure it’s all above water. There does seem to be a trend more and more in the women’s game towards European players so we will be seeing more of these scenarios.
The frauen Bundesliga is already in open transfer mode with several changes coming, but the richer clubs(both domestic & foreign) have yet to successfully raid Hoffenheim(which had an incredibly successful season) & vice versa, HOF’s not picking up newbies. Which I figure means that their players probably want to remain amateur if going to their local night college schools. This is what I read along the lines of Czech Republic’s best player, who’s so far resisted pro club offers to remain at her local team while she’s getting a psychology degree at the U of Prague. In Sarai’s case she’s giving up a chance to get on her NT in coming to the states, but probably UCF has some specialized courses she can’t get back home. Very few woso so called pro’s make 6 figure salaries, so picking up an college degree can be an premium instead