By Tom Simpson

 

 Frankie Beauchamp, an 18 year old footballer from the San Francisco Seals youth program, has just returned from a two week trial with Werder Bremen.  Werder Bremen is not your average European football club. In the past 10 years Werder Bremen has qualified for the Champions League 5 times and in 2004 won both the Bundesliga and the German Cup in 2004. The tryout was made possible by Mark Rohrer who plays with Frankie in the local San Francisco men’s league.  Mark, spoke with Thomas Schaff, the head coach of Werder Breman, and Frankie was off to Germany.

Frankie’s tryout began with Werder Bremen’s second team so the coaches could check him out.  After the first session,  Frankie got a call to train with the first team, a pattern that repeated itself until his return home at the end of the trial. For nearly two weeks Frankie mixed it up with the likes of some of the best known names in the game, including Torsten Frings, the captain of the German National Team, Mikael Silvestre of Manchester United fame and member of the French National Team, and Claudio Pizzaro of the Peruvian National Team who has divided his time with Bayern Munich and Chelsea over the past seven years.  The interesting thing is:  Frankie didn’t  have a clue who they were and when he found out he understated his surprise, “I could tell they’re pretty good.”  Frankie’s ignorance was a blissful opportunity to compare himself with the best of the game and he came to the personal conclusion that he matched up just fine.

Frankie said the high point of the trip came that night after the first session when Thomas Schaff, the head coach of Werder Bremen, asked him back to train with the first team.  “That was the greatest moment of the trip,” reported Frankie.  Most American players might call such an opportunity “the greatest moment of my career” or even “my life” since one can count the number of American 18 year olds who got trials in the Bundesliga on one hand.  However Frankie was not overly impressed.  They were just soccer players. “When I trained with the first team I realized I could play with them. I scored a number of goals in the scrimmage sessions.  We played a lot of nine v nine games and I scored my goals on corner kicks.” He sounded like he had just returned from a training session with his San Francisco Seals U21 team.

The head coach, Thomas Schaff, is a highly respected coach in the German Bundesliga who has been with Werder Bremen for the whole of his career as a youth player, senior player and coach.  He told Frankie that he has the talent to play at “this” level but wants him to build his “core strength,” referring to his upper body in particular.  Frankie is still growing.  He’s 6’3” and only 170 lbs.  He’s grown almost 12 inches in the last few years and has been hampered by Osgood Schlatter’s syndrome, a painful inflammation below his knee that is common in growing soccer players.  That’s all gone now and Frankie has suddenly blossomed physically.  His Seals coach is Shani Simpson, an ex-professional player who played for the San Francisco Seals and had brief contracts with various MLS clubs.  He is also Frankie’s step-father.  “Frankie plays clean and simple soccer,” said Shani.  The Werder Bremen coach told Frankie the same thing.  “And he also knows when and how to go forward. When he physically matures I think Frankie can play at any level he puts his mind to,” added coach Simpson.

Apparently Thomas Schaff thinks so to.  He wants Frankie to return to Germany to check on his progress once he builds his strength.  Frankie’s story reminds us that when you’re an 18 year old soccer player some amazing things can happen in unexpected places with unexpected people in a very short period of time.

---