A local kid, makes it big in soccer

With soccer season around the corner, I thought I'd share an article of a local boy, now man, who went to Lowell and is now playing in England, trying to make it big as a professional soccer player. Unlike other sports in the United States, soccer here is nothing compared to what it is in other continents. Want to be a soccer star? You probably need to get out of the states.

S.F.'s Peterlin acclimating to soccer in England
Courtesy: Tom Fitzgerlad, San Francisco Chronicle



(08-11) 19:35 PDT -- Not even the incessant rain in Liverpool can dampen the spirits of Anton Peterlin, a soccer player from Lowell High who recently signed with Everton of the English Premier League.

He's been enjoying Liverpool 1, the city's downtown, and was preparing to move into an apartment. He spent a month in a hotel, not counting a training trip to Scotland and an exhibition match in Austria.

"It's amazing how much it can rain over here," he said. "I heard that it can rain 285 days a year. But beside the rain, the people are welcoming, at least the ones I've met in the hotel and on the streets."

Peterlin, a 22-year-old midfielder, was offered a contract after attending Cal Poly. Not many Americans sign with the Premier League, one of the most demanding in the world. Peterlin is playing this year on Everton's developmental team, Blues XI, and that kind of experience is rare for an American youngster.

"You could probably list the American kids on the fingers of two hands over the last 10 years who have signed with the Premier League" shortly after college, Cal Poly coach Paul Holocher said.

Peterlin has trained alongside American goalkeeper Tim Howard, Australian midfielder Tim Cahill and English midfielder and team captain Phil Neville.

It was intimidating at first, Peterlin admitted, "but now you learn to play with them and give the respect, as well as putting myself in a spot to show what I've got. All of these players are incredibly gifted but even more dedicated to our sport."

Besides his considerable skill and ambition, Peterlin had something that most American players lack: a European Union passport, which eased the process of joining the English club.

He was born in San Francisco to a Danish mother and a Slovenian father. Anne Peterlin came to the United States on a tennis scholarship to USF. Boris Peterlin is also a fine tennis player, his son said. Anton said he fell in love with soccer playing in the backyard with his grandfather and brother, Sebastian, now a rower for Stanford.

Anton watched Premiership games on TV as a kid, at the home of a friend who admired Manchester United. The youngster's dream job was soon apparent.

"I'm delighted he's getting the notoriety he deserves," said Ernie Feibusch, who has coached Lowell soccer for 44 years. "He was fantastic for us, a real leader. He never got a big head, even though I suspect he knew he was pretty damn good."

In middle school and high school, Peterlin used his middle name, Alex, but switched back to Anton at UC Santa Cruz, he said, because it's "strong and unique" - and the team had three other players named Alex. He transferred to Cal Poly when Holocher, who had recruited him to Santa Cruz, took the job there a year later.

Though not highly recruited out of high school, Peterlin improved significantly every year, Holocher said. In a nationally televised 2008 game against UC Santa Barbara in San Luis Obispo - which Cal Poly lost 1-0 in overtime - Peterlin gave an outstanding performance before a crowd of 11,075, the third largest in Division I regular-season history.

There were Major League Soccer scouts on hand as well. Peterlin had tryouts with the Earthquakes and the Chicago Fire, and both clubs wanted him, but Peterlin always had Europe in mind.

He was invited to a 10-day training session with Everton in March, on the recommendation of Graham Smith, his coach with the Ventura County Fusion in the fourth division of the U.S. league system. Everton coach David Moyes played him with the first team and said he was impressed with "his attitude and undoubted ability."

Don't expect Peterlin to exchange elbows with Man U's Wayne Rooney in the near future, Smith cautions. "I want people's expectations to be realistic," he said. "He's not at a Premier League level. He's a young man who, in terms of football development compared to other players in Europe, is probably 17 or 18. He's on a fast track to catch up."

Peterlin said, "I have been given an amazing opportunity. It's rare because not many Americans get the opportunity with Everton or any English club for that matter."

Players like Howard, Clint Dempsey and others in the Premier League are clearing the way for newcomers, he said. Peterlin, for one, doesn't mind packing his umbrella.