Kentucky men’s soccer has a diverse roster for the 2024 season, boasting countless players from all across the globe, many of which come from great club teams from their home country.
This year, Kentucky gained 13 freshmen, nine of which hailed from outside the U.S. Two players hailed from Argentina, two from Denmark, two from Norway, one from Canada, one from England and one from Germany.
Two out of these freshmen have become members of the starting 11 for the Cats as forward Lewis Johnson from England and midfielder Agustin Lopez from Argentina, have been major contributors to the team, with their passion to keep fighting pushing the team forward win or lose.
Looking at one specific performer who has been putting in great performances so far for the Wildcats is Lopez, who hails from Santa Fe, Argentina.
Lopez has been one of the starting 11 players for the Wildcats all season and scored his first official goal in the 27th minute of the match against Virginia Tech. It was a right-footed-upper-90 shot that hit the crossbar before going into the goal and allowed the Wildcats to gain a 1-0 lead over the Hokies.
“He scored lots of those in practice, so we weren’t surprised,” Kentucky head coach John Cedergren said about Lopez’s goal.
The decision to lean so heavily on international freshmen is hardly anything new for the Wildcats, who have relied on foreign stars for years to fuel the squad. Looking down the roster beyond just the freshman class, the Wildcats’ roster looks akin to a melting pot of talent.
A few of these internationals have even been recognized with awards or honorable mentions including goalkeeper Casper Mols, who was named to the College Soccer News Men’s National Team of the Week in 2023. Mols has also been an honorable mention on TopDrawSoccer’s Team of the week and was named the Sun Belt Preseason Defensive Player of the Year in 2023.
Sophomore Josh Gordon from Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, was also named Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Week in October 2023.
Gordon was 14-years-old when he first made his debut for the Canadian Men’s National Team as a youth prospect in 2019 with coach Eric Tenllado, representing Canada at the 2019 CONCACAF Boy’s U15 Championship.
Marqes Muir is another foreign Cat to excel in blue and white. The sophomore from England was also named Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Week in October 2023.
Elsewhere, junior Iker Carew from Norway was named to the 2022 Coastal Athletic Association (Formerly Colonial) All-American Rookie team.
Success from Norway is also commonplace for the Cats as veteran Norwegian Martin Soereide was one of two Wildcats named to the Conference-USA All-Freshman Team back in 2021. He also made his 2023 debut at Wisconsin following a severe injury in 2022 in the NCAA Tournament and returned for one last go around with the Cats in 2024.
All in all, whether its South America, Europe or Canada, Kentucky men’s soccer has consistently relied upon international stars to build out its roster and many of these stars go on to define the teams they are a part of.
Kentucky and its stars will return to action on Friday, Sept. 27, hitting the road to face West Virginia. The match will kick off at 7 p.m. ET.
