Iola High School graduate Royce Smith can surely now say that his dream of becoming a professional soccer player has come to fruition.
Smith graduated from high school in 2020, completing most of his credits online while playing soccer in different European towns. He would finish his school work when he had time in between soccer practices and games, looking forward to the day he could begin taking college classes online as well as being a professional soccer player.
“I do like the experience of being abroad and traveling to different places because society everywhere else is different from America and also what I enjoy about it is the atmosphere,” Smith said Wednesday morning. “I just transferred to KU, so I’m going to have some more difficult classes coming up… we’ll see how I’m able to balance that but so far it hasn’t really been an issue.”
Smith’s professional career began when he was 17 years old in Toronto with the Serbian White Eagles in the Canadian Soccer League. Shortly after his playing days in Toronto, Smith signed a major league contract to play professionally in Belize for Altitude FC in the Premier League of Belize. He said this was his favorite place to play because of the fans.
“I really liked being in Central America. We’d sell out the stadium and we had people standing on the roof of a convenience store across the street trying to watch the game for free. I’d say we sold out, the stands were full,” Smith said of playing in Belize.
Smith continued to play professional soccer in different places internationally for a few years, mainly in Sweden. He has also played in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Smith is majoring in psychology, a field that he believes could help him understand his teammates and the way they play a lot better.
As a goalkeeper, “mainly who I talk to is my back line and everyone in the defense. I’m communicating at all times. It’s a huge part because in an ideal situation we’re setting the team up to where we don’t face shots.”
In 2019, Smith’s travels brought him back to Iola where he briefly worked with Jeremy McGinnis, the women’s soccer coach for Allen Community College. 
Europe beckoned again, however, and Smith returned to Sweden to play for the IFK Umea team.
Despite several interruptions, Smith has continued to play for IFK Umea, including this past spring. Smith mainly played alongside American players that first season in Sweden and was a part of the team when the coronavirus shut down entire cities.
“I’ve learned how to be by myself,” Smith said. Because he doesn’t drink alcohol, he avoids joining his teammates at pubs. “I appreciate being on my own because I’ve learned a lot more about my character and understood who I am.”
Smith’s playing days overseas at that time ended abruptly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Smith headed back across the pond in January of 2022 to play for a professional team in Belfast. That stint didn’t last very long, similar to his other stops in Europe where he only played soccer for three months until April for Cumber Rec FC as well as Sorroco Work FC before moving back to Sweden.
“I went straight from Belfast to Sweden and obviously I had been on this team, so they didn’t really have me in for preseason or anything,” Smith said.
“They had already seen me and obviously I had improved, so whatever level they were expecting I think I exceeded those because they were going off two years ago.”
