By Ottawa Sports Pages, for OSU Force Academy
From getting bloodied in his first start, to having opportunities with clubs emerge and fizzle over and over, and a dislocated shoulder forcing him back home with nothing, Chester FC goalkeeper Jon Viscosi has certainly paid his dues to make it as a full-time professional soccer player in England.
“Playing in England is not what you think,” notes the Ottawa South United Soccer Club alum. “It’s not what you see in the Premier League. It’s brutal, hard-nosed football. They pay you good money – enough for you to live – but everything else is overlooked. The facilities, the equipment, even the balls you use.”
The setup in the lower English leagues – where he began before signing with Chester in January – was an unexpected change from what he experienced as an NCAA player at SUNY University at Buffalo, or in the summertime USL Professional Development League (PDL).
“Even growing up and playing for OSU, the facilities and the travel, the places you stayed, everything was very professional and spot on,” Viscosi reflects. “It’s not like that here.”
After competing for Team Canada at the 2013 FISU World University Games in Russia, Viscosi began his pro football quest with Tiverton Town in southwest England. The club plays in the eighth tier of English soccer, where most players work during the day, train a few nights a week, and then earn 200-300 pounds to play on weekends.
It’s nevertheless a good standard of competition with many former full-time pros, Viscosi details. The 24-year-old describes stadiums that are small, some clubs’ over-100-year-old pitches that are downhill for one half and uphill for the other, and tend to be nothing but mud from October to March. That makes the post-game shower more like a mud bath, and then it’s on to the director’s box for a post-game meal of chips and sausage that “honestly does not meet any health standards at all” alongside fans enjoying drinks after the match.
Viscosi quickly learned in his first start that he was in a “ruthless” league when he got “absolutely smashed” by an opponent while stepping up to grab a cross and no foul was called. The ball popped loose and his opponents scored.
“I thought it was a foul, and I thought my coaches and my teammates would have been complaining as well,” Viscosi recalls. “I had a cut on my head, blood was dripping out, and they’re like, ‘Well, if you didn’t think you could hold it, you should have punched it.’
“That’s when I learned this is the way it’s going to be, and they’re not going to change for you.”
No warm-up in first match with new club
Viscosi’s introduction to the next stop on his journey was similarly eye-opening. Without many other clubs to could catch on with in the south, he decided to move to a northern team that competed in the same division, but had less funding and no team bus. Before meeting any other players, Viscosi found himself carpooling with a new teammate en route to a Tuesday night contest.
“We ended up getting stuck in traffic on the way, and we were the last car to get to the game,” the 6’ 2” keeper recounts. “The game was at 7:45 and we showed up at 8 o’clock. The referee waited for us because the player who was giving me a lift was the kit man, he had all our uniforms.
“After a three-hour journey in the back seat of a car, I have to go out on the field, no warm up, nothing. I got a pass back, and I went to clear it, but my leg was still asleep from the car ride.
“I scoffed it and it maybe went five yards in front of me to one of their players. Luckily he hit the crossbar and it didn’t go in.
“Everyone’s looking at me, like, “What are you doing?’ and I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God, I can’t play right now, my legs are asleep.’
“That goes to show you that regardless of that, there’s no excuse. They expect you to play. That’s just what it’s like.
“The English fans want to see goals, skill, and blood. They want to see everything from you. When you’re doing well, they’re on your side and they love you. When you’re doing bad, it gets bad and you get all kinds of abuse.
“But that’s what I love the most about it: there’s so much pressure. They’ll hold you to such a high standard and you’ve got to hold yourself to a high standard. There’s no off day. If you have an off day, you could be out of the team, or not play for the rest of the season.”
Packing a full career into a 2-year period
Viscosi wound up moving to train and play with a number of clubs at different levels – reaching double-digits in just over a season – including League 2, League 1 and Championship (English second tier) sides. It was a quite the up-and-down experience. A high came when Scottish Premier League club St. Mirren offered him a contract, but then the Scottish FA denied the registration due to a rule that forbids players from signing if they’d previously been the property of multiple English clubs in the same season.
“Every club I went to, they don’t give you a decision on the spot. It’s like, ‘Ya, we’re interested in you, we’ll keep tabs on you and come watch you play,’” highlights Viscosi, explaining that it’s an especially difficult task for a Canadian goalkeeper to get signed by a lower division club because they can easily get a backup keeper loaned from a higher division if their top goalie ever goes down.
“It makes it very difficult. They don’t want to take you as their #1 because you don’t have professional experience,” adds Viscosi, who was discouraged that he couldn’t catch on with a full-time pro side for good. “I contemplated coming back (to Canada), but I just stuck with it and I ended up experiencing an unbelievable journey where I went to all these different clubs.”
One thing Viscosi learned was that the English soccer circle is “quite tight” and that goalkeeping coaches would often pass on the good word about the Canadian kid to others if their club couldn’t sign him for whatever reason.
“A lot of the work is done through word of mouth, performing well wherever you go, and not getting discouraged if things don’t go well,” Viscosi underlines. “That opportunity could always lead to another one.”
Shoulder dislocation derailment
Gaining that perspective was important for the All Saints Catholic High School grad when he dislocated his shoulder in a game this past fall. A player came underneath Viscosi while he was deflecting a cross and caused him to land with his arm fully extended, the force causing his shoulder to pop out.
Without a contract at the time and a prognosis of at least three months recovery, Viscosi couldn’t support himself financially for that long on his own in England, and with only one arm to get around.
“I knew it wasn’t the end,” emphasizes Viscosi, who returned to Ottawa for rehab, training alongside former OSU and Team Canada teammate Robbie Murphy, a recent University of Guelph grad who will also look to the pro path following a second anticipated trip to the FISU Games this summer.
“I knew I’d come back to England,” he continues. “I had a return flight.”
What Viscosi didn’t have was a confirmed destination, but as soon as he was healthy come mid-January, he was offered a trial with Chester FC – which plays in the fifth tier, the lowest full-time pro level – since Chester had conceded a lot of goals in three-straight games and were looking for someone to push their keeper.
“I came in and did really well,” recounts Viscosi, who was quickly signed to a contract after only a few sessions. “They said, ‘We’re going to play (the current #1 keeper) this weekend, but if he doesn’t play well, we’re not going to hesitate to put you in. You’ve impressed us.’”
And then Chester’s keeper went on to earn four consecutive clean sheets and six wins in a row. Viscosi only played once through March, but now that middle-of-the-table Chester won’t be either promoted or relegated, he’s been told he’ll get more chances so that the club can get a good look at him before next season.
Loving the pro lifestyle
It’s been far from smooth sailing trying to find his way as a pro, but Viscosi would nonetheless recommend other players go after it in a heartbeat if they can.
“Your whole life is dedicated to football,” signals Viscosi, who now feels part of a more professional atmosphere at Chester.
He’ll arrive at the club’s training ground at 9:30 a.m. on most days, enjoy the banter with his teammates as they prepare for practice, spend around 45 minutes with a goalkeeper coach, then join the rest of the team for drills, followed by some friendly competition at the end. Players will then have lunch, most will head to the gym in the afternoon, and then there’s time for a coffee or shopping before going home to rest.
“But Saturday is the best day of the week,” underlines Viscosi.
Every TV channel will be talking about the games coming up, advising the fans who they should take on their betting slips. The players will feel the energy while in the lockerroom as the stadium lights up with fans and loud music. And then at 3 p.m., pretty much every game from the Premiership down to the eighth division kicks off at the same time.
The English football culture is a treasure, Viscosi indicates.
“When I was back home, that was the thing I missed the most,” he notes. “There’s nothing like it.”
Work ethic developed at OSU a boost
Although Canada may not produce pro soccer players at the same rate as other countries, Viscosi says Canadians have earned more respect from the English than most might think.
“Any club I went to, they said what they liked most about me was my work ethic and my attitude,” he explains. “I think that’s just ingrained in our culture.”
Viscosi remembers developing that determination from the brutal fitness sessions OSU Coach Russell Shaw would put his team through.
“There was no one who was ever complaining about it,” recalls Viscosi, who always finishes fitness tests in the top-2 with English clubs. “We’d always be competing with each other. We loved it.”
OSU provided an excellent launching pad towards higher levels, adds Viscosi, an Ontario Cup semi-finalist who was part of the early generation of local teams that began to hold their own against Toronto-area rivals.
Attending Disney and many other showcase tournaments with OSU got him in front of university scouts and led to a four-year NCAA career. OSU General Manager Jim Lianos also linked up the former Buffalo Bulls captain with his first PDL club in Albany, and OSU helped sponsor him for his FISU trip as well.
Viscosi keeps tabs on his old club and was impressed to see fellow OSU alum Kris Twardek sign with Millwall FC (English second tier) recently. Stories like theirs show that dreams of pro careers can become a reality for young players from Ottawa, highlights Viscosi, who recommends aspiring athletes read Championship goalkeeper Richard Lee’s book Graduation: Life Lessons of a Professional Footballer.
“It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but the journey to get to where I am has been unbelievable,” he underlines. “You definitely have a lot of road bumps. Keeping the faith and believing it’s going to happen is so crucial.”