He was match-winner in an LA Galaxy game, but a stubborn injury ended his football career. Kai Koreniuk is now studying business economics at Radboud University. 'I wanted to play and score at the highest level, and I did.'

Kai Koreniuk (28) doesn’t need long to name the best moment of his career. In LA Galaxy’s 2020 home game against the Vancouver Whitecaps, he tapped in a teammate’s cross. After the goal he ran towards the corner flag, and his teammates piled on him.

‘At that moment, I thought my career had taken off,’ Koreniuk says six years later on the Radboud University campus. But a persistent injury put paid to that. First he tore his cruciate ligament, and later his meniscus.

Koreniuk grew up in Ormond Beach, a small town in Florida, as the son of an American father and a Dutch mother. His talent for sport showed early. ‘I’d have loved to play American football, but my mother thought it was too dangerous. I didn’t agree with her back then, but maybe she was right. I still watch Pittsburgh Steelers games, like I used to with my dad.’

Homesick

In the end, Koreniuk chose soccer, and he quickly stood out. Set on becoming a professional footballer, he sent videos of his youth-team matches to Dutch professional clubs. It worked: he was invited for a trial with the Vitesse youth academy. ‘I probably shouldn’t say that too loudly in Nijmegen,’ he jokes. (Vitesse, from nearby Arnhem, is the fierce local rival of Nijmegen’s club NEC, ed.)

At fifteen, Koreniuk, who didn’t speak a word of Dutch at the time, moved in with his grandparents in Nijmegen. ‘It wasn’t easy. At first I was very homesick. The food, the language, the humour, the way people interact: everything was different. I struggled at a Dutch school, and things only started going better when I was allowed to switch to the international school. That’s also where I met my girlfriend. Like me, she’s Dutch-American, and we’re still together.’

On the pitch, things went well for Koreniuk. At sixteen, Vitesse offered him a professional contract, and not long after he was called up for a Dutch national youth team. ‘It was going really well, and I was hoping to move up to the first team. But because of a partnership between Vitesse and Chelsea, six or seven talented players from the English club came to Vitesse every year, so I didn’t get much playing time. That’s why I moved to Jong AZ in 2017.’

Koreniuk scored twice in 33 matches for Jong AZ. His performances didn’t go unnoticed in the United States. When the director of the legendary LA Galaxy was in Amsterdam, he met Koreniuk’s agent for coffee. ‘He said I had a better chance of breaking into professional football at LA Galaxy than at Jong AZ.’

Zlatan and Chicharito

So at 21, Koreniuk moved to Los Angeles, where, as a player for LA Galaxy’s second team, he shared a house with five other players. ‘It felt a bit like a student house, with all those young guys,’ he says. ‘But life in Los Angeles is amazing, of course: you’ve got mountains, the beach. When we had a bit more free time, we’d go hiking. And every now and then we could go out.’

In 2019-2020, he was immediately named player of the year for the second team of America’s most successful club. ‘I scored a lot of goals and gave a lot of assists. I also trained with the first-team squad now and then, so the coaches got to know me. That’s how I was able to sign a professional contract with the first team. That was really one of the best moments of my career.’

LA Galaxy’s stands often feature famous Americans such as basketball player LeBron James and soccer star Alex Morgan, and Hollywood stars don’t have far to travel to catch a game.

‘Zlatan and Chicharito had an incredible drive to win’

At the time, some big names were walking around the club’s dressing room. Goals came from Mexican striker Javier Hernández, better known by his nickname Chicharito. Swedish superstar Zlatan Ibrahimović also played there before finishing his career at AC Milan. ‘When I was younger, I often watched their games on TV. It was very special to be on the pitch with them, and I look back on that with pride.’

What did he learn from the football greats? ‘They had an incredible drive to win. They motivated other players and made sure everyone stayed sharp. “Work even harder” was their message to the younger players. With their status and careers, there wasn’t much you could say back as a young player.’

Chartered accountant

Koreniuk spent three years as a professional at LA Galaxy. He played four matches for the first team and scored once. But then one injury followed another. His contract wasn’t renewed, and it was two and a half years before he could play football again. He still can’t fully straighten his right leg. He says he compensates by putting extra pressure on his left leg.

While looking for a new contract, Koreniuk went on trial at two professional clubs. ‘They thought I was a really good player. But they didn’t dare offer me a contract straight away, because it would take another year before I could play a full 90 minutes. And I had no desire to play amateur football. I figured a degree would get me much further in life.’

While at LA Galaxy, Koreniuk had studied physiotherapy in the evenings. ‘My mother is a physio, and because of my injuries I dealt with a lot of physios,’ he explains. But because he didn’t enjoy every part of the programme, he switched to business economics three years ago. After his master’s, he hopes eventually to qualify as a chartered accountant.

Basement division

At 28, Koreniuk is often the oldest student in the lecture halls at Radboud University. ‘Fellow students sometimes tell me I’m getting on a bit, but I can handle those kinds of jokes. I was a mentor during this year’s introduction week, which I thought would be a nice experience. At the same time it was confronting, because most of the new students were ten or eleven years younger than me.’

His classmates sometimes ask him about his football career. ‘Yes, the guys in particular think it’s really cool,’ he says. ‘They very often ask if I’ll play football with them. I can still do that a little, but I notice that I’ve been out of it for a while, and my knees are only at 70 to 80 percent. I still play matches in the fifth division, one of the lowest tiers of Dutch amateur football, for BVC’12 in Beek-Ubbergen. Technically I stand out, but of course I’m not as fit as I used to be.’

Koreniuk looks back on his football career with pride. ‘I got everything out of it that I wanted. I wanted to play and score in MLS (the top league in the US, ed.), and I did. Of course I’d have liked a longer career, but that wasn’t in my hands.’

He finds it hard to say how far he could have gone without the injury. ‘I don’t want to spend too many thoughts or emotions on what didn’t happen. I think I’d at least have had a good career in MLS or the Eredivisie. The Premier League or a World Cup might not have been on the cards, but a stable career at a high level probably would have.’