Three international students are playing soccer at AACC this semester.

Paul Zimmerman, a first-year business management student from Cologne, Germany, and Cheik Kangoute, a first-year English student from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, are both new to American soccer.

Still, Zimmerman, a midfielder, said, “It’s actually quite the same” as soccer in Germany.

“It’s not a culture shock,” Zimmerman said. “I [played] soccer for basically all my life, so I knew what was going to happen if I joined the soccer team here.”

Kangoute, a winger, disagreed.

He said soccer is “very different” compared with how the sport is played in the Ivory Coast. “We play soccer everywhere,” Kangoute, who arrived in the U.S. in the summer, said. “[I] don’t have to learn. I just play.”

Both students came to AACC for soccer and college. Jayeim Blake, a second-year kinesiology student and returning goalkeeper, is also an international student, from Trinidad and Tobago.

Zimmerman said he likes playing soccer in the U.S. “I like everything,” Zimmerman said. “It’s like … the different culture. … I like speaking English, of course.”

Kangoute agreed, adding, “I love my team.”

Head men’s soccer coach Drew Belcher said “it’s fantastic” having foreign players on the team. Belcher added: “Any time you can get a different methodology of teaching and learning and playing, you can bring that into your team at high levels. It’s great.”

According to Belcher, a lot of international college students play soccer because it’s the most popular sport in the world.