Maurice Dugan finds happiness in the United States of America

The former Kirchheimer standout broke out in college football — he was voted Defensive Player of the Year.

Kirchheimer – As a young footballer and in the National League he played for the Kirchheimer team – and now Maurice Dugan (23 years old) is working on his professional career in the USA.

When Maurice Duggan said goodbye to Kirchheimer’s NFL team in August 2021 (we reported), he took a college football adventure and jumped into the deep end. He did not dare to dream of a professional soccer career in the United States. And now, two and a half years later, that dream is taking concrete form: the central defender has a very good chance of making it to the second-tier USL Championship.

“The plan was in danger of failing at the beginning of the semester, then everything took a strange turn, and very unexpectedly, things went well for me,” says the 23-year-old in an interview with Munchner Merkur. After Athletes USA, the world’s leading US athletic scholarship agency, placed him at Francis Marion University in South Carolina, it was found that Duggan did not meet certain academic requirements for his degree (Bachelor’s in Business Administration) and was therefore initially banned as a football player. “But I wanted to start right away,” he recalls. To ensure this, the only option was to transfer to Iowa Lakes Community College. Duggan: I played well right away and drew attention to myself. Then I accepted the offer to transfer to Marshall University in West Virginia and Division I after the season, and I didn’t have to think about it for long.

The varsity team won the 2021 College Cup national championship and begins the current season with Maurice Duggan as captain – the 1.92-metre defensive performer was also named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. This weekend, ‘The Herd’ will start in the second round of the NCCA National Playoffs as the number one seeded team.

A recent back injury has sidelined Duggan, but he is fit again in time for the season’s highlight and is determined to reach the final on December 11 with his teammates. He then tackles the next challenge and is drafted into Major League Soccer (MLS). “However, each MLS club is allowed to have a maximum of eight international players in the squad – this makes it difficult to secure a contract as these spots are already filled with stars from abroad,” Duggan sees League Two as the most realistic target. : “My chances are almost 100 percent.”

Then there will be another move, this time with his girlfriend Halle (20 years old): “She definitely wants to come, she’s already said so!”

The two met on campus about a year ago and recently returned from a trip to Europe. The 23-year-old visits his parents in Kirchheim once or twice a year and enjoys his life in the land of unlimited possibilities.

To this day, he has not regretted his decision to seek his fortune in the USA, and there is no alternative plan for him at the moment. Maurice Dugan not only learns something new every day during his studies: “With all the teams I played for, football has a very international feel and I meet a lot of interesting people.”

West Virginia University team captain