RENTON — Once Steve Zakuani decided he wanted to turn professional as a college sophomore, he was certain where he wanted to go.
“Seattle,” said the nation’s leading scorer last fall at the University of Akron, after one of the first practices in the history of Seattle Sounders FC. “I knew I wouldn’t be the only new guy. It’s something that’s a brand-new project, and there’s a buzz.
“It’s nice to be part of the buzz.”
Buzz hit Zakuani like a corner kick in January when the expansion Sounders made him the first overall selection in Major League Soccer’s SuperDraft.
“It was hard just because I wasn’t sure if I needed one more year of college,” said Zakuani (Zak-uh-WAH-nee), who was born in Congo, raised in London and had 20 goals and seven assists in 23 games with Akron last season. “I thought about it and decided to make the jump.”
Though one of the youngest players for the Sounders at 20, Zakuani is on a team where everyone is essentially a new guy. But on a roster that includes 39-year-old U.S. World Cup goalkeeper Kasey Keller and international star Freddie Ljungberg from Sweden, Zakuani is one who is new to the pro game.
And it didn’t take long to see that the pro game is new to him.
“It was a lot faster — (and) it wasn’t as fast as it’s going to be,” Zakuani said of early practices before Seattle’s new era of soccer begins March 19 against New York at Qwest Field. “It’s just something I have to adapt to and learn.”
Sounders coach Sigi Schmid is willing to help Zakuani navigate that learning curve. Schmid sees him having a long, successful career.
“He has a huge upside, the potential to be different, an outstanding type of player,” said Schmid, the second-winningest coach in MLS history (113 victories) who had his choice of every eligible player in the Jan. 15 draft and went with Zakuani. “That’s what made him the No. 1 pick. And from what we’ve seen in training only confirms that.”
Schmid said after a week of drills Zakuani is learning mistakes get punished more quickly on the field in the pro game, and that he has to adjust physically to the faster pace.
“I think physically he still has an upward range and he is working toward that,” Schmid said this week. “What I have been pleased with is he has come out with a bright attitude everyday, worked hard everyday and that is all I can ask for. His talent and his ability to run with the ball and take people on is there. He is keeping possession, which is something I told him I needed him to do. Once his fitness catches up to him his timing will be good and he will get some goals.”
Zakuani was a finalist for the 2008 Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy, soccer’s equivalent of college football’s Heisman Trophy. He played seven years on the youth teams of Arsenal, a power in the English Premier League. He then played at the Independent Football Academy in London from 2003-07.
That was where an Akron assistant coach saw him. So what that the Zips’ coach had come to watch one of Zakuani’s teammates.
“I was just there that day, and I must have done well, because we were just speaking and they offered me a scholarship,” Zakuani said. “I’d never heard of Akron. I still don’t know what a Zip is.”
The school’s unusual nickname originated in 1926 as the “Zippers,” named for a popular rubber shoe of that time invented by Akron’s B.F. Goodrich Co. Akron’s mascot is “Zippy,” a kangaroo.
In two years of not knowing exactly what he was while a Zip, Zakuani tallied 27 goals — including 10 game-winners — with nine assists.
It wasn’t until early January that Zakuani finally decided to make the jump to pro and signed a contract with the Generation Adidas program for young prospects. About a week later, he was on his way to the Sounders.
“It’s just starting to sink in,” he said through a cold fog after the Sounders’ practice at the headquarters of the NFL’s Seahawks. “My first day here, I went downtown. It seems like a less-busy version of London. And the weather seems a lot like home.”
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