Soccer: Former Bentonville standout to play professionally in Sweden

Tayler Estrada, a former soccer standout at Bentonville High and at Kansas, will head Friday to Sweden to begin a venture in women’s professional soccer.
Tayler Estrada, a former soccer standout at Bentonville High and at Kansas, will head Friday to Sweden to begin a venture in women’s professional soccer.

Tayler Estrada isn't ready for her soccer career to be over, even though her time as a collegiate player has already come to a close.

Instead, a new chapter begins for the former Bentonville High and Kansas standout. Estrada leaves early Friday morning for Visby, Sweden, where she will begin life as a professional player with the Visby P18 IK club.

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Tayler Estrada, a former soccer standout at Bentonville High and at Kansas, will head Friday to Sweden to begin a venture in women’s professional soccer.

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Tayler Estrada, a former soccer standout at Bentonville High and at Kansas, will head Friday to Sweden to begin a venture in women’s professional soccer.

At a glance

Tayler Estrada

HOMETOWN Bentonville

POSITION Midfielder

HEIGHT 5-7

NOTABLE A three-year starter at Kansas, where she served as team captain for two years and was named second-team All-Big 12 Conference selection her senior season. … Her 80 starts at Kansas was the eighth-most in program history, and her 6,578 career minutes ranks sixth in school history. … Was a four-time all-state player at Bentonville, where she helped the Lady Tigers win two state titles, and was named a three-time Arkansas girls soccer player of the year by Gatorade. … Finished her career at Bentonville with 62 goals and 50 assists, including 20 goals and 24 assists her senior season.

"I'm really excited to keep playing," Estrada said. "It's a huge step for me, and I'm trying to make the most of it. I would rather be playing soccer right now and having fun than having to quit and start doing grownup things.

"As a little girl, it was always on the back of my mind to play professional soccer. As I was finishing my senior season at Kansas, I started getting more serious about how I didn't want to stop playing. With all the hours I had put into the sport, I might as well play and make some money out of it."

Estrada went to Sweden as part of a U14 team in 2007, and she will return to that country thanks to Jakob Nilsson, who was one of her former club coaches. Nilsson, a native of Sweden, initiated the contact with the coaches there.

Estrada had been talking with the coaches since January and also sent them a highlight video so they could evaluate her. She received the phone call last week that they wanted her to come to Visby -- located on Gotland Island on the southeast end of Sweden -- and join the team, which plays in the highest level of competition in Sweden and is already in the middle of its season.

"The plan was to go at the end of July, but they wanted me a lot sooner," Estrada said. "They first asked me to leave Monday, but they pushed it back to Friday.

"I guess they will give me a couple of days to adjust to the time change and the surroundings, then have me start playing. I'm not really sure what they have planned for me. I would love to play center mid, but I'll play anywhere they tell me."

Since Estrada completed her collegiate eligibility with Kansas last fall, she kept her soccer talents in check by playing a trio of friendly matches last month with the Puerto Rican national team, of which she remains a team member. She's also continued to practice with the Kansas women's soccer team throughout the spring.

When she arrives in Sweden, Estrada will stay with a host family for the rest of the season. She said the biggest challenges that await her, besides the seven hours difference in time, is the language barrier she may face and the different style of play there.

"Tayler is definitely going to do fantastic," Bentonville coach Kristina Henry said. "She's going to love it. It's a great opportunity any time an athletes gets to go and play at the professional level. I mean, that's the dream.

"It's an awesome place to go. So many of the best women soccer players have gone through Sweden. Back in the day, that's where you went if you wanted to play professionally. They have a long history of producing high-level players. That's a huge step for her to go to do that."

Sports on 05/24/2017

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