Zerfoss hits ground running with Serbia's top women's soccer club
Mar. 2—Kerri Zerfoss' foray into the world of international women's soccer is just getting started. But based on this weekend's results, it's going to be the adventure of a lifetime.
Playing for ZFK Spartak, the top team in the Serbian SuperLiga, Zerfoss made her professional debut in the team's first match of the season Sunday. She played 15 minutes in a 6-0 victory, putting the icing on the cake of a whirlwind several weeks that saw the Peabody native and former Pingree School star sign her first pro contract on February 9.
With just a week-and-a-half to pack, Zerfoss hopped on a plane for Serbia a few days after her 23rd birthday. Some 16 months after her last competitive soccer game at Northeastern University, she was back on the pitch doing what she loved.
"It's honestly the perfect set up," said Zerfoss. "You go through a few opportunities wondering, 'Is this the one?' This one was hard to turn down ... going for the adventure is what I'm most excited about."
Coming off a career year and All-CAA selection as a senior at Northeastern in 2019, Zerfoss got pulled away from the game. The combination of finishing up her studies and the pandemic made it tough to stay engaged, and once things opened up a bit last summer she joined NEFC North Shore as a youth coach.
Reconnecting with her high school soccer coach and NEFC boss Doc Simpson while also seeing the game through the eyes of young players she considers "little sisters" helped ignite the passion to get back on the pitch.
"I was living the game through coaching and started getting the urge to get back out there," said Zerfoss, who played in an informal summer league and stayed in shape working with Danvers' Epic Fitness.
"Doc helped put my name out there a little, and then I got an agent through a company a few of my Northeastern teammates went through. All of a sudden, there's an offer from a great team in Serbia."
The reigning Serbian national champions, ZFK Spartak just played in the Round of 32 in the prestigious UEFA women's Champions League. The 10-time Serbian national champions trace their roots back to the club's founding in 1970 and the former Yugoslavian women's league founded in 1975. They've won seven Serbian cups and certainly seem like the favorites for the upcoming '21 season.
"I'm excited to jump in ... to be on a team that's always competing for a top spot is really exciting," said Zerfoss, who will be learning to read and speak Serbian armed with a translator book her grandmother bought when she signed.
The team provides an apartment for her and has a couple of International players that'll make the transition a little smoother.
"I've never gone off and lived on my own, so in that sense this is all new and I'm kind of getting this life experience all at one time," she said.
It so happened that ZFK Spartak had an opening for a holding mid, Zerfoss' favorite and in her mind best position. It's the spot that made her an All-American, two-time Salem News Player of the Year and Salem News All-Decade honoree at Pingree, where she can use her offensive skills to push the ball forward and her defensive smarts to control the game's pacing.
"I love that position so much. You can see the whole game and control everything," she said. "It's definitely the most natural and most comfortable for me. I'm going in hoping to have fun, be able to play some in the air and get back to the core of how I love to play."
While Zerfoss will miss coaching her crew of ever improving 2008-born players, one of the coolest parts about turning pro has been hearing from her youngsters and proving to them that with hard work and determination, anything is possible.
"I just had a FaceTime with them the other day," Zerfoss said. "Its a little sad to be leaving them, but it's so great to be showing them that as a woman you can play pro sports. To be actually doing it is pretty amazing."
