Hungarian soccer’s Winnipeg connection

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This article was published 06/05/2021 (1876 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For as long as she can remember, Chandra Bednar loved soccer. She played it, obsessed about it but never thought about it as a ticket to a better life.

“I grew up in a really rough neighbourhood in Winnipeg — North End, Manitoba Housing, single mom,” she says. “It was really tough growing up and I had a lot of opportunity to go the wrong way.”

To blaze a fresh trail, Bednar needed to take three buses from home in the Weston neighbourhood to get to a better school, Garden City Collegiate. At 15, with the blessing of her mom, Kimberly Morden, she enrolled at Soccer’s Best Academy as a way to focus her interest in the game.

She says Alex Esteves, founder and head coach of the academy, was instrumental in her development, giving her reason to believe she hadn’t reached her limits.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do with soccer, I just loved it so much and I would always play on the street or anywhere I could,” says Bednar, a goalkeeper.

“I met Alex and his program really gave me like the idea that I could go to school on a scholarship. I didn’t care about school. I had really bad grades and he actually gave me like this dream, this thought, and he helped me get a scholarship to an NCAA Division 1 (school) in Texas.”

A successful four-year career at the University of Texas at El Paso and a psychology degree followed.

“It’s funny because I wasn’t a good student in high school but in university I feel like I learned how to like transfer over my hard work in football,” says Bednar, 30. “I know I can work hard in soccer, but I didn’t know how to use it in school and in university I actually got all A’s. It was a big turnaround.”

After college, professional opportunities in Europe beckoned. She spent four years with three teams in Sweden, winning a league title with Linköpings FC, before signing with Ferencváros TC, a Budapest-based club in Hungary’s top league last year.

A decade ago, the prospect of earning a decent paycheque in the women’s game was a pipe dream.

Now, Bednar and another Soccer’s Best alum, Caroline Kehrer, are the beneficiaries of a pro game that has exploded in Europe. Top players can earn upwards of C$80,000 per season playing for the best teams.

“I’ve been playing professionally for six years and the amount it’s grown over the past two years is insane,” says Bednar. “Even this past contract I just got was, I was definitely very happy with it and I could live off of it very comfortably and also save a lot, which is great because I’m getting to be older.”

Kehrer, who’s in her first pro season after a four-year career at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, started the season with Alborg in Denmark before moving to Ferencváros in February.

“It’s been cool to have that kind of mentor and also now also a friend,” says Kehrer.

The 24-year-old forward grew up in River Heights and went to Kelvin High School. A love of sports was ingrained from an early age.

Her dad played minor pro hockey, sister Kaitlin played NAIA soccer at Cumberland University in Tennesse and brother Anthony recently completed his freshman season on the University of Wisconsin hockey team.

Competition was a constant in the Kehrer household.

“We were always like just kind of pushing each other growing up and then a couple of my friends joined Soccer’s Best, then we switched from club soccer to just playing for Soccer’s Best,” says Kehrer. “That’s kind of what I realized when Alex saw something in me and said that I could kind of keep going and do something more than just playing in Winnipeg.

“My dad played college and professional hockey as well, so my parents (dad Glenn and mom Kim) were definitely a big part in keeping us active and pushing us to do more with our sport. That’s where our love for sports came for all three of us.”

Though her upbringing was not as modest as Bednar’s, Kehrer also needed a nudge in the right direction, a reason to believe in herself.

“I think they were honestly just a competitive athletic family,” says Esteves. “She came and she never thought she was good enough and that’s what I get a lot from these kids. They don’t think that they’re good enough to go get a scholarship.”

Keher completed a psychology degree at UAB and moved on to the next chapter of her life, stopping first at Aalborg (also the home club of Winnipeg Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers) before Ferencváros. Kehrer has scored twice since joining her new team, which currently sits second in the league table and is a top contender to claim the league title later this month.

The six-year age gap that meant they were only acqaintances at the academy seems to have evaporated since they became teammates.

“It’s funny because now playing with her we’ve had such a different experience,” says Bednar. “I’ve gotten to know Caroline more as a teammate and a friend and it’s really nice, just knowing her from that little girl to playing with her (now) is pretty awesome.”

Living and working in Budapest, one of Europe’s great cities, has some definite perks.

The lower cost of living is welcome and so too are the benefits of playing on a culturally diverse team, with players coming from Portugal, Slovenia, Bosnia, Estonia and the U.S. on the squad.

“We’ve had awesome experiences with teammates,” says Kehrer. “I think one of the big positives of experiencing professional life is we’ve met so many people and there’s so many girls from different countries.”

Both Bednar and Kehrer readily accept their positions as role models for female players coming up through the system. Kehrer is in the early stages of her pro career but Bednar isn’t willing to limit herself although she envisions herself as a future coach.

“I still feel like a young kid at heart,” says Bednar. “I am still learning and I’m still experiencing new things in this game and I want to continue to do that, I’m hoping, for at least six or seven more years.”

On the downside, the club’s powerhouse status can make life on the pitch lonely for the No. 1 keeper. Ferencváros has lost only once in 19 league games and outscored its opposition 73-15. On Wednesday, the Ferencváros women thrashed Astra 5-1 in the Hungarian Cup final, winning the trophy for the sixth consecutive time.

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Considering the longevity of her career, it’s surprising Bednar has not garnered more recognition at the national team level.

She attended one Team Canada evaluation camp when she was younger but expresses frustration over a disconnect with the national team. To her, the politics of the Canadian program is an ongoing source of frustration.

“It’s been my dream to play for Canada but now I think the next dream is to play for one of the biggest clubs in women’s football like in England, Germany, France or Italy,” says Bednar, who has one year left on her current contract. “I want to play for a big club in my career there… because (Team) Canada has been not so welcoming.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14