Marco Pašalić takes unlikely path to Orlando City: "I believe" | OneFootball

By Charles Boehm

He’s been in central Florida for almost three months, and Marco Pašalić is experiencing the sweaty sensation that hits so many new Sunshine State arrivals as daily high temperatures steadily tick upwards, and Orlando’s mild spring melts into those infamous simmering summers.

“I can say that it's really hot,” the Croatian winger told MLSsoccer.com with a smile this week, as he and his teammates prepare to welcome their Southern antagonists Atlanta United to Inter&Co Stadium on Saturday evening (7:15 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+; FOX, FOX Deportes).

“It's strange for me, because I lived my whole life in Europe, and Europe is my home, but I think it's nice and a good experience to see some other places in the world. And I think football connects, everywhere.”

Quick adjustment

After a reported $5 million transfer from Croatia's HNK Rijeka to become Orlando City SC’s newest Designated Player, Pašalić must navigate the learning curve of a new city, new league and a new club with a distinctly Latin American character, thanks to the Lions’ Colombian head coach Oscar Pareja and half the first-team squad hailing from Conmebol countries.

“We were in some points surprised how quickly he adapted to the team, and his production was early, so good,” Pareja said on Thursday. “I really admire those players that come into a country that they didn't know and immediately they just gel with everybody. He has done a great job in that part.”

Pašalić is quickly picking up some Spanish to add to the three languages already under his belt.

“Maybe because I learned so much languages, maybe it's easier for me, but Spanish is easy, I think, when you connect with the language, and when you speak more,” Pašalić said, flashing a solid grasp of North American slang by noting the importance of pushing through the “cringe” sensation when practicing a new tongue.

“The most important thing is that you are brave to speak, you're not shy, and when you're not shy, then I think everything in life is going easier.”

Forging ahead

Those are words to live by in the Pašalić clan. Cultural immersion, a new lingua franca on the pitch and stifling tropical humidity are unlikely to faze a son of exiles who’s already weathered a range of personal and professional adversity in his 24 years on earth.

Born and raised in Karlsruhe, Germany, after his parents emigrated to take refuge from the brutal wars that tore apart the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Marco and his two brothers were raised with both gratitude for their adopted nation and a deep love of the homeland they were forced to leave behind.

His creativity and nose for goal took him to the academy systems of Karlsruher SC, SV Sandhausen and TSG Hoffenheim in his youth, then a stint with VfB Stuttgart’s second team before a move to Borussia Dortmund’s reserve side at age 20. As he pursued a pro career, he decided to call time on his education at roughly the equivalent of a high-school diploma, which prompted a weighty chat with his dad.

“So then my father says, 'What now? You cannot sit the whole day at home and not work,'” explained Pašalić. “And my brother had this construction company, and then I had to go to work with him and to be with him, because at home, sitting, it's not the mentality of us, you know?”

Path less traveled

After training at his club, the teenage Pašalić would report to work sites, building out interiors, installing flooring or siding, repairing water damage, cleaning up graffiti – “we did everything,” he said – for a variety of clients like Kaufland, a Walmart-like German chain store. Sometimes he’d take on graveyard shifts, working until 3 or 4 am, thankful his brother would give him time off to rest before that day’s training session.

“To the other workers I’d say, ‘I will play one day for the Croatian national team,’” he recalled with a grin. He nurtured that aspiration by traveling across the Old Continent to attend the team’s matches, like just another hardcore supporter of the Vatreni.

“I was in London, I was in Saint Etienne, in France. I was really a fan,” he added, “and then it's more beautiful, the story that I achieved my dream.”

A strong start to life at BVB earned him a quick call to then-manager Marco Rose’s first team, where he made his debut in the 2021 German SuperCup against Bayern Munich, substituting in for US international and New York City FC academy product Gio Reyna. A role in one of Europe’s biggest clubs felt tantalizingly close.

But then – as with Reyna, too – a sequence of injuries killed that momentum, driving his career down a frustrating cul-de-sac.

“He was a good player, but I don't see so much from him because we both were injured, but he had more injuries through the years,” Pašalić recalled of Reyna. “And I think it's sad, because I know the feeling when you are so long injured, and you're not in the team, and then especially, you are not at your home.

“You feel sad, you feel kind of depressed because you cannot do anything. You are every day in rehabilitation, you have no family, if you know friends, you cannot go like you did it in your home country, [to] go with your friends to drink a coffee or something, to put it off, so you don't think about the injury or about training.”

Returning home

When his contract expired, BVB offered only a second-team deal. Pašalić craved something more and was prepared to take a risk to find it. In June 2023, he signed with Rijeka, a move that carried aspects both pragmatic (better prospects of regular minutes) and romantic (reconnecting with his motherland).

It was also all too easy for some observers to criticize as well, given the SuperSport HNL’s lower profile compared to the mighty Bundesliga.

“The good thing was that I had this experience. The bad thing is that I had these injuries. So from Dortmund, I can only say, 'OK, I have it in my CV,'” he explained. “I lose much time there, and the people, when I change the clubs, when I go to Croatia, to my home country, everybody was speaking bad: ‘What do you want there? It's not good for you, and this is a step back’ and everything.

“But I'm this type of guy, I do my thing and what happened, happened.”

Pašalić took Croatia’s top flight by storm, finding his form and vaulting onto the national team’s radar. He credits Sergej Jakirović, his first coach at Rijeka, with helping him regain his confidence, and a solid season eventually earned him a place on manager Zlatko Dalić’s Euro 2024 squad. He made his international debut in their famous checkerboard kits and scored his first goal last summer, the sweetest redemption imaginable.

“When I moved to Croatia, after three months, I was a member of the Croatian national team, and nobody in the Croatian league ever did this like me. I'm the first one who got to the national team so fast,” he said. “This is a good lesson. When it seems like a step back, maybe you make two steps forward.

“When it's not good, you have to accept that better times are coming. Like I had my injuries in Dortmund, and then I go to Croatia, and the door was open for me, and then made my Croatian national team debut … It’s patience and believing in the positive.”

Croatian pride

Off the pitch, he lived out a joyous homecoming, diving into his heritage firsthand after all those years abroad, a deep sense of place and patriotism that many expatriates can relate to.

“In every interview I speak about it, this love that I feel for my country and for the people. This, I cannot describe it,” Pasalic continued. “This is what I feel. I'm grateful, thankful for Germany that I grew up there. But this love what I get when I get to Croatia, when I get back home – and from the first day – this was a special feeling.

“It's like you get home to your mother, where you feel the love,” he said. “Then when you cross the border with the car, then it's another feeling – you know this is home. It feels like, for me, it's pure love.”

Still, when Orlando came calling, he did not hesitate to set course on a new adventure – even if he admits “my mother is sad that I'm not in Europe” – and early returns are promising, with four goals and an assist in his first five MLS appearances, one of them an AT&T Goal of the Matchday winner.

His underlying numbers are solid, too: Last week Orlando City’s communication department noted that Pašalić ranked in the 99th percentile in non-penalty goals, 91st percentile in expected goals and 94th percentile in successful take-ons among attacking midfielders and wingers, according to Football Reference’s data heading into Matchday 9.

Pašalić and his fellow Lions have lost some momentum across three consecutive 0-0 draws, the last two colored by unhelpful red cards. This weekend’s visit from struggling ATL UTD, a matchup that’s generated its share of heat over the years, presents a timely opportunity to spark an attack that racked up 15 goals in their first six matches.

“We all feel, and he may feel it too, that he needs to start scoring,” said Pareja of Pašalić, “but I keep on admiring the way he has adapted to the team. It's just eight, nine games, and he's already scoring goals, and now he understands that he's heavy in the team.”

Though he prefers to produce on the field rather than make predictions, Pašalić likes what he sees at OCSC. His own path to this point has taught him to dream without limits.

“Everything is possible. You don't know what can happen,” he said. “I came from the third [division in Germany], then I was at the Euros in the summer with Croatia. Nobody believes; I believe. So I believe. I don't know what time brings.”