A thousand miles and a thousand days later, it’s just the beginning for Stuart Ritchie
It had been 1,615 days since Stuart Ritchie left the United States at just 15 years old.
26 minutes had passed and the Kickers trailed South Georgia Tormenta FC by a goal at City Stadium.
Jonathan Bolanos collected a long ball from Leonardo Baima, held off a defender, and played in an onrushing Ritchie who met it with his right foot at the penalty spot.
Ritchie popped it over the diving Tormenta keeper at the near post and the Kickers drew level at 1-1. And while the 2-2 scoreline saw the points shared between the two teams, that contest was anything but a stalemate for the Kickers’ 20-year-old left back.
“It felt like everything I had worked towards paid off,” Ritchie said. “It’s always been a dream of mine, and it’s finally happened now.”
Over four years earlier, he was off for the Netherlands, exchanging the comforts of home in the Bay Area for an opportunity in the youth system at FC Groningen.
Naturally, the intercontinental transition was not an easy one for Ritchie, nor would it be for anyone. He left after just his sophomore year in high school, and seeing his friends back home at his prom and attending parties only made it tougher.
“It was difficult at first,” Ritchie said. “Obviously you wish you were there, and you wish you were still with your friends and family.”
Deep down, however, that was ultimately why he made the move, why he chose to chase his dreams abroad. Amid the pursuit of challenge, improvement and opportunity was a desire to lead a life unique to those he left behind.
“That’s always been a goal of mine,” Ritchie said. “I always want to be a little bit different than everyone else, and I think that’s what I found was the coolest thing about it.”
“Cool” and “different” hardly underscore exactly where his soccer career had taken him already. At Groningen, Ritchie was donning the same crest as names like Ronald Koeman, Arjen Robben, Luis Suárez and Virgil van Dijk had before him.
It didn’t stop there. Ritchie’s ascension garnered national team attention, earning him multiple call ups with the United States Youth National Team. He made a pair of appearances with the U18s in 2018 and one with the U20s in 2019.
“It’s every person’s dream to be there,” Ritchie said of the national team. “It was pretty much everything I was working towards as a youth player. I loved it so much.”
After two years in the Netherlands, he moved to Germany to join Hannover 96, playing more minutes than any other U19 player in the 2019-20 season. Ritchie even made the U23 squad at just 18 years old before the season was halted due to COVID-19.
While so much of his career still awaited him, Ritchie’s quest for a different life was already returning dividends. But as much as he craved deviation, he never let it cloud his appreciation and connection to where it all started.
Finding his feet
Kevin Crow is the technical director at Ballistic United, Ritchie’s youth soccer club just five minutes from his home in Pleasanton, CA. Home once for a holiday break, Ritchie took the opportunity to speak with the kids at his childhood club – an opportunity Crow said he absolutely loved.
“He was great at it because he was them 10 years ago,” Crow said. “He enjoyed sharing his story because you never know who’s going to take that spark and run with it.”
“It was everything for me,” Ritchie said. “I was lucky I had a good organization in my city. Good players. Good people around it. The setup was amazing.”
He spent nearly 10 years with Ballistic United, including a stint with the San Jose Earthquakes academy. And while Crow joked that size was never an asset of Ritchie’s during his time at Ballistic, eventually talents like him need something bigger to continue their development.
“Our job is to nurture and develop the player,” Crow said. “If he needs to outgrow your club to get to that next level, that’s our responsibility to help him do that.”
What Ritchie will never outgrow, though, is his status as a younger brother. That natural drive to “catch up” with your older brother is something Crow noticed in Ritchie almost immediately.
It’s an aspect of his personality that Crow believes served him well in Europe, where the training is centered around staying on your feet as the game is intentionally sped up around you.
“Seems like there’s a benefit to being the younger brother sometimes,” Crow said. “You’re always challenging yourself, trying to keep up. [In Europe], you’ve got to figure out ways to survive. Otherwise, you’re going to end up on your backside.”
There and back again
Playing with his brother in the backyard is where Ritchie said he fell in love with the game. Even as he was taking his first touches, those moments served him well over a decade later, both 5,500 miles from home and now in his new home in Richmond.
Ritchie suffered an ACL injury the season after his stellar 2019-20 season with Hannover, keeping him out for the majority of the year. He completed his rehab in Germany before working with his agent to find his next landing spot.
Preferably for him, it would involve a move back home to the United States. Between injury and the pandemic, it had been over two years since Ritchie played in a competitive match.
He said the conversations with his agent were all about finding the best place to kick-start his career again. After meetings with head coach Darren Sawatzky and head assistant coach Mika Elovaara, Ritchie said it became clear that place was in Richmond with the Kickers.
“The culture here is unreal,” Ritchie said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better place to come play professionally. I couldn’t be happier about it.”
When asked for his favorite match he ever played in, Ritchie gave two answers, unable to put one above the other. The first was his inaugural appearance with the USYNT. But the second answer was his Kickers’ debut – a 4-0 victory on April 2 against FC Tucson.
Not only was it Ritchie’s first game with his new club, it was also his first match as a professional. It was his first action in his home country in almost five years. It was his first competition since suffering a season-ending ACL injury. It was his first taste of first-team soccer.
“It’s pretty surreal to be back in America,” Ritchie said of his debut. “I had to work so long to get to that point. It just meant so much. Everything kind of fell into place coming here, meeting the guys, meeting the players.”
The only first that was left for Ritchie was netting his first professional goal – a breakthrough that came just 63 days after his Kickers’ debut. It’s a moment that brings us back to the top, a moment that represents a journey far longer than just 1,615 days or 5,500 miles.