Giving 100 Percent

Alex Nitzl came to College Park in the spring of 2021 as a 20-year old freshman from Munich, Germany who knew no one and whose first language was not English. Now, over two-and-a-half years later, Nitzl serves as the captain for a historic Maryland men’s soccer program that has reached 22 consecutive NCAA tournaments. 

“Alex is the total package. He's one of the best leaders I've had in my 31 years coaching. He has this incredible ability to care for everyone on the team and also to be the first person to serve them, to nurture them, and to challenge them. And that's very unique.” 

“He’s not afraid to be outgoing; he’s not afraid to say stuff that people might not like to hear,” senior goalkeeper Jamie Lowell said of Nitzl. “He’s empathetic, he knows what the guys are going through, but at the same time he knows what it takes for us to reach our ultimate goals and he’s not afraid to point out what we have to do to get there.”

Nitzl barely remembers a time where he wasn’t playing soccer, picking up the sport at a young age thanks to his older brother, Tobias, and his neighbors. They would play in the Munich streets, school, and at their local club—really whenever and wherever they could.

“It was just all your best friends playing soccer together all the time; it was great,” Nitzl said.

At the age of 13, Nitzl transferred to the worldly-renowned Bayern Munich club—albeit with small expectations. 

“When I got there, I figured I might as well give it a shot but I didn’t think I was going to play or stay there long. I thought I was going to go right back to the boys at home. But then it turned out a little differently.”

Nitzl ended up excelling at Bayern, making 84 appearances for the club’s U-19 and U-17 teams while also helping the U-19 team advance to the 2018 UEFA Youth League Round of 16. Additionally, he played for Germany at the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup, appearing in all five matches to help Germany make the quarterfinals, and helped Germany advance to the semifinals of the 2017 UEFA European U-17 Championships.

Nitzl played with Bayern for five years before he decided it was time for a change. He had dreams of becoming a professional and with Bayern regarded as one of the best soccer clubs in, not just Germany, but in the entire world, that was going to be difficult to accomplish. 

As a result, Nitzl decided to take his talents to TSG Hoffenheim where he helped their U-19 team advance to the UEFA Youth League semifinals. Unfortunately, once Nitzl had to move up to the U-23 team, playing time became hard to find and he started to search for other playing options.

It was a friend who first approached him about potentially going to the United States and playing college soccer—an idea Nitzl was strongly opposed to at first because of his age. Eventually, however, he started looking into it more and more and slowly started to come around. His friend helped him put together a highlight reel that they emailed to various coaching staffs and, soon enough, Nitzl was on Zoom calls with coaches.

As he started to narrow down his list of schools, one stood out from the rest.

“Whenever I thought of college it had three components to me: soccer, academics and lifestyle,” Nitzl said. “I wasn’t going to America to live in the middle of nowhere. Having DC so close to campus, being such a strong academic school, and having the best soccer program in the culture, Maryland was clearly the best fit for me.”

The adjustment wasn’t always an easy one. When Nitzl arrived, he immediately had to go to a two-week quarantine. Then, interactions with his new peers began and the language barrier started to come into play. Nitzl spoke some English, but it still came with plenty of troubles.

“We’d be in group settings with loud music and tons of people talking in different slangs and I would have no idea what was going on,” he laughed.

Day by day, Nitzl found more and more comfort in his new surroundings—and he learned more and more about himself along the way.

“It was definitely a challenge and sometimes it could be a little scary, but it helped me grow a lot,” Nitzl said of the adjustment. “At the end of the day, it was like I got a second chance to ask myself who I wanted to be. I got to redefine myself a little. It was really a beautiful thing.”

The person that Nitzl has grown into on the field is a star left back turned midfielder who has become the team’s beating heart. Over his three seasons as a Terp, Nitzl has started 39 of the 41 matches he’s appeared in. During the 2022 campaign, he was named the team’s Big Ten Sportsmanship Award winner. And now, as the Terps prepare for their season opener in 2023, he is serving as the team captain and ready for a standout senior season.

Nitzl’s success largely hinges on two factors: his prior experience playing against the best of the best in Germany and his relentless work ethic.

“He’s come from some of the best clubs in the world,” Lowell said. “So before you even meet the guy, you see he’s played against some of the best players in the world, and he has your respect right from the get-go. And then you see how hard he trains, how much work he puts in, and you respect him that much more.”

In the Big Ten, one of the toughest soccer conferences in the country, his playing experiences as a teenager come back to assist him and to help him steady the team.

“I played in a lot of really competitive games with a lot of really high stakes,” Nitzl said. “I played against a lot of insanely good players who are now making millions of dollars. Having that experience helped me be prepared for all different situations.”

“College soccer is definitely different from European soccer,” he added. “But when you break it down, it’s all soccer. So the more games you play, the more high-stakes situations you get experience with, that all translates.”

Initially feeling a bit like a fish out of water in the American college environment, Nitzl has turned himself into a star—on and off the field. In addition to all his soccer success, he has completely ingrained himself in college life. From memberships in World Wide Terps, SAAC and the InTERPship program, to forming relationships with seemingly every student-athlete on campus, Nitzl has made it his mission to experience as many aspects of college as he possibly can.

“I’m here so I want to live it to the fullest. How am I supposed to figure out what I like if I don’t try as much as I can? So while I’m here, I’m going to give it 100 percent at everything I can. That’s something I was always taught growing up from my parents and my coaches.”

“He's very appreciative of the opportunity he has here and he genuinely wants the full experience," Cirovski added. "And he's getting it. He's special." 

And while he continues to sort out his future aspirations with the help of all the programs Maryland has to offer, Nitzl is locked in on leading the Terps to championships in his final season in a Maryland uniform. 

“I think we have something special here,” he said of this year’s squad. “We have a lot of moving parts right now because there’s so many new faces filling new roles, but we have a lot of quality players. We have three titles on the line and we want to compete for each one of them.” 

To achieve those championship aspirations, Niztl’s leadership and role as a captain will be crucial. 

Fortunately, it’s a role that Nitzl embraces. 

“I want to be the captain that helps the group go in the right direction and who makes sure that everyone stays on board. I don’t want to be a captain of a team where some people fall off. It’s tough during a long season, but my goal is for us to stay as connected as possible when we hit obstacles. And I think we can do that.”