Alexa Maletis’ morning routine is pretty standard.
The former Marquette women’s soccer defender wakes up around nine o’clock, makes her cup of coffee and reads some pages of the book she’s working through. Not long after, she packs her bag and begins her 20-minute walk to work.
Here’s where the standard ends.
Her work? Professional soccer. Where she does it? Few could pinpoint it on a map. Her walk? “Absolutely gorgeous.”
On her stroll, she sees two mountain ranges, rolling fir trees and never-ending green plateaus. The same ones Julie Andrews spun through while singing of her lonely heart in “The Sound of Music.”
Maletis walks past the views on her way to morning training for FC Pinzgau: a soccer team in Saalfelden, Austria that she has been playing for since August. And she’s not the only Marquette alum on the roster. Mikki Easter, a goalkeeper, is in her second season at the club. Both spent time playing for the Golden Eagles from 2020-2023.
Two blue & gold marks on a soccer club an ocean away — in a town that’s name would take any American a couple seconds to pronounce (Zal-fell-din).
Saalfelden is a 17,000-person city nestled between two mountain ranges in the southwest corner of the country near the German border — about an hour south of Salzburg.
This move was easier for Maletis than the one from Sunnyvale, California to Marquette. She’s gotten comfortable with the new 6,000-mile distance because of the goals propelling the journey.
“It was one of those things I’ve been dreaming about,” Maletis said. “So actually having the opportunity to do it… the first couple nights adjusting to the jet lag is always difficult… but after that I felt like this was the right place for me to be.”
As far back as she can remember, Maletis has had soccer on the brain. In first and second grade, she wrote papers about what she wanted to be when she grew up and her answer was always a soccer player.
Her dream is to make it back to California to play for San Jose Bay FC, whose stadium is about 10 miles from Sunnyvale.
American pro level teams often look for players that have video and stats from a level higher than Division I soccer, which brings many Americans overseas to play in Europe to accrue experience and accolades. This trend is no different for Maletis at FC Pinzgau.
In the past couple years, it has been a winning formula for the club.
In 2022, FC Pinzgau was part of Austrian soccer’s third division, the Bundesliga 3. That year, they finished well enough to be promoted to the second division: Bundesliga 2, where the team currently sits with nine American players on the roster. Through eight games, it’s fourth in the division at 17 points (four behind first).
Now that the club has tasted promotion, there was never a doubt it would keep working to move up the totem. It’s exactly the environment in which Maletis can gain the experience necessary to make it to San Jose.
“That was really important for me when I was comparing that to some other places: the trajectory of where they can go,” Maletis said. “I believed in the philosophy of where this team was going.”
In May, Maletis visited Saalfelden for the first time.
She stayed with Easter for a week, who showed her around town, and also met the team. They welcomed her in immediately, spending time getting to know her before she went back to California to mull her options.
Around three months later, despite other contract offers, Maletis was back in Austria.
She still had to become acquainted with European soccer, though, whose unpredictable style differs from the American game and challenged her.
One of the captains of FC Pinzgau, a centerback and close friend of Maletis,’ Amber Huff, described it as not knowing what an opponent will do on the pitch in a one versus one. In America, she might pass the ball out or try and drive through, but in Europe, she’ll chip it over the defender or bicycle kick to the midfield.
“What’s successful in college is a different standard than what’s successful or works in the Bundesliga,” Huff said, who has been on the team since 2023, the only American returning for that long.
Maletis is often an outlet for Huff’s passes because Maletis can create space and take the ball down the line. In FC Pinzgau’s must-win game against Grazer AK (an eastern Austria team) on Oct. 5, Maletis showed that she’s an asset to the club.
After a couple of Pinzgau passes through the midfield, the ball was floated to the right side to an open Maletis. She worked it further up the sideline and punted a cross-field shot to connect with one of her teammates who used a sprinting back post to tip it in.
“It was perfectly executed,” Maletis said simply. “It shifted the momentum (of the game).”
A celebration, which Maletis and her teammates had practiced, followed the score and FC Pinzgau won that game 3-2. Of course, a locker room celebration was in order — as it is after every Pinzgau win. This includes a dance party accompanied by DJ Khalid’s All I Do is Win.
Maletis started in all of FC Pinzgau’s first five games and played all 90 minutes in each one.
“I’ve been a really consistent player,” Maletis said.
She plays at the right outside back position and when the team occasionally modifies formation, she becomes more of a wing mid.
“Recently, she’s been able to be fueled down the line, either passing to teammates or just with her speed alone,” Huff said. “It’s good to see her opening up, taking people on and creating opportunities for herself and others in the final third.
“She’s coming out of her shell in that way: getting the confidence to take people on and do her thing.”
Maletis and her teammates will arrive early before their morning and evening practices, making time to talk in the locker room. Sometimes one of Maletis’ friends will bring homemade pastries to share. Cupcakes and conversation have been a catalyst for the friends Maletis has made in the club.
Chatter is seemingly difficult because the Austrian players all speak German as their first language. But they switch to English to invite Maletis into the conversation. They’ll talk about their day or plans for later that night, to which they invite her.
“That’s been huge,” Maletis said, “because that’s the only way I’ve been able to build friendships with them.”
The group went to Oktoberfest in Munich and one friend let Maletis borrow her traditional Austrian dress to fit in with the culture. On other weekends, they play cards, Just Dance and Mario Kart at one of their apartments.
But through all the fun, there are still times when Maletis struggles with being an ocean away from family.
She talks with her parents at least once a week, if not more often. She takes that time to tell them what she’s been up to, but also ask what she’s sadly missed out on back at home — like weddings, birthday parties and other family gatherings.
So, she turns to Easter: the best friend she shared Milwaukee with for four years. The one who tutored her through undergrad.
“Having someone to lean on during some of the hard days and some of the homesickness is really cool,” Maletis said. “It’s a blessing.”
Now Maletis gets to share Austria with Easter as roommates. They work out together and are binging through multiple Halloween-themed shows on Netflix — Maletis likes to get an early start to the fall holiday.
Easter has a hard time believing they’ve known each other for six years. She certainly knows how Maletis has matured.
“I’ve seen her grow into a confident leader,” Easter said. “I’m seeing that step out a little bit more here too, because — she probably won’t say it herself — but she steps into this confidence and this verbal leader (role) and is also a leader of action.”
Despite all the fun Maletis has during the weekends, she still enjoys her time alone. She calls them ‘dates with herself.’
She hops on one of the buses or trains that comes through Saalfelden to take day trips and explore new parts of the region. She has been to Sankt Joann to hike through caverns and Salzburg for dinner to walk around the gardens in the city.
“My phone was at 10 percent, I didn’t bring a charger, I had 40 euros and a bus pass and thought, ‘Well, I guess we’ll see where this takes me,’” Maletis said.
During this time alone, she likes listening to music and being with her thoughts. This has given her time to think about the future she hopes to have after this season.
On Nov. 9, FC Pinzgau will play its final game of the year and Maletis will have a choice: continue trying to get contracts to play soccer in Europe or pursue a career with her master’s in athletic training. If she sticks with soccer, her current plan, she’ll have an opportunity in December to resign for FC Pinzgau’s second half of the season that runs from February to May.
But that offer isn’t guaranteed.
For now, she enjoys the team she’s with because she knows how difficult it will be to say goodbye.
“It’s hard,” Maletis said. “When we spend every day with these people and build amazing relationships and friendships. Then going home and not knowing when I’ll be back and if I’m going to be back or if my friends are even going to be here anymore.
“We’re all… passing ships. We’re all in this one place at this one exact time for a very brief amount of time.”
She continues to think about making it back to San Jose, the area she began playing soccer at four years old and wrote elementary school papers of going pro.
“It’s putting things into place,” Maletis said. “And going through the adventure of having no idea where I’m gonna go next.”
But you’re enjoying it, right?
“Yeah, exactly.”
This story was written by Benjamin Hanson. He can be reached at benjamin.hanson@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @benhansonMU.