FCE teenager Shome made NASL debut Saturday, wrote university exam Tuesday

Shamit Shome in action against the Tampa Bay Rowdies. PHOTO: TAMPA BAY ROWDIES/MATT MAY

Shamit Shome’s Google calendar would be something to see.

Saturday 7:30 pm MAKE NASL debut

Tuesday WRITE EXAM, University of Alberta

WEDNESDAY 10 am FC EDMONTON TRAINING

FC Edmonton’s 18-year-old midfielder made his professional debut Saturday, playing 80 minutes against the Tampa Bay Rowdies. But, he couldn’t let himself get too carried away — on Tuesday, the University of Alberta first-year engineering student wrote an exam.

Shome spent a good chunk of March in Scotland, in preseason training with the Eddies. He was in England with the Canadian U-20 team, and started in the squad’s famous 2-1 win over the Three Lions. And he has the life of a full professional, filled with training sessions and fitness sessions and games.

All while still attending school.

“It’s tough, but I have to separate time to do each thing,” said Shome after FCE’s training session Wednesday at Clarke Field. “I make sure I stick on a tight, tough timeline for each thing, to make sure I get everything done efficiently.”

And, so, let’s look at an average day in the life of soccer player and scholar Shamit Shome…

“I make sure I get training out of the way in the morning,” he says. “And then, most of the afternoon we have time to chill, even in between the morning training sessions and fitness sessions. I head over to Saville (Saville Sports Centre) and go upstairs to start studying, just to get some work done. At night, I’m just hard away at the books but I make sure I stay professional; stretch, take water. Those are my breaks; stretching and drinking water. And then I go back to the books.”

Coach Colin Miller raved about Shome’s dedication to both school and soccer.

“It shows you how intelligent the lad is and how dedicated he is to both his education and his football,” Miller said.

“He’s been wonderful through all of preseason. We have very high hopes for Shamit. We’ll bed him in now and again and give him minutes. But he’s one definitely for the future. He hasn’t looked out of place all the way through preseason, he played very well in Scotland, as well.”

And he didn’t look out of place on Saturday, either. Even though the Eddies lost, Shome was thrilled to get onto the pitch.

“It was a great experience, I was excited to be part of the team,” Shome said of his NASL debut. “It went all right, I think. But, there’s a lot of things I can improve on, things I have to work on, and obviously, working away in training to improve even more.”

But did that top beating England? Last month, Shome started for Canada against an England U-20 side that included Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford. The Canadians won 2-1 on English soil.

“It was great playing against those guys. But once we step onto the field, those names don’t matter. That’s what we talk about here (at FCE) that’s what we talk about with Canada — the names don’t matter. Because, in the end, we did as good as them to get a result. But, after and before, when you think about it, it’s pretty amazing.

“Our coach (Rob Gale) was telling us that people were impressed. There was a lot of people watching us and just for us to get a result away from home with the big crowd, it’s a pretty big feat and we’re proud of it.”

So, Shome could one day score a winning goal for the Eddies, and then the next day find a way to speed along the construction of the 102nd Avenue bridge. But he’d remember to stretch and drink water while he was looking at the plans.