SE: How Silke Bonnen Became the First Pro Soccer Player in K-State History
Jan 08, 2021 | Soccer, Sports Extra
By: Austin Siegel
The only person in Copenhagen wearing a Kansas State fleece is, honestly, pretty exhausted.
Silke Bonnen has been a professional soccer player for less than 24 hours. But that day included a beep test, the dreaded conditioning drill that requires players to run back and forth, faster and faster, to set a cardio baseline before they begin training with a new team.
"That test sucks," she said.
The good news is that Bonnen has been running back and forth, faster and faster for months.
She played her final match with K-State Soccer in November, holding things down on defense and taking set pieces for the most successful team since the program joined the Big 12 in 2017.
The first soccer player in K-State history to sign a professional contract, Bonnen joined HB Køge in December, returning to her native Denmark with a club based in the suburbs of Copenhagen.
It's an opportunity for Bonnen to play in Denmark's top league, the Elitedivisionen, where the best teams each season qualify for the UEFA Women's Champions League. And it's another win for K-State Soccer, after a season when the Wildcats began to make that something of a habit.
K-State finished in seventh place in the Big 12 and would have qualified for their first conference tournament (canceled due to COVID-19) after winning three of their last five matches.
Bonnen started every match as a defender for the Wildcats and played more minutes than any other player on the team. But her favorite memories are from the home stretch of the season.
With K-State searching for their first win, Bonnen grabbed the game-winning assist in a 2-0 win over Oklahoma, a match that would become a defining moment for the young program.
"I took the corner kick and Shae [Turner] scored. We're really close off the field, so it was really cool to celebrate with her," Bonnen said. "And the Texas Tech win, it was the first time we won against them and it was on Senior Night. That was how I wanted to send the seniors off and it turned out to be my last game. It was a cool way to end."
It's no less impressive than how Bonnen's career began with the Wildcats, when K-State head coach Mike Dibbini got on a plane for Copenhagen to watch Bonnen play for the first time.
Against IF Brøndby, a regular participant in the Champion's League, Bonnen and her club didn't get the win, but the teenage defender held her own against a more experienced opponent.
"It was probably the best thing I could have done to recruit a player to K-State," Dibbini said. "It gives you a sense, not just of the brains and the kind of high IQ soccer player she is, but it gives you an idea of how physical she is and how long it would take her to adapt to the Big 12."
As Bonnen was coming into her own as a soccer player, opportunities for women to play the sport in Denmark were still growing. When her future coach came to watch Bonnen play, the top league in Denmark at the time featured teams where not all the players were professional.
So, a teenager like Bonnen could mix it up with a Champion's League side while remaining eligible to play college soccer in the United States.
But moving thousands of miles from home has plenty of challenges that have nothing to do with soccer. In his Danish recruit, Dibbini saw someone with the maturity to handle the move.
"You can tell a lot about a player's character by getting to know her family," Dibbini said. "When I met Silke, the way she was treating her sisters and treating her parents, you could see that this kid is a genuine, heartwarming, sunshine player."
Dibbini was confident she would adjust to life on the pitch in the Big 12.
After all, Bonnen wasn't just playing a few minutes here or there for her old club, Ballerup-Skovlunde Fodbold. After her final season, she was named the team's player of the year.
The real challenge would come in moving from her hometown outside the bustling Danish capital to a college campus in Kansas, trading some hygge for life in the heartland.
"My freshman year, I wasn't talking as much," Bonnen said. "My coaches really wanted me to become more of a leader."
During her first season with the Wildcats, Bonnen was a plug-and-play defender in the Big 12, setting the team record for minutes by a freshman and starting 17 matches for K-State.
Off the field, she stepped into a locker room where she was the only Dane and one of only a few players on the K-State roster not from the Midwest or California.
It's a testament to both the player and the program that Bonnen made it work in Manhattan.
"No matter how different you are from people, you can always listen and try to understand," she said. "You can always get something good out of it. Even the people that I didn't agree with politically or have the same beliefs, I made really good friends."
Down the stretch in 2020, it was hard to miss Bonnen at Buser Family Park. No player on the Wildcats dished out more pre-game chest bumps or provided more energy on the sidelines.
"She comes from a different background where soccer for her wasn't extracurricular. It was breakfast, lunch and dinner. I think that's where she brought that experience," Dibbini said. "And Silke loves to hug people. Besides her unbelievable character and unbelievable soccer ability, when I think of Silke, I think of hugs."
Bonnen was on the field for just about every big moment of the 2020 season, including her game-winning assist against the Sooners. In the win over Texas Tech on Senior Night, she made her final start for the Wildcats and helped blank the defending Big 12 champions.
And while replacing such a steady, reliable player on defense will be one of the program's biggest challenges in 2021, Bonnen will continue to shape K-State Soccer all the way from Køge.
Hop on the social media channels of any Big 12 soccer program and Twitter feeds light up with highlights of former players who are stepping up in the NWSL or European leagues.
Some of these programs have been around for decades, but with Bonnen turning pro, the Wildcats – after only their fifth season – are already crashing the party.
"Having somebody like that who your players can look up to and share experiences," Dibbini said. "It's massive for our program."
As she prepares to join HB Køge – blue and black kit, nicknamed the Swans and plenty of room on the bandwagon – Bonnen arrives at a club looking to raise their profile in her native country.
"Two of the best teams in Denmark always win and no one has been able to touch them…It's been like that for so long and the league was kind of boring," Bonnen said. "HB Køge and this other team, FC Nordsjælland, have both invested a lot of money and you can tell from the results that they have improved the league and they can play with the best teams."
With new American ownership, HB Køge were promoted to Denmark's top league in 2020 and sit in first place in the Elitedivisionen after a dominant start to the season.
A new team looking to finish their most successful season in history against opponents that have won more matches and been around even longer?
It's a good thing they called K-State Soccer and signed Silke Bonnen.
"It's hard, it takes years and everyone needs to step up and be a part of it," she said. "The first part of this season, we didn't win as much. It wasn't until everybody realized that no matter if you're playing the whole game or on the bench, everybody needs to give 100% if you want to turn a program around."
The only person in Copenhagen wearing a Kansas State fleece is, honestly, pretty exhausted.
Silke Bonnen has been a professional soccer player for less than 24 hours. But that day included a beep test, the dreaded conditioning drill that requires players to run back and forth, faster and faster, to set a cardio baseline before they begin training with a new team.
"That test sucks," she said.
The good news is that Bonnen has been running back and forth, faster and faster for months.
She played her final match with K-State Soccer in November, holding things down on defense and taking set pieces for the most successful team since the program joined the Big 12 in 2017.
The first soccer player in K-State history to sign a professional contract, Bonnen joined HB Køge in December, returning to her native Denmark with a club based in the suburbs of Copenhagen.
It's an opportunity for Bonnen to play in Denmark's top league, the Elitedivisionen, where the best teams each season qualify for the UEFA Women's Champions League. And it's another win for K-State Soccer, after a season when the Wildcats began to make that something of a habit.
K-State finished in seventh place in the Big 12 and would have qualified for their first conference tournament (canceled due to COVID-19) after winning three of their last five matches.
Bonnen started every match as a defender for the Wildcats and played more minutes than any other player on the team. But her favorite memories are from the home stretch of the season.
With K-State searching for their first win, Bonnen grabbed the game-winning assist in a 2-0 win over Oklahoma, a match that would become a defining moment for the young program.
"I took the corner kick and Shae [Turner] scored. We're really close off the field, so it was really cool to celebrate with her," Bonnen said. "And the Texas Tech win, it was the first time we won against them and it was on Senior Night. That was how I wanted to send the seniors off and it turned out to be my last game. It was a cool way to end."
It's no less impressive than how Bonnen's career began with the Wildcats, when K-State head coach Mike Dibbini got on a plane for Copenhagen to watch Bonnen play for the first time.
Congratulations & good luck, Silke!
— K-State Soccer (@KStateSOC) December 12, 2020
Bonnen first #KStateSOC player to sign professional contract, joining HB Koge (@hbkogedk) in Denmark.
📝 - https://t.co/NLKTxP9iU1 pic.twitter.com/iGYv0xjS13
Against IF Brøndby, a regular participant in the Champion's League, Bonnen and her club didn't get the win, but the teenage defender held her own against a more experienced opponent.
"It was probably the best thing I could have done to recruit a player to K-State," Dibbini said. "It gives you a sense, not just of the brains and the kind of high IQ soccer player she is, but it gives you an idea of how physical she is and how long it would take her to adapt to the Big 12."
As Bonnen was coming into her own as a soccer player, opportunities for women to play the sport in Denmark were still growing. When her future coach came to watch Bonnen play, the top league in Denmark at the time featured teams where not all the players were professional.
So, a teenager like Bonnen could mix it up with a Champion's League side while remaining eligible to play college soccer in the United States.
But moving thousands of miles from home has plenty of challenges that have nothing to do with soccer. In his Danish recruit, Dibbini saw someone with the maturity to handle the move.
"You can tell a lot about a player's character by getting to know her family," Dibbini said. "When I met Silke, the way she was treating her sisters and treating her parents, you could see that this kid is a genuine, heartwarming, sunshine player."
Dibbini was confident she would adjust to life on the pitch in the Big 12.
After all, Bonnen wasn't just playing a few minutes here or there for her old club, Ballerup-Skovlunde Fodbold. After her final season, she was named the team's player of the year.
The real challenge would come in moving from her hometown outside the bustling Danish capital to a college campus in Kansas, trading some hygge for life in the heartland.
"My freshman year, I wasn't talking as much," Bonnen said. "My coaches really wanted me to become more of a leader."
During her first season with the Wildcats, Bonnen was a plug-and-play defender in the Big 12, setting the team record for minutes by a freshman and starting 17 matches for K-State.
Off the field, she stepped into a locker room where she was the only Dane and one of only a few players on the K-State roster not from the Midwest or California.
It's a testament to both the player and the program that Bonnen made it work in Manhattan.
"No matter how different you are from people, you can always listen and try to understand," she said. "You can always get something good out of it. Even the people that I didn't agree with politically or have the same beliefs, I made really good friends."
Down the stretch in 2020, it was hard to miss Bonnen at Buser Family Park. No player on the Wildcats dished out more pre-game chest bumps or provided more energy on the sidelines.
"She comes from a different background where soccer for her wasn't extracurricular. It was breakfast, lunch and dinner. I think that's where she brought that experience," Dibbini said. "And Silke loves to hug people. Besides her unbelievable character and unbelievable soccer ability, when I think of Silke, I think of hugs."
Bonnen was on the field for just about every big moment of the 2020 season, including her game-winning assist against the Sooners. In the win over Texas Tech on Senior Night, she made her final start for the Wildcats and helped blank the defending Big 12 champions.
And while replacing such a steady, reliable player on defense will be one of the program's biggest challenges in 2021, Bonnen will continue to shape K-State Soccer all the way from Køge.
Hop on the social media channels of any Big 12 soccer program and Twitter feeds light up with highlights of former players who are stepping up in the NWSL or European leagues.
Some of these programs have been around for decades, but with Bonnen turning pro, the Wildcats – after only their fifth season – are already crashing the party.
"Having somebody like that who your players can look up to and share experiences," Dibbini said. "It's massive for our program."
Velkommen til HB Køge til Silke Bonnén! 🤩https://t.co/f72AbkCBhc
— HB KØGE (@hbkogedk) December 12, 2020
As she prepares to join HB Køge – blue and black kit, nicknamed the Swans and plenty of room on the bandwagon – Bonnen arrives at a club looking to raise their profile in her native country.
"Two of the best teams in Denmark always win and no one has been able to touch them…It's been like that for so long and the league was kind of boring," Bonnen said. "HB Køge and this other team, FC Nordsjælland, have both invested a lot of money and you can tell from the results that they have improved the league and they can play with the best teams."
With new American ownership, HB Køge were promoted to Denmark's top league in 2020 and sit in first place in the Elitedivisionen after a dominant start to the season.
A new team looking to finish their most successful season in history against opponents that have won more matches and been around even longer?
It's a good thing they called K-State Soccer and signed Silke Bonnen.
"It's hard, it takes years and everyone needs to step up and be a part of it," she said. "The first part of this season, we didn't win as much. It wasn't until everybody realized that no matter if you're playing the whole game or on the bench, everybody needs to give 100% if you want to turn a program around."
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