Alexander Scholz was the quintessential aspiring footballer and is, antithetically, the most atypical footballer you’ll ever find.

Born in Denmark to German parents – his father Kent was a centre-back for Esbjerg at the time – he “lived to play football growing up” and “had the smell of boots and grass coming out of me when I breathed”. He obsessed over representing designer clubs and parading himself on platforms like the UEFA Champions League and FIFA World Cup™.

Then, suddenly, he quit the sport to undertake the Camino de Santiago, a Galician pilgrimage to where the remains of ‘James The Great’ are buried, and hike in the Himalayas. Scholz returned to the sport – not because he missed it, but because it was his gateway to living overseas, particularly in Asia.

He has since resisted repeated offers of new boots to continue wearing adidas Copa Mundials, which were first launched in 1979. He’s remained an avid reader. He’s continued to study philosophy. He prefers playing cards to video games. He doesn’t spend his holidays in Cannes, Dubai, Ibiza, the Maldives, Mykonos or New York City, but doing things like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. And when he renewed his FC Midtjylland contract in 2020, he held firm on a clause that, if a team from the Far East came in for him, he’d be allowed to leave.
And then one did. Despite having just broken into the Denmark squad, and knowing it would likely be detrimental to his chances of future call-ups, he didn’t think twice about signing for Urawa Red Diamonds. He’s since fallen in love with life in Saitama.

And as a xenophile, he was ecstatic when they upset Al Hilal in the AFC Champions League final in May. It has afforded him the chance to see and revel in Saudi culture. FIFA caught up with Scholz to discuss his excitement over playing in the FIFA Club World Cup™ and a clash of cultures against Leon in the second round.