IF Elfsborg aren’t a big club. They’re a middle-of-the-road team from a middle-of-the-road city in a middle-of-the-road league, largely invisible to anyone who doesn’t follow the Swedish Allsvenskan.



But considering where Stanley Okumu was playing a little over a year ago, they might as well be Barcelona.



Okumu moved to Elfsborg last week on a transfer from Real Salt Lake’s USL side, Real Monarchs SLC. The deal — which broke the all-time USL record for an outgoing transfer with a fee of $200,000, plus potential performance escalators — is the latest, largest step in a wild journey for the 22-year-old Kenyan center back.



Last July, Okumu was an unpaid amateur player for NPSL club AFC Ann Arbor. He was living rent-free with several other teammates in a house leased by the fourth-division club and subsiding on food bought with team-provided grocery store gift cards. He was clearly a cut above the rest of the league and...