Tallassee’s Irvin Delfin has been playing soccer since around the time he could walk. It started with his father and uncle training him, teaching him how to score. Delfin has continued to chase that feeling since then.
Delfin has a staggering 150 goals and 56 assists in his career at Tallassee High School. Year after year, he has set records only to break them the following season. With 43 goals and nine assists this season alone, Delfin is the 2025 Elmore County Soccer Player of the Year.
File / TPI With 150 career goals and 56 assists in a 97-game career for the Tallassee Tigers, Irvin Delfin is the 2025 All-Elmore County Boys Soccer Player of the Year. He is the seventh all-time scorer in Alabama.
Over the last three seasons, Delfin’s dominance has resuscitated the Tallassee boys soccer program, leading them to the state semifinals in 2024. This season Tallassee faced far more adversity, as they dropped to Class 4A into an area with four powerhouses in the sport and lacked a home field for the entirety of the season.
“This year, (Irvin) was a household name,” Tallassee soccer coach Matt Tarpley said.. “Teams planned for him, which forced us to plan how to free him up and how to use him. He had to adjust his game. That is just a testament to him and his knowledge of the game that he was able to rely on his teammates.”
In November 2024, Delfin traveled to Fleetwood, England, a small town overlooking the Irish Sea, to be scouted by the local Fleetwood FC as well as other teams.
“They thought I wasn’t that good, at the beginning,” Delfin said. “They (put me on) second half, and I was fine with that. Then out of the second half, I was like, I got to show what I got. And that’s when they saw I was a key player to score.”
Out of two games played, Irvin scored once in each, gaining the attention of the recruiting coaches at Leeds United — a U.S.-owned club that was recently promoted to the English Premier League.
“I’ve told (Delfin), if you can go over there and score goals,” Tarpley said. “You may get a call up and I may get to watch you on TV come September or October. For a kid from Tallassee, Alabama to be going over there and have a shot at the Premier League is unheard of.”
In a few short months, Delfin may chase the feeling of scoring goals all the way into a Premier League roster, effectively putting Tallassee on the map internationally.