Kei Kamara has had an incredible year in the United States' Major League Soccer. The Columbus Crew SC forward netted 22 goals in the regular season to be equal top scorer with former Juventus forward Sebastian Giovinco, who was awarded the MLS Golden Boot by virtue of making more assists than Kamara. Kei Kamara was a former Kansas City, Norwich and Middlesbrough player. He spoke about leaving war-torn Sierra Leone as a teenager and becoming a successful footballer.
He was a boy of six when it happened. He’d enjoyed a somewhat privileged upbringing to that point, his grandfather a respected local businessman, his parents capitalizing on an attractive opportunity in the United States. But this was Sierra Leone, and a civil war was raging.
Thousands were being killed. Children just like him were being brutalized into pint-sized soldiers. And the fighting was getting closer to the capital, Freetown. So, dragged from school by his grandmother, there was a scamper for his life. He was thrown on a boat. Dumped at an airport.
He made his way onto a flight bound for Paris. There, the keen eye of an air stewardess plucked the errant boy from a sea of people, and got him on to the US-bound plane intended for him. Soon, he was in a new home, in the arms of his mother once more.
Sierra Leone was a couple of years into a civil war that would last for more than 10 years. “I remember there was a shift in things when I was five years old,” Lahoud tells the Guardian. “And – I grew up with my grandparents because my parents had gone to the United States ahead of me – all of a sudden they had a shift in tone, warning not to go out in the bushes and the wilderness, which is where our backyard on the outskirts of Freetown crept up to.
“I never understood why. We had a waterfall in our backyard. The jungle was our backyard. And all of a sudden they shifted their tone. I didn’t know it, but that was because the rebels were in the jungle, and that’s where they – any kids my age or a little bit older – would capture them and turn them into child soldiers, or kill them if they refused. That was what awaited me in my backyard and I didn’t even know it.”
“I work really hard in my career to put Sierra Leone on the map. Playing in England, playing in America – I’m an American at the same time – but there are so many of us that are Americans playing in these leagues. But just my little bit of a background being Sierra Leonean, if I can raise awareness to help out the kids of Sierra Leone, that’s what I’m all about. Because when I grew up, I wish I had all these shots, I wish I had all these chances to really go to school and do all these amazing things. Our schools were cut short here and there because of the civil war.”
Sierra Leone has made strides since the war ended in 2002 but it remains one the world’s poorest countries. Schools for Salone has built 19 primary schools and two libraries since 2005. Support for teacher training and scholarships also form part of the group’s output. A home for war orphans is planned at the site of the Kamara-Lahoud school. The charity’s work is focused on empowering the recipient towns, not simply providing a handout. Locals must help accommodate skilled labor, contribute to unskilled labor, donate land, and help to locally source materials.
1. Childhood nightmares
Kamara is living the American dream, having come a long way from his terrifying childhood in Sierra Leone. He said he still has nightmares about what he witnessed during the civil war, including an execution in the street.
He knows he's lucky that he was able to escape to the U.S. as a refugee, without being harmed or "recruited" as a child soldier.
2. Unintentional soccer player
It was never Kamara's plan to play professional football in the U.S. -- he just wanted to flee the war and be with his family. Now he prays for the refugees who are flooding into Europe from troubled lands and feels particularly sorry for the children. He knows it has nothing to do with them and is very aware they have seen things that will haunt them forever.
He knows he's lucky that he was able to escape to the U.S. as a refugee, without being harmed or "recruited" as a child soldier.
2. Unintentional soccer player
It was never Kamara's plan to play professional football in the U.S. -- he just wanted to flee the war and be with his family. Now he prays for the refugees who are flooding into Europe from troubled lands and feels particularly sorry for the children. He knows it has nothing to do with them and is very aware they have seen things that will haunt them forever.
3. Snowball fights
Perhaps that's why he's such a fun-loving guy now. Kamara's big smile and big personality is very much in evidence on his social media feeds. When Kamara was playing in Kansas City he was so excited by the sight of snow that he challenged the team's fans to a snowball fight. About 200 of them turned up to play!
4. Blessed football boots
Despite having played professional football for more than a decade, Kamara still gets nervous before big matches. His pre-game ritual is always the same -- as a Muslim he recites the opening verses of the Koran to his boots to bless them, before kissing them for good luck and protection.
5. The Kamara toy
You know you've made it when a mini figurine is created in your image. Actually, Kamara didn't know much about plastic toy collectibles when he was growing up -- it wasn't something kids played with in Africa.
But he's excited about it now and he's ordered dozens of little Kamara mini replicas for his nieces and nephews as Christmas presents. Even so he was still surprised when I showed him how to rip the toy's head off and put on the legs backwards. I think we're still friends!
Source - CNN / theguardian
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