 03-25-2007, 9:00 AM
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Weah Fan
 
Joined on 03-25-2006
TOPOLA, SERBIA
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A Liberian gets an opportunity to play for the US U-17 squad
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Soccer brought one U.S. player level of freedom
Former refugee has new opportunities with U-17 squad
By RYAN T. BOYD
rboyd@bradenton.com
BRADENTON
- Alexander Nimo was just a normal 17-year-old Thursday.
He and his U.S. under-17 men's national soccer teammates were kidding around after their morning practice at IMG Academies, having fun, running around and dumping Gatorade on each other.
The team is training this week for today's 9:15 a.m. exhibition match against El Salvador at Tampa's Raymond James Stadium. The U.S. men's national team plays Ecuador at noon.
There was a time when Nimo wasn't so carefree. He spent the first nine years of his life in a refugee camp in Ghana after his parents fled a civil war in Liberia in 1990.
Life was hard. The camp didn't provide food or water to its residents. Nimo said it was common to see dead bodies in the street. Anybody caught out after a 5 p.m. curfew risked being killed by rebels. Education was an impossibility.
"I was very scared for my life," Nimo said. "At 7, I would see dead bodies, and I didn't really understand. I would ask my parents about it, but they would just take me away. As I got older, I understood better."
As he got older, he found his refuge in soccer, playing anytime, anywhere he could, in dirt fields and in streets, often with much older kids.
"Soccer is like my best friend," Nimo said. "It is peace of mind for me. That's the way I get my freedom."
Nimo's family immigrated to Portland, Ore., in 2000, and he's been enjoying a new kind of freedom ever since. That doesn't mean he's left soccer behind. The speedy and shifty Nimo has proven to be one of coach John Hackworth's most valuable players.
"Where he grew up, soccer wasn't organized," Hackworth said. "So he had to develop touch on the ball, and he had to develop technically, or he wasn't going to get picked by the older guys. Coming from that environment, he's completely humble to what he's offered now."
Hackworth said he's challenging his squad, 1-1-1 in friendlies this year against Canada and Hondurus, to use today as an opportunity to play its best game in front of a home crowd.
Nimo hopes at least part of that crowd includes members of the U.S. national team, a squad he'd eventually like to join. Regardless, he's thankful for where soccer has taken him, and for how it helped him escape to a better place.
"For me, this is a great experience," he said. "I want to keep improving and playing at the highest level."
The U.S. under-17 men's national soccer team meets El Salvador in an exhibition match at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, 9:15 a.m.
To have and not to give is often worse than to steal - George Weah
www.myspace.com/weahfan
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