Yel Mathiang was 17 when he escaped from Sudan in 2001, finding himself virtually alone in a cold and mysterious city, in a nation of strangers.
Ten years later, he’s a confident young adult, playing defence on a fledgling soccer team set up in the spring of 2009 especially to help players from all over the world find their place in the community.
They play to win.
But the glue uniting the 20-plus members of Red Deer’s Global United soccer club was formed from a much loftier goal, says “Pastor Petro” Sabengele, executive director of the Central Alberta African Centre and leader of Kingdom Citizens Ministries International.
“Global United was formed to help its members become better players in their community,” says Sabengele.
With players from every continent but Australia, Global United traces its brief history to some backyard fun with a Red Deer family who had opened their home to immigrant families looking for social interaction.
Moms, dads and children had been sharing meals and kicking a ball around on a regular basis when some of the men cooked up a plan to carry the recreation a bit further, explains team captain Joshua Graber.
He helped them find some proper equipment and form a soccer club, enlisting his father, Lloyd Graber, to coach the foundling team.
It was a rag-tag crew that first joined the Central Alberta Men’s Soccer League, says Coach Graber.
There were almost as many languages being spoken as there were players on the team. Some members were showing up when they had been drinking and others were trying to conduct job transactions in the middle of the game, he says.
One of the first things they learned was that there is only one set of rules on the field, and that includes showing up in shape to play, says Graber.
They also learned that there is only one language on the field, a fact that has helped all members improve their English skills, he says.
While they entered the league at Tier 3, Global United moved up to Tier 2 fairly quickly and now sits in fourth place out of seven teams, says Graber.
But with little cash to buy equipment and pay tournament fees, club organizers were aware that they were going to need some help.
The goals they had set for the team fit nicely with the three-pronged mandate of the African Centre, which includes promoting multiculturalism. Additionally, the African Centre’s status as a non-profit agency makes it eligible to apply for sponsorships and government grants not available to groups that are not similarly incorporated.
Being adopted into the African Centre, therefore, enabled the team to provide tax receipts for donations and fundraising programs and it made United Global eligible to receive provincial and federal grants that would not be available otherwise.
Members saw hard proof of that benefit last year when the team received almost $4,000 in support from Sport Canada and the Alberta Sport, Recreation, Parks and Wildlife Foundation. That money helped cover costs the team couldn’t otherwise afford, including jerseys and other equipment as well as tournament and league fees.
One challenge still remains, says Graber. Because so many of the players’ jobs involve shift work, he never knows who is going to show up on game night.
Essentially, then, Graber must organize a new lineup for every match.
On a team where character is more highly valued than skill, it’s the type of challenge that he readily welcomes.
bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com
