Migrant soccer team trains for local ‘Refugee World Cup’

I Andrés Matos and Jacobo Gómez have only known each other briefly, but watching them together on a soccer field, they look like they’ve long been in cahoots.

They celebrate together, laugh generously when one slips up and tell each other what to do better the next time without hesitation.

A similar path across several countries where they were unwanted to one where they wound up sleeping on police station floors and eventually at a makeshift shelter creates such bonds.

On a recent weekday night at a South Side soccer field, the two men and their teammates — all of whom left Latin America and came to the U.S. recently seeking asylum — look light on their feet despite the journey.

They smile because things are looking up. They’ve found work, they’ve found one another, and now they have something to play for — a tournament just for refugees.

Their small team of migrants (mostly from Venezuela, though Gomez is from Ecuador) competed Saturday in a tournament with other teams, all consisting of refugees who now call Chicago home.

The squad of migrants scrimmaging on this night at the Chicago Indoor Sports complex in Back of the Yards came together at the former Wadsworth Elementary School shelter in the Woodlawn neighborhood, where hundreds of migrants have been staying recently.

They began playing informally outside the old school and later connected with Otto Rodriguez, the Chicago director for a national soccer charity organization.

Rodriguez, who is from the Chicago area, began leading the group in regular practices. He also signed them up for the tournament and registered them for a league at the sports complex, to help their training.

The complex is an hour by bus from the shelter, but the distance is nothing compared to chance to play a competitive game.

“They say there’s a prize or something, but more than anything, we’re here to play football,” said Matos, 29.

Matos, a native of Venezuela, arrived in Chicago in February. He stayed first at O’Hare Airport, then at a police station.

Since moving to the South Side shelter, he has found work at a meatpacking plant.

He gets up for work at 4 a.m. and won’t make it back to the shelter until midnight. Still, when asked why, under those circumstances, he would still come out to play soccer, the answer came quickly.

“Because we’re a team,” he said, “and because we love to play.”

Moshood Olanrewaju said that love for the game is exactly why organizers of local Refugee Day events hold the soccer tournament.

“Soccer is a common element in these communities of displaced people,” said Olanrewaju, 42, who is from Nigeria. He got involved in supporting refugees after meeting many in Senegal on his way to the United States 15 years ago.

Hearing their stories “was a real eye opener,” he said.

He also noticed how many of them found respite in soccer.

“When you’re living in what’s called a Third World country, soccer is readily available. People play soccer for relief,” he said.

For that reason, the tournament has been part of local World Refugee Day celebrations since its inception, Olanrewaju said. He’s been organizing it for about a dozen years.

It’s highly anticipated among the refugee community in Chicago, he said, and draws around 1,000 spectators. Saturday’s event, at Foster Beach Park, 5200 N. DuSable Lake Shore Drive, also includes music, food and activities for kids. Games begin at 9 a.m. Admission is free. Organizers recommend bringing chairs and food. Alcohol is not permitted.

The seven other teams competing this year are two teams representing ethnic minorities from Myanmar; an Afghan team; a Congolese team; one from Kyrgyzstan; and another team of refugees from around the world.

Olanrewaju said he had to turn away 10 other teams.

He placed teams based on when they asked to enter the tournament and their status as refugees. He hoped it will give them chance to celebrate who they are, despite any oppression encountered abroad.

“The Rohingya community is having a crisis right now,” he said, taking the example of one of the minorities from Myanmar. “They deserve to have that chance.”

At the Back of the Yards complex, Gómez said soccer was something he didn’t expect to have the chance to enjoy after leaving home.  

“I feel good because I did this in Ecuador, and I thought coming here I wouldn’t have the time,” he said, “I’d be too busy working, you know, chasing the American dream.”

Gómez, 23, showed off a picture of his daughter, Rose, and noted he and many others work “Sunday to Sunday” to send money to their families abroad. But soccer has become a welcome chance to relax after his construction job.

Rodriguez said that’s why he took on coaching the group. It’s about “giving them a chance to relieve some of that pressure, that stress that comes with leaving your home,” he said.

He appreciates they never take it too seriously and play for the fun of it.

He recently watched one of the players execute a move called the “rainbow” — getting past a defender by flicking the ball on a tall arc over both players’ heads.

“I think it’s with whatever they went through they have other things going on,” he said, “other things on their mind.”

Michael Loria is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South Side and West Side.