Road well travelled for Caps prospect
21-year-old Ahmed showing level of maturity that is far beyond his years
Ali Ahmed is an old soul. He's every bit the 52 years they list him as on the MLS Next Pro website.
In reality, he's only 21. But the Vancouver Whitecaps' wingback exhibits a level of maturity far beyond his years. It's the result of a soccer journey that began with ambition, hope and youthful arrogance, and descended into a threeyear emotional and financial meat-grinder of disappointment.
“Man, this game, this ball, it's taught me so much — and not even just about soccer. It's taught me how to be a good human, how to be a good person,” he said. “This small ball, since I was like five, six when I started kicking it, I didn't know it would teach me life. But it taught me life, taught me happiness and gave me happiness.”
Ali and his four siblings grew up in the Toronto district of Lawrence Heights — “The Jungle,” the locals call it, a neighbourhood fraught with gun violence and drive-bys — after their parents, mom Muna and dad Afendi, emigrated from Ethiopia's Oromo region in the late 1980s.
His mom, three brothers and two cousins made the 4½-hour, 2,600-km flight to Austin, Texas, on Saturday to see him make the bench for the Whitecaps' first team, then make an unexpected MLS debut in the 57th minute.
It was the only positive thing to come out of the game, a dreadful 3-0 loss to Austin. On one hand, his inclusion in the game-day roster was unexpected, as a spate of injuries and late illnesses decimated the Caps' first-team bench and opened up spots for him and Vasco Fry to be called up from the MLSNext Pro team.
But the slight, 5-foot-9 Ali also had been one of the standouts for the club in the pre-season, one of the few academy players to join them in San Diego for the exhibition slate. He's played in every single game for WFC2 this season, starting four, and added two assists, including one in a game coming less than 24 hours after his firstteam debut.
Ali leads MLSNext Pro in fouls suffered, is second in successful dribbles and tackles won, and is tied for sixth in key passes.
“This opportunity came because he deserves it,” said WFC2 coach Nick Dasovic. “You pick out players with grit.”
Ali's debut isn't the first time he's “made it.”
In 2018, he had been on trial with Toronto FC, who were ready to sign him into their academy. But he opted to eschew that for a chance to play for the U-19 side of Portuguese La Liga club Belenenses. The months-long trial was a successful one, despite the experience living abroad, in a hostel, cooking his own meals.
The move to Europe came without an agent to guide him, and Ali didn't know he couldn't play until he had turned 18.
The next open transfer window was still a few months away when he turned 18 in October, and, like Toronto, opted to try his luck in Spain instead.
It backfired spectacularly. He trained with various lower tier teams, living in hotels, spinning his wheels.
“I was impatient, and made my first mistake,” he said. “I had no clue (about the age requirement).
“I heard if I had stayed two more weeks, I would have been ready to go in league matches, and that kind of hurt because playing U-19 first division in Portugal would have been huge for me.
“The two months in Spain was bad. When I say there was nothing there for me, I mean nothing was going on.”
Back in Toronto, his youth coach connected him with Whitecaps residency coach Steve Meadley, who invited him to a trial with the Caps in November 2019, another chance cut short by COVID19. A year later, he returned to Vancouver, and this time impressed then-head coach Vanni Sartini, who converted him from a No. 10 to a wingback. Ali joined the U-23 team. In March, he signed through 2022 plus an option with WFC2.
This time, there's no hotel or hostel for him. He lives with his aunt and uncle in Surrey, but has been making the trip to the University of B.C. by transit — two hours each way, every day — for a year.
He shouts out everyone from his parents, his aunt and uncle, youth coaches to Allah for his success. Everyone but himself. He's still working on that side of things, doing extra work after training and games.
“All those tough times really helped me a lot. I just had that belief that one day it could come,” he said. “I'm thankful for all those moments honestly, which makes this 10 times sweeter.
“But I want to be 10-out-of-10 in every category. I don't like to see any grey areas in my game. Humbly though. I want to be good — I want to be really good — that's why I work so hard.
“We still gonna work 10 times harder, and we're not stopping now.”