The explosion exterior his faculty. The vultures feasting on the useless our bodies within the streets. The water pouring into the boat carrying him to security.
Images of struggle nonetheless accompany Kei Kamara at this time.
The LAFC striker imagines them each time he tells the story of his childhood in Sierra Leone. He usually sees them in his desires.
“I’ve these nightmares,” Kamara stated. “I’m at all times operating. I’m at all times operating away from the chaos.”
Memories proceed to hang-out 39-year-old Kamara, however they’ve additionally satisfied him how fortunate he’s.
So as an alternative of being disillusioned that he modified groups greater than a dozen occasions throughout his profession, he celebrates the truth that somebody at all times wished him.
So as an alternative of complaining about how inconsistent he performed final 12 months with the Chicago Fire, he factors out how his lowered function allowed him to attain an necessary purpose this 12 months whereas enjoying for his hometown staff.
“I’m this man who ran away from a civil struggle,” Kamara. “I shouldn’t be right here.”
Here, in his nineteenth 12 months in skilled soccer.
Here, with a resume that features a cease within the English Premier League.
Here, in second place all-time in profession objectives scored in Major League Soccer, one spot forward of Landon Donovan.
A boy promoting gentle drinks by carrying them overhead walks previous a clinic treating Ebola sufferers in Kenema, war-torn Sierra Leone, in 2014.
(Youssouf Bah / Associated Press)
Kamara was dwelling within the city of Kenema, Sierra Leone, when his mom gained an immigration lottery that allowed her to maneuver to the United States. He was left with an aunt, one among 5 wives in a polygamous household that included about three dozen youngsters. Kamara thought of them brothers and sisters, including that he didn’t know what a cousin was on the time. They performed soccer within the yard of the household compound or on the 6-foot-wide path between adjoining buildings on the property.
But their lives had been about to be turned the other way up when civil struggle that broke out on the border with Liberia unfold to the cities.
Kamara was at college when he heard the explosion that modified every little thing. A grenade had exploded exterior.
“I keep in mind operating out of faculty, operating into this little alley,” he stated. “Kids had been falling down and we had been leaping on them. I used to be getting near residence and I spotted I had left my brothers and sisters behind. So I needed to flip round and run by the gang. They had been sitting at school.
“I do not assume there was a lull after that.”
Kenema has develop into harmful. Rebel forces have combed the streets for potential little one troopers, and Kamara stated two of his cousins have been captured.
“We by no means noticed them once more,” he stated.
His household moved to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, however battle adopted them.
“When there was gunfire, all of us bumped into the home,” he stated. “When it was over, you might hear neighbors and folks crying as a result of they’d misplaced relations. You may see their our bodies.”
A brief ceasefire gave Kamara and a few of his relations the possibility to flee. Before they may board a airplane to Gambia, nevertheless, they needed to cross the Sierra Leone River by boat.
“It’s product of wooden, so there’s at all times water coming in,” Kamara stated. “I keep in mind there have been individuals with buckets bailing out the water. I keep in mind considering, ‘We’re not going to make it out, we will drown.'”
Kamara spent practically two years in Gambia, after which he and his family had been granted asylum within the United States. He first set foot within the nation on October 26, 2000.
“I’ll always remember that day,” he stated.
Kei Kamara heads the ball away from Union defender Jack Elliott whereas enjoying for Chicago Fire final season.
(Rich Schultz / Associated Press)
Kamara initially lived with an uncle in Maryland. The association lasted solely a few months and Kamara moved throughout the nation to be together with his mom in Hawthorne.
“It hasn’t been all sunshine and roses,” Raphael Saye stated.
Kamara and Saye’s moms had been shut pals, and Saye’s mom usually cared for Kamara when her mom labored nights as a waitress on the Normandie Casino. Kamara got here to name Saye her brother.
“He needed to take care of range at school,” Saye stated. “Being African, he had an accent. His mannerisms had been completely different.”
Kamara enrolled at Leuzinger High in Lawndale, the place he crossed paths with future NBA gamers Dorell Wright and Russell Westbrook. Kamara discovered his place on the soccer discipline. Classmate Cristian Olvera insisted he check out for his youth membership, the Manhattan Beach Hurricanes.
“After 10 minutes, I simply keep in mind saying, ‘Oh my God, we hit it. ’ He did some superb issues,” Hurricanes coach Bruce Myhre stated.
Because Kamara’s mom labored nights, Myhre joked, “I ended up changing into her chauffeur.”
Twice per week, Myhre picked up Kamara in his silver Nissan Pathfinder to drive him to practices in Manhattan Beach. He additionally drove him to video games.
“That’s once I began to find his story,” Myhre says.
Myhre grew to become a father determine to Kamara and made positive faculty coaches knew him. One of them was Joe Flanagan, who was operating this system at Division II Cal State Dominguez Hills on the time.
When Kamara was a senior in highschool, Flanagan met him at Dominguez Hills. Kamara had utilized to varsity and was on his strategy to Flanagan’s workplace to inform him he wished to play there.
“Kei was fully concerned,” Flanagan stated.
Kei Kamara outscored two defenders whereas enjoying for the Rapids in 2019.
(Jack Dempsey/Associated Press)
Kamara had a plan. The Galaxy’s new stadium was on the Dominguez Hills campus. Expansion staff Chivas USA was about to affix them as a tenant at what was then known as Home Depot Center.
“If I wish to play professionally, that is in all probability the most effective place to go,” Kamara recalled considering on the time.
Kamara acquired a job on the stadium. He erected the objectives. He put up the nook flags. He put up the promoting hoardings that lined the sphere.
“He was the primary one to get a job, and we didn’t perceive why,” stated Saye, who additionally enrolled at Dominguez Hills.
Kamara made it some extent to get to know the Galaxy gamers. He rapidly grew to become near then Galaxy coach Sigi Schmid.
“I at all times stored my soccer cleats within the trunk of my automobile,” Kamara stated.
Those reminiscences made Flanagan giggle.
“He was an enterprising man,” Flanagan stated.
Over time, Galaxy gamers sometimes invited him to kick a ball with them. After scoring 16 objectives as a freshman and 15 as a sophomore, Kamara declared for the 2006 MLS draft.
He was chosen with the ninth choose by the Columbus Crew. Schmid was the staff’s coach.
Kei Kamara slides to his knees after scoring his second purpose for Dynamo throughout a 2008 match in opposition to Chivas USA. Teammate Brian Mullan is at left
(Steve Campbell / Associated Press)
Kamara performed for 11 MLS groups. He performed in Finland. He additionally performed in England, together with half a season with Norwich City within the Premier League.
One of his fondest reminiscences was when he performed at Old Trafford. Kamara had visited the stadium the 12 months earlier than as a spectator.
“A number of months later, I used to be downstairs with Norwich City enjoying Manchester United,” Kamara stated. “I used to be wanting up at every little thing, like, ‘I used to be sitting there in December and now I’m right here.'”
He has the same sense of surprise when he displays on how he ended up with LAFC. By March, he was again in Sierra Leone, working for his HeartShapedHands Foundation, which helps youngsters in his homeland. Kamara represented the nation 39 occasions earlier than retiring from worldwide soccer in 2022.
Just when he thought his membership profession is perhaps over, his agent known as to inform him that LAFC was . There was one stipulation: he needed to check out.
“I did it as a result of it was LAFC,” Kamara stated.
Kamara ran residence. He signed just a few days later.
Three weeks in the past, in a sport in opposition to the San Jose Earthquakes at BMO Stadium, the 6-foot-3 Kamara scored the type of purpose he has scored so many occasions earlier than, skipping previous a defender and heading the ball into the again of the online.
The purpose was his second of the season and the 146th of his MLS profession. Donovan, the U.S. nationwide staff’s all-time goalscoring joint chief, retired with 145 MLS objectives.
Two weeks later, on the Rose Bowl in opposition to the Galaxy, Kamara scored his 147th purpose.
“There’s one thing so splendidly serendipitous about it,” stated Myhre, his youth coach.
Kamara expressed the same opinion.
“I feel it was meant to occur now,” he stated. “Because it may have occurred final 12 months in Chicago. And it may have occurred on the street. And lastly to have it occur right here, at residence, in entrance of family and friends, is a fairy story that I may by no means have dreamed.”
