Baltimore's International Soccer Tournament Showcases Multiculturalism BALTIMORE, MD (wypr) - A tour around Baltimore City's recent International Soccer Tournament feels like a visit to the United Nations. Flags representing different countries drape a series of tents. Languages besides English fill the air. WYPR's Stephanie Marudas reports.

With the exception of some American-born players floating around, the tournament's face is a global one.

The competing sixteen teams are fielded not by professional players, but mainly foreigners who work or study in the Baltimore-Washington Metro area. Some remain foreign nationals while others have chosen American citizenship. What unites this crowd of players is a longtime love affair with soccer and the high after scoring a goal.

That's how you do it guys. One! Three more!

Thirty-two year old Kingsley Brobbey says he couldn't imagine life without the sport known as football throughout the rest of the world.

Every Saturday and Sunday, that's all we do. It reminds us so much of what we used to do back home and we just keep the tradition going. This is the only thing that keeps me going. Keeps me strong. Motivated. Relieves some tension and some stress.

Brobbey is a research scientist, and for the last nine years he's been playing with a team of Nigerians. Though, he's originally from Ghana.

I enjoy being with them. I've learned to speak their language. They've adopted me as their family. So right now I'm Nigerian.

Like Brobbey, 26-year old Sardar Hassou has also been adopted by a group of soccer players who are culturally different from him.

I'm Kurdish and I play soccer with a Spanish league.

Hassou came to the Untied States as a refugee from Northern Iraq eight years ago, and is now an American citizen. He started playing with the El Salvadoran team three years ago, and enjoys the camaraderie with players like 19-year old Marvin Garcia.

I like it because they teach me a lot of stuff. They try to make me a better soccer player than them. They correct me when I'm doing stuff that are not right. So that's what I like about them. We like a family. We all friends.

Just off the sidelines, a row of men dressed in blue and red striped soccer jerseys glide across a grassy area. They bend down, reach up, and move rhythmically while they chant as part of a pre-game ritual. Known as the Spartan Football Club, these players live around Washington D.C. and are mainly from the African nation of Cameroon.

It's like I was just born touching the soccer ball.

Thirty-five year old Roland Patcha helped get the club started 11 years ago. Today, the team boasts a wide range of African-born professionals- including doctors, lawyers, and computer programmers. Patcha says the driving principle behind the Spartan Football Club is not soccer but Cameroonian culture, education and family values.

It's easy to get lost in such a big place. In the U.S., especially the metro area, Washington D.C. It's so big and easy to get off track. So we try to recruit the younger ones. Talk to them. We are like big brothers to them. Tell them they have to go to school, they have to learn a trade. Some profession. Because it's very easy before you start doing something really stupid that will wind you even sent back home or locked up or get killed.

Whether it's the discipline or the cheerful pre-game stretches, the Spartan Football Club seems to have got the right touch. The team ended up winning the Baltimore International Soccer Tournament again for the third time in four years.

I'm Stephanie Marudas, reporting in Baltimore City, for 88.1, WYPR.

© Copyright 2009, wypr