Somali national team comes calling for Century boys soccer star

Dec. 22—ROCHESTER — All it took was for Hussein Mohamed to land his Rochester Century senior soccer statistics on social media, hashtag "Somalia," to draw interest from 8,000 miles away.

Well, actually it took Hussein, his 28-year-old brother, Bashir Mohamed, and a few others to share those same stats on social media. Bashir is Hussein's pseudo "agent," and easily his biggest soccer influence and promoter.

The stats were that good, including Hussein unleashing a season-opening performance in August for Century that was nothing short of outrageous.

How about five goals in one game?

Hussein did that on Aug. 24 against Simley. It was his first opportunity playing forward for the Panthers. The speedy and skilled senior didn't waste it.

"I thought I was dreaming when I did that," said Hussein, who managed just a couple of goals for Century the season before when he played wing. "I wasn't sure what had happened until my brothers were screaming (in celebration)."

Century coach Hal Houghton sure didn't see that five-goal outburst coming for Hussein, who ended his year being named All-State.

"I'm not going to lie, it was a big surprise to me," said Houghton, who inherited Hussein one year ago after he'd spent his first two high school seasons at John Marshall playing for and receiving significant guidance from fellow Somali, Abdul Noor. "(As a junior), he was a really skinny kid who was hurt half the time. He was quick, but he was pretty much a one-footed kicker who could make plays but couldn't finish them. But this year, he was just gangbusters."

What that five-goal outburst led to was one of the best seasons ever for a Century player.

"He proved it was no fluke," said Houghton, who raves about Hussein's speed with the ball. "The next game, he had something like two goals and an assist. He just kept doing it. I just said to myself, 'This kid is for real.' "

By the time the season was done, Hussein — who plays for Rochester FC's 18-under academy team in the summer — had placed the ball into the back of the net 25 times. What that ultimately led to was that interest from 8,000 miles away. It came from the Somali national soccer organization, asking the Century senior, whose roots are in Somalia, to join the Somali 18-under national team for workouts and matches this past November.

They were offering to fly Hussein out for the month-long session, pay for his lodging and food and then fly him back to Minnesota. It was an all-expenses paid opportunity. Hussein would have to keep up with his Century studies online.

This was his brother Bashir's dream come true, one he'd desired for himself as a kid only to see a lack of family finances hold him back. That led Bashir — married now and a full-time truck driver — to then devote his time and money to his younger soccer-playing siblings, hoping they'd inherit his love for the game and be given opportunities that evaded him.

"My family was poor when I was growing up," Bashir said. "But whatever my younger brothers need for soccer now, I cover it."

He's covered it with an underlying hope. It's that at least one of them could break through in soccer and achieve big things.

Now, here was this massive opportunity being offered to Hussein.

"The (Somali club) saw Hussein's film and they said, 'We have to have him,' " Bashir said.

Hussein sure wasn't going to say no.

He made the trip, all right, the Somali 18-under team doing its training in Kenya.

Hussein started each day by emailing his Century teachers about homework assignments. That was followed by a 6:30 a.m. breakfast, then a discussion about what would be worked on that day in soccer practice, then a 2-hour training session beginning at 7:15 a.m., followed later by lunch and another team meeting, then dinner and one more meeting before the players were off to bed early each night.

For Hussein, it was the experience of a lifetime. He hit it off with his fellow Somali teammates, he enjoyed sharing his Somali culture with them and he gobbled up the Somali food.

"It was beautiful," Hussein said of the meals, his favorite a mix of chicken or beef in a curry and hot sauce served on rice, bread on the side.

He found the soccer competition difficult, just as he'd hoped, though it could get frustrating.

"The goalies were harder to get around than the ones we have here (in Minnesota)," Hussein said. "They always seemed to know where I was going with the ball. I don't know how they do that. It was ticking me off."

One bit of advice from the Somali coaches stood out to Hussein. It was about teammates. It's likely going to stick with him for as long as he is kicking a soccer ball, which figures to be a long time.

Hussein intends to play somewhere in college, has ambitions of eventually playing in Europe and one day hopes to land on the highest-level Somali national team.

"The coaches told me that wherever you go, your teammates are always family, even if you don't know them at the time," Hussein said.

For one month, playing soccer with Somali brethren in Kenya, he came to realize how right they were. It was a beautiful time with them, sharing the "beautiful game."