Speaker 1: Time for a soccer down. It's an odd man rush.
Speaker 1: I just realized it's an odd man rush. It's a
Speaker 1: two v one. This time we get to catch up
Speaker 1: with the Kuma and Shahagamaud who are now at Al
Speaker 1: Shabab in the U fifteen's.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: First off, guys, I'm glad that we were able to
Speaker 1: track you down because I know that we're dealing with
Speaker 1: stuff here in the worldwide sense of things. Where are
Speaker 1: you right now as we're talking right now, we're.
Speaker 2: In Atlanta, Georgia, hometown?
Speaker 1: Back home? That was my biggest question. It's like, I
Speaker 1: didn't know how international a conversation this was.
Speaker 3: But you're back home just for spring break.
Speaker 2: We head back to Riot in about three days.
Speaker 3: Wow. Okay, So I'm not going to mess around.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna waste any more of your time because
Speaker 1: I want you guys to enjoy your time back here.
Speaker 3: So I want to I want to ask Uh Kuma.
Speaker 1: Let me start with you, what practed you to this
Speaker 1: idea of having shot to build his game by going
Speaker 1: to Saudi Arabia?
Speaker 3: How did this all come about?
Speaker 2: So we were actually recruited to go to Saudi Arabia
Speaker 2: as a you know, as part of my career or
Speaker 2: my job. But when we realized that the Saudi's takes
Speaker 2: SoC are really really importantly, we we started looking for
Speaker 2: a team for for Shat to join, and he did
Speaker 2: a lot of groundwork and I let him tell that story,
Speaker 2: but it's it's a great place for for young talented
Speaker 2: players to to get a foothold into the game.
Speaker 1: All right, So since your since your dad opened that
Speaker 1: door shot, let me ask, uh, they come knocking on
Speaker 1: the door or the the interest is there from the
Speaker 1: family about going? What was your initial thought this?
Speaker 2: Sorry, I was just soker because I at the time
Speaker 2: all I knew was Ronaldo. I had just gone.
Speaker 4: I didn't know anything about really the academy system, professional system,
Speaker 4: if they even had like club academies for our age.
Speaker 4: It was just how am I going to play? And
Speaker 4: how did that work? And I started looking and online
Speaker 4: they don't have much information and it required me to
Speaker 4: do a lot of asking around with my friends when
Speaker 4: I actually got there, asking questions, talking to people, and
Speaker 4: eventually it got me to an academy team and we
Speaker 4: played a scrimmage against the actual Al Shabab club and
Speaker 4: I played well, and yeah, it got invited.
Speaker 3: To a tryout, So how did that go?
Speaker 1: When you're playing the actual ol Shabab team, It's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: they're like really tall and really, how did that?
Speaker 3: How was that?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the game we played was you eighteen
Speaker 2: or you nineteen? So I was by far the youngest
Speaker 2: player in the game. I got subbed in at halftime.
Speaker 4: They weren't they weren't huge, but they were definitely stronger
Speaker 4: and faster than me. So I had to be really
Speaker 4: smart with my decisions. I had to I had to
Speaker 4: kind of rely more on my technical aspect of the
Speaker 4: game and kind of game intelligence to performed.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it was It was fun. It's a good experience,
Speaker 2: all right.
Speaker 1: So Kumba, let me ask you, what's it like to
Speaker 1: see this happening where you You know about the Saudi
Speaker 1: Premier League, you know about how seriously they want to
Speaker 1: take things and they want to have your son and
Speaker 1: your family be a part of that growth. What's it
Speaker 1: been like for the family to sit there and say, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: he's over.
Speaker 3: In Saudi Arabia learning how to play the sport.
Speaker 2: It's been super exciting. My wife and I have been
Speaker 2: on soccer fields all over Georgia since are kids, most
Speaker 2: of them from about the age of three, so from
Speaker 2: PHV City at glennam Hauck and just watching them grow
Speaker 2: to the point where he's good enough to play at
Speaker 2: this level kind of makes all those wet, cold, rainy
Speaker 2: days worth it.
Speaker 1: What have you let me? Let me ask you this chat,
Speaker 1: what have you learned about yourself? Because it's not every
Speaker 1: day that someone who is a young man gets the
Speaker 1: opportunity to expand who they are, who they want to be,
Speaker 1: what they want to pursue. As you get older, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna say grow up, but I'll say grow older.
Speaker 1: But you know, what have you learned about yourself in
Speaker 1: this process? Because I would imagine figuring out how to
Speaker 1: be somewhat independent as part of that.
Speaker 4: Well, for physically, for my game, I've learned I'm a
Speaker 4: lot quicker and faster than I think I always When
Speaker 4: I was younger, I was a little small and not
Speaker 4: the most dominant kid on the field, and it required
Speaker 4: me to rely a lot of my technical skills. But
Speaker 4: coming here, I've learned I I have a more aspects
Speaker 4: of my game. I'm a little bit faster and quicker
Speaker 4: and stronger than I thought, and that actually ended up
Speaker 4: to me changing my position.
Speaker 2: Now I play striker.
Speaker 4: Before I play more of a left wing position, and
Speaker 4: now because of my strength and size, I'm learning to
Speaker 4: play striker as well. And then kind of off the field,
Speaker 4: I'm just learning to be more independent because a lot
Speaker 4: of our games you have to travel, we fly, and
Speaker 4: also my.
Speaker 2: Perents aren't there for a lot of them.
Speaker 4: And yeah, I'm just just learning how to be an
Speaker 4: independent person.
Speaker 1: Kuma, How different is scheme now as a as a
Speaker 1: young man, considering everything that you're seeing him learn in
Speaker 1: an atypical environment. How different a young man is he?
Speaker 2: So I always have stories, but I got to tell
Speaker 2: this one. So the first game, he goes to school,
Speaker 2: and then he goes to a practice. From that point on,
Speaker 2: they just get them into one of these big luxury
Speaker 2: buses and then they get shuttled to a hotel. And
Speaker 2: I'm trying to explain it to my wife that the
Speaker 2: fifteen year old is going to get on this bus
Speaker 2: with a lot of you know, people who he can't
Speaker 2: communicate with because he doesn't speak Arabic, and they're going
Speaker 2: to take him to a hotel and he's going to
Speaker 2: spend the night there. We're not going to see him
Speaker 2: the next day until the game. And she's like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 2: Let's let's follow the van. So we drive. We drive
Speaker 2: behind the you know, the sports the team bus for
Speaker 2: about an hour hour ten. We get to the hotel
Speaker 2: and she says, go in and check. So I go in.
Speaker 2: I'm standing there, really weird. I see the team manager
Speaker 2: and he's like, you know, he's looking and be weird,
Speaker 2: and you know, he waves and I wave back, and
Speaker 2: I come back and I give the report to my wife.
Speaker 2: He's okay. And that was the first game now he's
Speaker 2: been to i'd say probably ten cities in Saudi by himself.
Speaker 2: They fly as a team the night before and I
Speaker 2: just realized, he's just becoming more independent. It's forcing him
Speaker 2: to mature a lot faster. And it's been it's been
Speaker 2: good in general. That's off the field. On the field,
Speaker 2: his game has evolved while he was While he was
Speaker 2: i'd say playing here here in Georgia, there weren't there
Speaker 2: weren't that many aspects of the game that he had
Speaker 2: to he had to work on, because you know, he
Speaker 2: had gone such great training and good understanding of the
Speaker 2: game from his coaches here, but having to interpret everything
Speaker 2: from hand gestures and and just things getting yelled out
Speaker 2: has made him a bit more patient, more insightful. So,
Speaker 2: but yeah's a lot of a lot of maturity in
Speaker 2: a short time.
Speaker 3: Chateau. How different is it?
Speaker 1: I mean, your dad mentions driving an hour and ten minutes,
Speaker 1: so that's basically like from Alpha Rered to Midtown during
Speaker 1: rush hour, and so now doing that with the family
Speaker 1: over in Saudi Arabia? How different is it from a
Speaker 1: a game day perspective of preparation perspective.
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 3: You know, how how odd a situation.
Speaker 1: Is this, at least initially for you because you were
Speaker 1: used to things here growing up, now you're over there.
Speaker 1: How different is over there in the Middle East versus
Speaker 1: here in Georgia.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was really different.
Speaker 4: I remember growing up, like before our games, me and
Speaker 4: my family, we'd always have pizza on Friday night. So
Speaker 4: we do that with my family every night on Fridays
Speaker 4: before my game.
Speaker 2: We'd do that and then I.
Speaker 4: Kind of wake up, we'd watch the Premier League mornings
Speaker 4: on the TV and then kind of just head out
Speaker 4: to my game an hour maybe two hours before we'd
Speaker 4: warm up and we'd start the game here.
Speaker 2: It's huge shock.
Speaker 4: I mean I think the night before, maybe two or
Speaker 4: three hours after I get out of school, I head
Speaker 4: to the club and then we, like you said, we
Speaker 4: take the team bus to the hotel and then we
Speaker 4: have dinner together. We sleep together in the hotel as well,
Speaker 4: and then we wake up. We do a little bit
Speaker 4: of team preparation, we do a team meeting, then after
Speaker 4: that we head to the field and then we do
Speaker 4: our actual warm up and then we play the game.
Speaker 4: And it was just the first few games. It was
Speaker 4: rough because I was used to my routine back here
Speaker 4: and it took some getting used to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was really the difference.
Speaker 1: Meeting catching up with the Gamadi's because one of them
Speaker 1: is playing over in Saudier, and we figured we grab
Speaker 1: on to him before he has to go back and
Speaker 1: actually play with al shababsu fifteens, son and father hanging
Speaker 1: out with us here for an odd man rush.
Speaker 3: On a two v one here on the SDH network.
Speaker 1: So you know, Kuma, you mentioned how it is with
Speaker 1: you and the boss making sure that everything is okay
Speaker 1: on on a daily basis. How difficult is it for
Speaker 1: you when you're over there knowing he has a job
Speaker 1: to do and knowing that he has some learning to do.
Speaker 1: How difficult is it to be a parent and want
Speaker 1: to understand that he's safe and that he's okay, but
Speaker 1: at the same time lay back a little bit and understand, okay,
Speaker 1: he has to learn this kind of stuff to grow.
Speaker 1: How difficult a clutch in a gas situation is that
Speaker 1: for the family watching him grow?
Speaker 2: Yeah, letting go has been pretty difficult for us because
Speaker 2: we move as a as a group, all of us.
Speaker 2: We go to each other's games, like Door that does
Speaker 2: horse riding, so we all go and watch that. And
Speaker 2: just because it's such a professional environment, there is no
Speaker 2: place to you know, you don't even watch practices, you
Speaker 2: don't go to any of the trainings. It's it's an
Speaker 2: actual stadium where you know, you need a special permission
Speaker 2: to enter the training facilities. So it's been, it's been.
Speaker 2: It's been difficult, say to let go, because I mean
Speaker 2: I see him as, you know, a young teenager. His
Speaker 2: mom sees him as a still a two year old.
Speaker 2: So at fifteen, just to you know, pull back that
Speaker 2: much and just watch the games. It's both refreshing but
Speaker 2: still a bit difficult.
Speaker 1: So you know, Slie, let me ask when it comes
Speaker 1: to where you think your game is. Obviously there are
Speaker 1: stages of growth, stages of development. How different a player
Speaker 1: are you from when you first went over to now?
Speaker 1: Where has your game changed? I'm not going to ask
Speaker 1: about what else you need to work on, because I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a growth curve, and that that curve
Speaker 1: is going to be there for a while. But how
Speaker 1: different a player and a person are you in just
Speaker 1: that little time coming over? Being somewhat sequestered, You're you're
Speaker 1: having to focus on football pretty much every chance you get.
Speaker 1: How different are you?
Speaker 2: It's an excellent question.
Speaker 4: I've been talking to my dad about this a lot because,
Speaker 4: like I said before, back here i played, I played
Speaker 4: left wing and I really really came to love it.
Speaker 2: I enjoyed it.
Speaker 4: And now I'm playing striker and it requires a lot
Speaker 4: more patience. You know, you get much much less touches
Speaker 4: on the ball, and it's it's difficult for me because
Speaker 4: I'm not typically a patient person, and my dad's been
Speaker 4: telling me I need to watch on Sierry Henri play.
Speaker 4: He touched the ball so little, but he was very
Speaker 4: effective in his job. And yeah, right now, I'm just
Speaker 4: working on that kind of making the right runs, timing
Speaker 4: my runs, and just learning how to play like a
Speaker 4: true proper nine opposed to netling, which is what I'm
Speaker 4: used to.
Speaker 3: If my math is right.
Speaker 1: The next matchup is going coming up against Alula, I think,
Speaker 1: yeah in the morning on the ninth, So literally it's
Speaker 1: like a couple of days left and you've got to
Speaker 1: fly over. You've got to get ready for the next
Speaker 1: match up against Alula in the U fifteenth. It's amazing
Speaker 1: what Google will do when you're sitting there and you're
Speaker 1: trying to research in a hurry.
Speaker 3: It's like, when's this next match? You're trying to figure
Speaker 3: out what's going on?
Speaker 1: How How often Kuma does the family go over as
Speaker 1: a group? Is it just you and his mom?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: How how much interaction are you allowing yourselves? Is it
Speaker 1: back and forth? Are you also are you all there
Speaker 1: with him this entire time? What's the layout?
Speaker 2: So to the games? So training, we don't go for
Speaker 2: the games generally. If I am available, I will go
Speaker 2: with my wife. There have been a couple of games
Speaker 2: where we've all been, but that's just been one or
Speaker 2: two games. It's just me, me and me and my
Speaker 2: wife at the games.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so do you you know sha te Do you
Speaker 1: look up? Do you look for them? Or do you
Speaker 1: just like it's like, do you know you come out
Speaker 1: of the tunnel. Do you try to find them and
Speaker 1: then focus and lock back in or is it kind
Speaker 1: of a continuous experience where it's like, Okay, I'm out,
Speaker 1: I see them. At one time, I know they're there.
Speaker 1: I'm out, I'm doing my work. I look back.
Speaker 3: I still I see that they're there.
Speaker 1: They've gone to the concession stand and got things that
Speaker 1: I like that I can have.
Speaker 3: I mean, what's it? Are you looking for them? Are you?
Speaker 3: Are you seeing them? And how much of a comfort
Speaker 3: level is that when you do see them?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, my mom and dad can tell you. I'm always looking.
Speaker 4: Even during I remember one walk out, I saw them
Speaker 4: come in and I couldn't help leaving. I know you're
Speaker 4: supposed to be serious and professional, but I had to leave.
Speaker 4: So what happens is when we enter the stadium, at
Speaker 4: first I check, and during our warm up I'm looking,
Speaker 4: and then usually right before kickoff happens, you're there. If not,
Speaker 4: maybe five ten minutes into the game. I'm there, and
Speaker 4: it's honestly just a sense of me knowing you have
Speaker 4: people there to support.
Speaker 3: Me good deals.
Speaker 1: So now that they're there, now that you're there to
Speaker 1: support and we talked about letting go and learning and
Speaker 1: all these kinds of things you mentioned Tierry on Rikuma
Speaker 1: about you know, hey, watch tape of this guy. What's
Speaker 1: it like to see him be different and now be
Speaker 1: a striker And where are you kind of steering his
Speaker 1: youtubeian habits and video habits to continue to have him grow.
Speaker 2: So there's only so much I can do because I
Speaker 2: was a soccer player too, and I was a striker,
Speaker 2: but not a very good one. So I let the
Speaker 2: professionals he's not amazing coaches, I let them do a
Speaker 2: lot of the showing and then I try to, you know,
Speaker 2: give him a few tips from you know, the really
Speaker 2: really great players and see what he can pick up
Speaker 2: from from there. I gave him the example because when
Speaker 2: all ready went to Barcelona, he just made so many
Speaker 2: runs and was just available whether to drag players away,
Speaker 2: which took a lot of Pati from being the main
Speaker 2: man in the EPL to kind of playing a support
Speaker 2: role almost at Barcelona, which was, Uh, you know something
Speaker 2: I think all young players can can can learn from.
Speaker 1: And at the same time, you also learned that you
Speaker 1: were supposed to listen to your coaches because Pep Guardiola
Speaker 1: will be more than happy to bench Tierran Raef. He's
Speaker 1: not paying attention to the collective when it comes to
Speaker 1: all of the information. Uh what let me so then
Speaker 1: let me let me ask you both this and Chautal.
Speaker 3: I'll start with you. What advice would you give someone
Speaker 3: of your.
Speaker 1: Age who might be thinking about doing something in a
Speaker 1: far flung land. It's not like going, It's like I'm not,
Speaker 1: you know, moving over to Oak Mountain and Birmingham to
Speaker 1: go and be at.
Speaker 3: Oak Mountain High School.
Speaker 1: But if there were opportunities overseas in other countries, what
Speaker 1: would you tell folks that are your age, with men
Speaker 1: and women, boys and girls about these kinds of opportunities?
Speaker 1: What would you tell them about either if they're calling
Speaker 1: where to go, what to expect? What would you what
Speaker 1: would you tell folks for your age about this kind
Speaker 1: of experience.
Speaker 4: So I'd say first to just embrace it and take
Speaker 4: it for what it is. Obviously it's a little it's
Speaker 4: a little nerve racking at first, but you have to
Speaker 4: really see it for what it is. It's an opportunity
Speaker 4: to learn and go your game, and I think that's
Speaker 4: really important for young people's experience. I think also additionally,
Speaker 4: what you have to do is you have to be
Speaker 4: brave and kind of confident. You have to understand your abilities,
Speaker 4: and if you don't believe in yourself, nobody else will.
Speaker 4: And I think that's really important, and that that kind
Speaker 4: of helped me to kind of earn my spot and
Speaker 4: to be able to perform how I perform right now.
Speaker 4: And then last year, I think you should expect for
Speaker 4: me personally, the people are very welcoming and kind, and
Speaker 4: that's that's something you have to kind of hope for.
Speaker 4: And I think it also really helped me this. I
Speaker 4: would be people are very welcoming and very kind to
Speaker 4: me on my arrival.
Speaker 1: All right, So Kima, what about the adults and converse
Speaker 1: like this? What would you tell them and what would
Speaker 1: you what advice would you give or what would you
Speaker 1: sit there and say, Okay, expect ABC D and E.
Speaker 1: If an opportunity like this, whether it's Saudi Arabi or elsewhere,
Speaker 1: comes call him.
Speaker 2: I'd say take the opportunity jump all in. You will
Speaker 2: not regret it? And will I'll add a story to it?
Speaker 2: And can I tell the story? I always have to
Speaker 2: ask his permission because it involves one of his new friends.
Speaker 2: Just just the impact of move like this has on individuals,
Speaker 2: the people they meet and the friends. There was a
Speaker 2: day I was going out with our youngest and schat said,
Speaker 2: can I come to the park with you guys? And
Speaker 2: I said, sure, come on, come along, and we get
Speaker 2: there and he goes, Dad, can I go to Chris's house? Later?
Speaker 2: I go who's Chris? He says Chris Junior? I said,
Speaker 2: who's Chris Junior? He says Ronald Son. And I looked
Speaker 2: at him. I said, you do not know Ronaldo's son.
Speaker 2: Five minutes in and I'm walking away from him, a
Speaker 2: young man comes into the park saying calling Shata Shata,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, okay, you're kidding, right, So I call
Speaker 2: his mom over. I called his mom on the phone
Speaker 2: and I say, do you know anything about this? And
Speaker 2: she goes, yeah, he talks about him sometimes. Anyways, they
Speaker 2: play a little game, A crowd starts to build on
Speaker 2: the outside, and as they're leaving, Chris says shatte don't
Speaker 2: forget about tomorrow, and I go, so it was to
Speaker 2: So I call him mom again and I go, Okay,
Speaker 2: we've got to figure out what's going on here. I
Speaker 2: ask him how does he know him? He gives me
Speaker 2: the regular teenage thing, a one or two word answer.
Speaker 2: And the reason for this story is, I mean, these
Speaker 2: are friends that you're gonna make in just keep for
Speaker 2: a lifetime. But what are the chances that chat you know,
Speaker 2: meets Chris Junior and actually has a relationship of friendship
Speaker 2: with him. I volunteered to take him over the next
Speaker 2: day so I can see Ronaldo. I will confirm I
Speaker 2: did not see Ronaldo. I tried a few times waiting
Speaker 2: outside the house, but it was, I mean it was.
Speaker 2: It's just amazing the relationships, the friendships, and and and
Speaker 2: the experiences that they would have just leaving, you know,
Speaker 2: like in our in our case, Phtree City, our little
Speaker 2: bubble has just been great for him soccer wise and
Speaker 2: just development wise as a young man.
Speaker 1: Well, gentlemen, it's great to catch you back here on
Speaker 1: this side of the Atlantic, inside the state of Georgia
Speaker 1: as you are balancing spring break and playing in the
Speaker 1: U fifteen's in the Saudi League up at El Sha Bob.
Speaker 1: It's great to catch up with you both, Kum and
Speaker 1: shot Kamada.
Speaker 3: Guys. Just be safe, have fun, enjoy the experience.
Speaker 1: Don't be strangers and knock on our door anytime and
Speaker 1: let us know what's going on. And I found out
Speaker 1: how to watch the matches. I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: a subscription service or not. Found out how to watch
Speaker 1: them so early in the morning's going up against the
Speaker 1: Premier League. There's some stuff going on at ninety five am.
Speaker 1: We can watch it going on with Al Shabab.
Speaker 3: Guys.
Speaker 1: Thanks for dropping by for a two v one and
Speaker 1: thanks for the education. Just be safe, have fun. We'll
Speaker 1: catch up with you soon.
Speaker 2: Hey you John, what's a pleasure