Eritrean Soccer Players Making a New Home in the US

Last year, 13 players from Eritrea’s national soccer team defected while playing in a tournament in Tanzania.

Several of those players have since ended up in Houston, Texas under a US refugee resettlement program.

Dario Lipovac is the resettlement coordinator for the YMCA in Houston.

He’s also a soccer fanatic.

Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks to Lipovac and former national Eritrean soccer player, Daniel Ogbagebriel Etbarek.

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Lisa Mullins: Many athletes will go home with great memories of the London Games, but some don’t plan to go home at all. Seven athletes from Cameroon vanished from the Olympic village last weekend, five boxers, a swimmer, and a soccer player. A Cameroonian Olympic official suggested they may have defected. Athletic defections are common. Last year thirteen players from the national soccer team of Eritrea defected while they were playing in a tournament in Tanzania. Eritrea is considered one of the world’s most repressive governments. Several of those athletes ended up in Houston, Texas, under a refugee resettlement program. Dario Lipovac is the resettlement coordinator for the YMCA in Houston. He’s also a self-confessed soccer fanatic. He explains how his love of soccer brought the African athletes to the Lone Star state.

Dario Lipovac: The reason why they ended up here, because I love soccer. I grew up on soccer, I always talked about it. People are probably annoyed by it, especially in the states, right?

Mullins: You’re from the former Yugoslavia, we should say.

Lipovac: Well, like in former Yugoslavia everybody played soccer, you know. Soccer was religion. Your team was your church. So I remember how that day when I received a text from my colleague in D.C., it was like oh, do you want Eritrean soccer players. Right? And we help refugees, very rare we get like superstars like these guys, right? So knowing that I’m obssessed with soccer, my colleague, she was like oh, do you want Eritrean soccer players. And I was like sure, that’d be great, right, not even knowing, you know, who these guys are, but like being soccer players, that was enough for me. And that’s how they actually ended up in Houston.

Mullins: Maybe we should talk to Daniel a little bit now. Daniel Ogbagebriel, who is from Eritea, was on the Eritrean national soccer team. So you and your team, the Eritrean soccer team, had gone to Tanzania to compete. Had you planned on defecting at that point?

Daniel Ogbagebriel: Yeah, we need a better life, to have a better life.

Mullins: By the way, Daniel, what position do you play?

Ogbagebriel: I’m a mid-fielder.

Mullins: Mid-fielder? How old are you?

Ogbagebriel: Eighteen, and going to 19, almost 19, yeah.

Mullins: Dario, you were so interested in soccer and in these particular players, that you actually tried to get them some tryouts with the professional soccer team there in Houston, the Dynamo.

Lipovac: You know, they are actually scheduled, registered for tryout on September 22nd.

Mullins: Oh, you’re kidding. So they’re going to be trying out next month.

Lipovac: Yes.

Mullins: Wow.

Lipovac: We are definitely cheering for them. You know, it’s a great opportunity for them. If they don’t make it, you know, they don’t have to feel bad, they’ve tried it.

Mullins: Yeah, absolutely, so this will be September 22nd, tryouts for the Houston Dynamo. Daniel, have you seen the Houston Dynamo play?

Ogbagebriel: Mm-hm.

Mullins: You have. Are the Eriteans better than the Dynamo?

Ogbagebriel: I think so. They are just youngsters, most of all they are youngsters. If you [xx] an opportunity to do it, I am sure that they will like us.

Mullins: I wonder, Dario, what’s maybe the hardest hurdle for Daniel and these other guys, since they’ve been here, since they’ve been in Houston anyway?

Lipovac: There’s a lot of hurdles for them. I mean, there’s, living in a new city is definitely challenging. The Eritrean community in Houston is very welcoming to all seven of the guys. At one point of time, I think somebody ordered soccer cleats for all of them. They’ve already played a tournament in Minnesota, right? In Minnesota. And believe it or not, they ended up second, which is, for me, I told them was disappointing. I would expect them to win.

Mullins: You are hard, Dario.

Lipovac: I know. I’m just kidding. One, can be an obstacle for them, they are doing assembly jobs, Daniel is doing assembly job, right? you know, something to pay his bills, they got to support themselves. They are not training, and they play once a week. That’s definitely a challenge, But we’ll see. I’m very optimistic that these guys, they’re all young, they’re very energetic, they’re optimistic and they’re good guys so, you know, any of the big coaches are going to listen to this, we have all positions available.

Mullins: All positions available. And Daniel, do you have anything to say to any coach who might be listening?

Ogbagebriel: Just give us an opportunity.

Mullins: All right, well, they might have an opportunity to do that in fact. Dario Lipovac social responsibility and resettlement services director for the YMCA in Houston, Texas, as well as friend of Daniel Ogbagebriel Etabarek, who is a professional soccer player from Eritrea now living in Houston, and friend of the six other soccer players who defected last year as they were playing in Tanzania, Dario, good luck, hope you learn a thing or two from Daniel, and Daniel, best of luck to you, and we’ll be rooting for you as you try out for the Houston Dynamo on September 22nd.

Lipovac and Ogbagebriel: Thank you Lisa.

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