This is Yousuf Zetuna’s story, anyway. Zetuna’s family moved from Iraq to Michigan when he was 6, and by the time he was a teenage he was deeply involved with local youth club Vardar. Thanks to a connection with his uncle in Oaxaca, Mexico, Zetuna left Michigan last summer for a fly-by-night trial with Ascenso MX club Alebrijes in the Mexican second division. The club, hewed from the failed ashes of another local club in 2012, has generally hovered around mid-table on the second rung of the Mexican ladder for the breadth of its existence. Zetuna, who traveled to the trial with his younger brother Yohan, impressed. They both did. Alebrijes opted to take both on what’s essentially become an extended trial the club plans on finalizing when the paperwork arrives. Zetuna, who turns 18 in March, is still awaiting is work visa and can’t officially join the first team for competitive matches until then. He expects that to arrive soon, which would precipitate his joining the first team for next season. In the meantime, Zetuna is training with the first team and plays in friendlies (in which he’s appeared in five) and in preseason camps. The club’s been impressed with Zetuna, who’s biding his time until first team minutes arrive. Zetuna’s tale is both unique and more broadly emblematic of the challenging yet rewarding American experience abroad. As an Iraqi-born Michigan native, it’s unlikely he could have even stepped foot in the country during the brief, explosive and divisive roll-out of Donald Trump’s swift travel ban three weeks ago. While that legal battle plays out in the public purview, Zetuna and his brother are criss-crossing Mexico in an effort to break into professional soccer. http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/the9...aqi-born-michigander-found-his-way-to-oaxaca/ We better hope they are citizens or they may not be able to return to the US anytime soon. Blessed to have scored my first professional goal in a pre season friendly! https://t.co/r8K2slzEdj— Yizzy (@Yizzzzzyy) December 23, 2016
I love these bizarre stories. Should be interesting how Vardar's connection to Alebrijexs plays out, this is the first I've heard of it, is this news to others?
Quite a yarn: Yousuf and Yohan Zetuna will often mix in Mexican slang and Spanish words into conversations among themselves. The two teenage brothers and teammates who are awaiting their professional soccer debut will bounce from Spanish, to English, to Arabic, to the Chaldean and Assyrian languages common in the northern region of their native Iraq. They are strangers in a strange land in Oaxaca, a city in southeast Mexico known for its historic architectural gems. It is in Oaxaca that the two Iraqi-born Americans are on the cusp of fulfilling a lifelong goal. In January, Yousuf and Yohan signed professional contracts with Oaxaca's second-division soccer team, the Alebrijes. http://www.espn.com/soccer/club/oax...determination-that-keeps-soccer-dreams-intact
Yousuf still seems to be there -- maybe not Yohan, though. http://www.ligamx.net/cancha/jugador/137003/eyJpZENsdWIiOiAxMTc4MH0=/yousuf-salwan-zetuna
@bungadiri -- Can we combine these two threads? https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/yousuf-zetuna-in-mexico.2038880/#post-35131056