Syrian soccer coach
That is what has happened to Osama Abdul Mohsen, one of the refugees tripped-up by Hungarian camera-woman Petra Laszlo on Sept. 8 (Laszlo was soonafter fired by Hungary’s NiTV).
At the time, Mohsen and many others were fleeing police at an overcrowded refugee camp on the Serbian-Hungarian border when Laszlo so cruelly tripped up some of them, including Mohsen, who was carrying his seven-year-old son, Zaid.
It so happens that Mohsen was a high-level soccer coach in Syria, the coach of Al-Fotuwa SC, a top-tiered Syrian club. He’d still be there were it not for being tortured by the regime of Bashir al-Assad and having ISIS move in to the town he was living in. His life has always been soccer, but upon fleeing Syria he was not thinking of anything but safety. He’d worry about making a living for his family once settled.
Coming into the story now is Miguel Ángel Galán, the head of the Cenafe Spanish football coaching federation in Spain. At his home in Spain, Galán read an account of the tripping incident in which the reporter included details about Mohsen’s coaching background.
Therein lies the similarity to Ahmed Mohamed and his invite from Barack Obama on the heels of mistreatment at his school. In this story, Galán, incredibly, was able to contact Mohsen and he offered him a job as a soccer coach with the Cenafe federation sponsoring the family to move to the town of Getafe, near to Madrid.
New life in Spain
The father and two children have already arrived, with the mother and two children expected to make it from Turkey within the next two weeks. Upon his arrival, in broken Spanish, Mohsen told TV cameras he loved Spain while Zaid flashed a peace sign. It was a particularly wonderful moment for Zaid, who had cried after being tripped up on that fateful day.
“I was surprised (when it happened),” Moshen told the El Mundo newspaper in Spain. “And then felt hurt when I saw the fear and panic on my son’s face. Zaid cried for two hours, he was terrified.”
Before he starts coaching full-time, Mohsen will learn Spanish to communicate fully with the players. Meanwhile, he and his family will be settling into a new country and a new life, one that came literally upon the heels of an ugly incident that has now become a blessing.
