Southernminn.com
By CHRIS REINEKE Guest Contributor
Wednesday September 13, 2023
In front is coach and organizer Mohamed. In back, left to right, are coach Abdinasir, coach Mubashir, head of league Abdulaziz Abdullah, and coach Abdiwasa. (Chris Reineke/southernminn.com)
The 10-1 final score of the first Somali Youth Soccer League final Sunday in Faribault wasn’t the most important thing. It was more about the smiles and exercise.
“Today was such a fun day. I really appreciate people taking the time out of their day to come and watch,” said Masalah Hussein.
The event was set up for four teams to get kids more exercise and busy during the summer. Most recently, a summer soccer league was started among the Somali community, and it has been a huge success. The kids have been participating all summer in the SYSL and last week were the semifinals in the kids and young men leagues.With teams named after those in Europe’s biggest professional soccer leagues, Liverpool and Manchester City came out on top for the kids league, and Bayern and Manchester United for the young men. The league is separated into age groups for safety and fairness of matches. Liverpool dominated the final at 10-1 in the kids league, while Manchester United lost in penalty kicks (4-2), with Bayern taking the cup home, in the young men league.
After the games, there was food and trophies handed out.
“A lot of effort was put in to make this event a success, I’m really glad the kids and attendees had a great time,” said Abdulaziz Abdullahi, SYSL manager and head organizer in charge of the event. “I hope we can do more great projects like these. I believe that SYSL is going to spread to communities, families and cities because this is a big project and I have a big future for this project.”
Abdullahi also thanked everyone who came out to the event and people who supported the big project, along with a special thanks to Yussuf Noor for his tremendous effort and help to make this event a great success.