Christopher Saade '24 Recruiting Profile

I promise I will be the most hard working player on the field. I want a chance to play in college but I also aspire to play beyond college. 

Below is an essay about my life. 

I have heard that sports can transcend language and culture. I know that is true. Soccer is a crucial part of my life. It served as a bridge between my past and present.

I was born in كحاله, a small town in Lebanon. As far back as I can remember, I played soccer daily. When I was 5 years old, my brothers and I were the first to wake up in the village. At 7 A.M. we would go out to our balcony with an old deflated ball or a paper ball rolled with tape. It did not matter that an actual ball was too expensive to buy. It felt like our excitement woke everyone up.

We would wait a few hours then either go door to door to recruit friends or simply start a game in the street with rocks as goals and our homemade ball, screaming for more people to come down and play.    As the day went on more friends and children from the neighborhood would join us. When we had enough players our group would head to the school’s outdoor basketball court and scale the 10 foot fences. The younger kids and I would have to be carried or lifted.   There were dozens of us, so it made quite a scene.

When everyone had made it onto the court we would organize into teams of 5 and play tournaments. We would pretend that we were playing in the World Cup as Neymar, Messi or Ronaldo. We would play until it got dark and then we’d find a city light to play rondos, a kind of monkey in the middle for soccer.  When we finally got home we were filthy. Even then we would go out on a balcony and use our muddy shoes as mini goals and play until we had to go to sleep. Then we would wake up and do it again.

School did get in the way sometimes. Languages were mandatory and we had classes in our primary language (Arabic), our second language (French), and finally our third language priority was English.  I had English classes, but I was still too young to learn English well.

When I was eight years old my parents were granted a VISA to go and live in the United States. They had been applying for this opportunity for 14 years,  since before I was born.  Now they had six months to decide.  At first my father was reluctant to go. He had spent years working towards opening a business and it was finally successful. However, my mother eventually succeeded in convincing my father to leave it behind for a life in the United States.

The day we left was the best and worst day of my life.  I was excited to go live in the United States. That day everyone in the neighborhood was coming to see us and say goodbye to our family.  It was so emotional that I escaped to the most comfortable place I knew, the streets to play soccer for hours.

I went home when my cousins arrived to take our family to the airport. My parents, my two brothers and my uncle were going to travel to the US for life.  As we drove off I was overwhelmed by what I saw.  Everyone had gone out to their balconies to wish us well and  were waving goodbye one last time.  

When we got to Cleveland my aunt’s family and cousins welcomed us with open arms.  I was nine years old and started the fourth grade just a month after we arrived. On the first day of school I started crying because I was scared that I couldn’t express myself to anyone.  I still didn’t know English and everyone seemed distant. I knew one person at school “Peter” because his mom was friends with my cousin and also Lebanese. Our friendship took time to develop because Peter seemed to see me as an outsider. At home things were difficult in the beginning as well. My father struggled to support us and my parents would argue about returning to Lebanon.

Six months after we left Lebanon, I struggled to fit in.  I thought life wasn’t going to get easier the way it was, so I turned to what I knew best. I asked my Mom to sign me up for soccer. I was worried just as I had been the first day of school, but I quickly learned that the only thing I needed to know was how to say “pass”.  The seasons for that recreation league were brief and I played a lot less than in Lebanon. But, soccer lets me take my mind off everything going on in my life.  Playing soccer felt like being home. 

After a few years of 

playing rec and Rocky River travel team , I wanted to play more and against better competition. My dad had heard of a club called the “Internationals” from a passenger who he was driving for UBER. I wanted to play but the cost, $1,500 per year, was beyond what my dad was capable of paying. But my family knew how important soccer had become to me, so my aunt drove my mom and me to the Internationals facility in Medina.  My mom talked to the coaches and she somehow convinced them to let me go to the practices for free. While I couldn’t play in their games, after 3 or 4 practices I knew it was the right place for me.

Now I play for Rocky River’s High school varsity team in Fall and at a club called Spire in the Spring. I am comfortable speaking English, people even tell me they can’t believe it’s not my first language. Peter is still one of my best friends, but I also have many more. I am comfortable at school and happy. I look back and am thankful that I have had soccer in my life. In fact I hope to play in College and beyond. Whatever happens it will always be a large part of my life.