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Paul Valenti and Rory Charcholla weren’t convinced that Abdi Salim would join Empire United Soccer Academy. 

Salim had only completed five years of organized soccer, but Valenti and Charcholla still had driven up from Rochester and spent three hours on Salim’s porch, talking to him about the academy while he babysat his younger siblings. His mother was on her way home, and when she arrived back on Grant St., Salim joined his older brother at a local Buffalo park for practice.

As Empire’s academy director and associate academy director, Charcholla and Valenti always made trips like these, ensuring that every prospect recommendation, every submission to their website’s Player Evaluation Request form, received an answer. Salim, who was entering his junior year of high school, had a note at the end of his: “This player could maybe play beyond school.”

Charcholla and Valenti followed Salim to the park and spoke with Saleman, his older brother, while the pair trained. In the weeks that followed, the two waited for Abdi’s response.

Eventually, the response came through a tryout appearance that summer and a spot on the U17 team. Abdi’s two years with Empire solidified a roster spot at Division-III SUNY Buffalo State, followed by Division-I at Syracuse this year. Abdi won rookie of the year in his only season with the Bengals and transferred to Syracuse for his final three seasons of eligibility — his plan all along, he said. And the Orange’s new centerback — one shaped by physical games of street soccer and one who started all five games for Syracuse (0-3-2, 0-3-2 Atlantic Coast) — accomplished just that.

“He could stay at Buff State, be the guy for four years, be an All-American Division-III,” Charcholla said. “(But to) go into Syracuse, was elite. That’s tough.”

From his video stream of the Orange’s Oct. 24 game against Virginia Tech, Valenti could tell Abdi was cramping. It was the third overtime period in four games. With under five minutes remaining and the Hokies streaking down the left side toward the net, Abdi leapt, extended his leg to block a cross and knocked the ball back.

By the time he booted a clearance into Virginia Tech’s end, he’d broken up two additional passes destined for the Orange’s box, despite the cramping.

“What’s wrong with you? I thought you were a machine?” Valenti texted Abdi right after the game.

“I couldn’t feel my legs,” Abdi messaged back.

Sarah Jimenez-Miles | Design Editor

He, along with the rest of SU’s backline, were “naive” at times throughout its winless season, head coach Ian McIntyre said. But sandwiched between those moments — those glimpses of technical drills with associate head coach Jukka Masalin paying off, those 43 minutes of game time against the Hokies spent down a man — were spans that put Syracuse in position to earn more than two points this season.

Abdi had been a cornerstone of Buffalo State’s backline the previous season, despite numerous Division-I offers. He paired with Saleman, then a junior, and helped them to a 15-4 record by kick-starting the Bengals’ possession-based offense and moving the ball quickly upfield. Abdi’s short-passing, as well as his movement off the ball afterward, started to improve.

“He always told me he was good and I was like, ‘Yeah, alright,’” Saleman said. “But at Buffalo State, I saw. I was like, ‘Damn, he’s probably better than me.’”

Abdi’s development as a defender and an aggressive on-ball player started when he was five years old. He and Saleman walked from their house to their cousins’ and played soccer in parking lots and streets, using t-shirts, cans or sticks to mark the goals. 

After a season with SUNY Buffalo State, Salim transferred to Syracuse. Gavin Liddell | Staff Photographer

The brothers had emigrated from Kenya with their family three years earlier, with their father securing a visa after living in a Kenyan refugee camp. Abdi had contracted malaria and needed to recover before the move. 

Eventually, the family settled in Buffalo.

“My dad said he was waiting a long time to get a visa to come here, so I can only imagine how happy he was when he got it,” Abdi said.

Those experiences shaped Abdi as he developed on the field. Before his first-ever organized soccer game, which was with the Delaware Soccer Club, a family friend of Abdi and Saleman’s knocked on their door with Abdi’s first pair of cleats — Adidas Cobras. Abdi previously played in sneakers on pavement because his mom didn’t want grass stains on his shoes.

The physicality of playing street soccer with his cousins translated to the grass pitch. Abdi rarely practiced the tactics he learned, he said, and only worked headers, free kicks or dribbling with Saleman at local parks.

Late in the second overtime of Syracuse’s tie against Virginia Tech, on the next Hokies rush after Abdi’s earlier clear, a pass cut through a group of Syracuse’s defenders and needed just a final touch before finding its way on net. As a Hokie attacker fell, with Abdi holding off his attempt to direct a shot past Russell Shealy, he kept his left hand raised — pleading that he didn’t force the tackle. 

It was a long way from his first tournament with Empire, when Abdi looked “like a deer in headlights,” Valenti said. The Empire coaches told recruiters that Abdi had potential, though, and that resulted in the Buffalo State scholarship. Abdi’s 2001 birth year allowed him one year of academy eligibility left, pending a letter of recommendation, for a potential career beyond collegiate soccer. 

After an Empire connection with the Columbus Crew vouched for his potential, Abdi participated in the US Soccer Development Academy cup, where Empire finished 10th in the country. McIntyre, watching Abdi for the second time, attended every game, Valenti said.

“Any coach will want that, any player wants to play with it, not many players want to play against it,” Valenti said.

That tournament built the foundation for a relationship that resulted in Abdi officially entering the transfer portal. He departed for Syracuse, filled a hole on the left side of its backline as a right-footed defender and completed the final step of his plan — an unusual one to some Division-I college coaches initially — that led him to Buffalo State in the first place.

“He’s done it,” Saleman said.

Published on November 8, 2020 at 11:34 pm

Contact Andrew: [email protected] | @CraneAndrew