As he rode east on the highway, Bernard Kamungo wasn't sure what to expect.
A car trip from his home in Abilene, Texas to Frisco was hardly the most arduous journey he'd been on with his older brother Imani. The entire Kamungo family moved to Central Texas from a refugee camp in Tanzania five years earlier, speaking little English and with little knowledge about what life would be like in the Lone Star State.
Still, there was something different about this journey.
Bernard was trying to find his path after high school, and he didn't know if soccer would be part of it. Imani was convinced his sibling had a gift. He'd been searching online for open tryouts with professional clubs and promised Bernard he'd fund it.
"Before we went to North Texas there was another tryout for $500," Imani said. "I told Bernard, 'I’m going to pay $500 so you can do this tryout,' but Bernard was scared because that’s a lot of money.
"I was saying, 'It’s my money and I trust you. I know you can do it,' but Bernard was scared. I tried to go on Google again and found the other one for North Texas and he was like, 'Yeah, let’s do it.'”
At $90, the January tryout for FC Dallas’ USL affiliate was more affordable, and with the pressure off, Bernard was free to do his thing with the ball. It didn’t take long to pique the attention of head coach Eric Quill.
“I saw out of the corner of my eye a moment of individualism on the ball where Bernard picked up the ball and beat the first guy with really a lot of skill and savvy and then next guy steps to him, he flies by him and then plays a third guy in, and I was like, 'Wow, that's pretty high-level stuff right there,'” Quill said.
Days later, he was signed to a two-year contract and, according to Quill, will likely slot in as a starter for North Texas when the season opens Saturday against Fort Lauderdale CF.
That may not surprise Imani or the coaches who have observed him over the last few months, but Bernard said he needed his brother’s support to push him to give the professional game a try.
“I knew I was a great player, but my mind wasn’t there yet. I wasn’t thinking I was better than what he expected,” Bernard said. “I went over there [to the NTSC tryout], did whatever I could do and I’d say almost everybody liked me there. I was so impressed. I didn’t know there were going to be so many people there. It’s a really good feeling.”
The feeling is even better because of just how far he’s come. It was in the refugee camp in East Africa that Bernard fell in love with the game — a passion that sometimes went a bit too far.
“Some days you live without eating food, the next day you need to go and find food,” Imani said. “Bernard, soccer was his life. Even though he didn’t eat one day, the next day, someone would tell him, 'we need to eat,' and another person said, 'we should go play soccer,' he will choose soccer over the food.”
Soccer, of course, brought moments of joy and smiles to the faces of the players, but, Bernard remembers, not always. The matches were extremely physical with some defenders resorting to unorthodox techniques to try to get the ball off Bernard, putting in tackles more fit for American football than the beautiful game.
The family received the opportunity to resettle in Abilene, where the International Rescue Committee has an office. A little more than 1,000 former refugees now call Abilene home, according to a 2019 estimate by the city’s IRC director. Many are from Tanzania and, like the Kamungos, speak Swahili as a first language.
Despite the language and cultural barriers, Bernard said he found life in Abilene to be “just chill. There’s no problems out there.”
He had even less of a learning curve on the soccer field.
“It wasn't really challenging to me,” he said. “Every time I was playing in high school games, they used to put like two people, three people on me... I wasn't enjoying it anymore. I felt like, it's just not my level.”
Now, he’ll be able to play up to that level, with Quill saying he even drew the attention of the first-team coaching staff when NTSC and FCD squared off in preseason.
Between Bernard's efforts, Imani's belief and the club seeing his promise, Bernard is a professional soccer player.
"The day Bernard signed his contract for North Texas, I was about to cry," Imani said. "I’ve been waiting for that to happen, and I’m glad we did it."
Bernard’s story is a good one, a happy beginning to what could be a successful pro career. Quill said the club will make sure he gets on the radar of the Tanzania Football Federation for potential youth and senior national team opportunities in the future.
Yet, he’s also a bit bothered that Bernard needed the push from Imani in the first place and that he was discovered by coming to a pro team rather than the other way around.
“It really puts back in perspective the possibility [that] we're missing something in even the smallest towns across the country, which means we need to respect these smaller towns, need more ID opportunities,” Quill said. “The other thing, which sort of makes me a little bit sad, is this kind of talent has been in Abilene for four years, and nobody's picked up the phone to promote this player to an organization when you've seen a special talent.
“That's a little concerning. Because I don't care if you've never kicked the ball in your life, when you watch this kid play, and you see the ease in which he orchestrates himself around the field against opponents, it’s the obligation of somebody to say, 'alright, this kid needs an opportunity.'”
Now, he’s getting one and he’s ready to make the most of it. It’s hard to know exactly what to expect from Bernard in his first matches against pros. Against the top high school players in “the Big Country,” he was easily able to get nearly anywhere he wanted on the field with a few slickly executed maneuvers.
Imani remembers Bernard waking up early to watch European soccer matches and pointing out different moves each player could attempt, and Imani says he uses Man City ace Kevin De Bruyne and PSG star Neymar as models for his game.
Those guys have a lot of sauce. Is that what people can expect from you, he’s asked.
“Oh, yes. That’s something they should know that’s coming for sure,” he said.