Sport
Siad Haji (Abdulkadir Abdi Haji)
Abdulkadir Abdi "Siad" Haji (born 1 December 1999) is a Somali footballer born in a Kenyan refugee camp and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire. He was the second pick in the 2019 MLS SuperDraft, by the San Jose Earthquakes, and made his debut for Somalia in March 2022.
Who is he?
Abdulkadir Abdi "Siad" Haji is a Somali professional footballer who plays as a winger (Wikipedia, Siad Haji). He was born on 1 December 1999 in a Kenyan refugee camp after his parents fled Somalia, and in 2004 the family moved to New Hampshire (same source). He grew up in a refugee community in Manchester and played youth football for the New Hampshire Classics (same source). See Refugee camps.
College and MLS
He played for New England College, then Virginia Commonwealth University, where he was Atlantic 10 Midfielder of the Year in 2018 (Wikipedia). The San Jose Earthquakes took him second overall in the 2019 MLS SuperDraft, VCU's highest-ever pick (same source). He played on loan at Reno 1868, left San Jose after 2022, joined FC Tulsa in January 2023 and Vermont Green in May 2024 (same source).
Somalia
He played for United States youth teams before choosing Somalia (Wikipedia). He made his Somalia debut in a 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Eswatini on 23 March 2022 (same source).
In short
A refugee-camp-born winger who went second in the MLS draft and then chose to play for Somalia.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Siad Haji · en.wikipedia.org
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