Sierra Leone’s Alfred Koroma the future of US Soccer

Photo (c) Rivals.com

US Men’s soccer just found its holy grail in Sierra Leone’s Alfred Koroma who may be heading to Europe once he’s eligible to play in April. In Koroma, men’s soccer now has a player with pace, natural dribbling ability, and understanding of the game. Born in Sierra Leone, Koroma now a US Citizen moved to the States in 2003 at the age of 9. He grew up in the Dallas/Fort Worth area where he lived with his mother.

Photo (C) USSoccer

He was recruited after he appeared in the 2006 Dallas cup final.

Koroma was accepted into US soccer’s residency program and moved to Florida where he was the youngest player in the program.

He played for the US men’s national team at the 2011 under 17 world cup, emerging as the best hope for US goals as his versitility proved a constant threat to opposition defences. After starring at the U-17 worldcup and scoring wondergoals like this one, Koroma trained in Sweden’s AIK in August where he met with fellow Sierra Leoneans Porbosky Bangura and Tetteh Bangura. And in this video interview, Koroma talks about being able to develop his game and learn from players like Porbosky while training at AIK.

Koroma’s 1st goal at that 2006 Dallas cup final reminded me of the performance of  another prodigy, Freddy Adu. For a myriad of reason’s, Adu’s career did not live up expectations although, now at 22 things seem to be looking up.

However, Alfred Koroma has a much better chance of developing into a world class player. First, he’s already putting in work early by training in Europe with better players. And Second at 6 ft and 160 lbs., Koroma’s size and strength will not be a hindrance as again watching Adu back in those United days, it was truly a case of boy amongst men as the dimunitive Adu was easily knocked off balls by players twice his size. Time will tell if my predictions are correct, but when you hear the name Alfred Koroma as one of the stars of the 2018 worldcup, remember you heard it hear first.