“In 2008, I went to the Czech Republic and I was sitting in this small cafe in Prague,” Chase Neidig, a sports developer for Tourbeau Sports Group, said. “There was a boy there and he wouldn’t talk to me; he didn’t know one sentence of English. But when I pulled out a soccer ball, his eyes lit up.”
Neidig wants to use that shared connection to help the Gambia, a small country in West Africa. His charitable organization, SoccerSphere, plans to go there, donate soccer equipment, run soccer camps and scout for possible soccer scholarship recipients.
Neidig has chosen the Gambia as the first destination because he spent his elementary school years there while his family did medical missions work in remote areas of the country.
“When you have a connection to somewhere, you want to touch their lives,” Neidig said. “I’ve always wanted to be able to go back and use the resources and network I’ve developed to give back in a humanitarian way.”
Neidig said that he wanted to give back because the Gambia already gave him so much.
“It taught me to not take things for granted,” Neidig said. “I didn’t know when the water would be running or when the electricity would be on. It opened my eyes to life.”
Neidig had been hoping for an opportunity to return to the Gambia for several years.
“The biggest problem was actually getting in to the country, making sure the visas were approved, talking to the right officials and things like that,” Neidig said. “I kind of just left it to fate.”
Fate came through. A former classmate of Neidig’s from the Gambia recently contacted Neidig on Facebook.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Neidig said. “It’s just fate.”
The classmate’s father is an executive with a top Gambian football team and has been able to help SoccerSphere acquire the documents required for entry to the Gambia. The classmate also offered to let SoccerSphere staff stay in his family’s home in the Gambia.
While in the Gambia, SoccerSphere hopes to do several things. First, it will take donated soccer equipment from the United States and give it to those in need in the Gambia.
“If you could only see their smiles on their faces when we hand them cleats,” Neidig said. “That alone says it was worth it to me.”
Second, it will run day-long soccer camps in the communities to which it gives equipment.
Finally, it will scout players in the Gambia and provide reports to college coaches.
“We won’t charge the coaches,” Neidig said. “We want [players] to get a scholarship, but we also want them to have a better life.” Many colleges have money set aside for international student scholarships, Neidig said.
Neidig acknowledges that things might be difficult on this first trip. But he sees the trip to the Gambia as a test run for future trips. SoccerSphere has connections in South America, Nigeria, Kenya and North Africa.
Clearly, Neidig has big plans for SoccerSphere.
“What better way is there to mesh people with different backgrounds together than with a common interest: soccer,” Neidig said. “When you develop something because of that, doors open.”
