After migrating illegally and pennilessly to New York from Honduras, Nahun Romero is now living his own American dream, as the owner of a football school with hundreds of students that he hopes to transform into a reference in the Big Apple.
For this bricklayer and former defender of the Honduran second division, the most difficult thing six years ago was convincing the parents who trusted a foreigner without documents, contacts, means or references to take care of their children.
“He talked to me about setting up his own construction company,” recalls his wife Sarah, a real estate agent. “I said to him: why not do something related to football? It’s his passion.”
“We started from scratch,” recalls Romero, who is now 39 years old. “Nobody helped us. There was only my wife, who was always by my side. She trained and at the same time worked in construction. It was hard”, he admits.
From the beginning, he wanted to give his small business a professional touch with structured training and quality materials. Each student received a t-shirt with their name upon signing up.
He named the school 5 Star Soccer Academy to convey the idea of excellence, but also to pay homage to the five blue stars on the Honduran flag.
“In Europe, football is a religion. In the United States, it’s a time for children to have fun. But in this little school, you work. We try to develop the players”, explains Idlir Makar, a former Albanian professional who is part of the 12 coaches recruited by Nahun Romero.
With students from more than 50 nationalities, 5 Star Soccer Academy is a reflection of Queens, New York’s most multicultural borough.
“When I went to see how they trained, I was enchanted”, recalled Edgar Urgiles, father of Jaden (12 years old), one of the best on the under-13 team. “It’s professional.”
This midfielder, born in Uzbekistan, the country of his mother, and Ecuadorian father, has been at school for six years. He considers it a “good base”.
In training, the emphasis is on discipline so that children respect their position and build an attacking game, with lots of passing and a European style.
“If all goes well, one day one of them will be a professional player,” says Nahun.
After several years, he finally got a spot on the Astoria Park field, under the RFK bridge, which connects Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan.
It’s a bit like Romero’s backyard, whose house is hundreds of meters away, very close to the park.
Between this location and another, a little further south, it now serves almost 500 children, who begin to shine in youth competitions up to the age of 13, the school’s age limit.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
Kingston is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
