The academy formed as part of Chivas’s sangre nueva (new blood) effort to develop young talent. While at a player identification try-out in 2005 for young players that Chivas Guadalajara put on in San Bernardino (it drew 15,000 players and showed the top brass in Mexico that there was the potential for a US-based team; later that year Chivas USA was founded), Alexis was identified by then scout Dennis te Kloese. Esmaldo and Gilbert kept in contact with te Kloese and when Chivas decided to establish actual affiliated academies in the United States, South Valley Chivas become the second one.

Photo: South Valley Chivas Academy

While it might seem odd that a club based in Guadalajara, Mexico would seek a partnership with a youth club in California’s Central Valley, it makes sense when one considers the history of Mexican migration to that area to work in its expansive agricultural fields. Esmaldo Hernandez estimates that around 75% of the players in the academy are Mexican or Mexican-American. The Hernandez brothers estimate that half of the players in the academy are children of farmworkers, which creates many challenges. Although they try to keep the costs low, the $35 monthly fee is too much for many. Gilbert and Esmaldo do fundraising in the community and even chip in their own money to help players, half of whom receive scholarships, to be part of South Valley Chivas.

The location of the academy also proves a formidable challenge. Located in the small town of Porterville (population 30,000) in Tulare County (the poorest in California) in the middle of the Central Valley, well known for agriculture, which has fields that stretch as far as the eye can see. Yet these are agricultural, not soccer, fields, and finding opponents often involves a long drive. The nearest serious competition is 75 miles away in Fresno; Los Angeles is 3 hours away. Chivas USA has invited players from the academy to come to events in LA, but when Esmaldo has told parents about the opportunity, some have expressed reluctance because they can’t afford to take their kids. “They say, ‘I can’t go, I have to work.’ And it’s not just one or two. Pretty soon, you need a bus load because it’s 20 kids who can’t afford it.”

Farmworkers in Tulare County (photo: Humboldt Magazine)

Getting to games is a challenge for the academy’s teams, and as a result it is often difficult to get their players noticed by scouts and coaches from professional and college teams. Players who Chivas USA might be interested in having join their academy can’t spend the time or money to take the three times a week trip to LA. Chivas Guadalajara has shown interest in some players as well (and indeed some have gone to play with their youth teams for tournaments like Copa Chivas), but for many parents, especially those who don’t have papers to be in the US, the idea of sending their kid to Mexico to join that team’s youth academy is off-putting. “What good is it going to do to have my son over there [in Mexico],” Esmaldo has heard several say, “if I can’t even leave the country?”

In addition, the move by US Soccer to establish a development academy system in 2007 has, ironically, marginalized clubs like the South Valley Chivas Academy that are not a part of it. While the academy almost made the cut, it was not one of the select group of clubs chosen and thus does not receive the support and scouting that those within the system do. When informed of this decision, Gilbert was disappointed, but told US Soccer, “it’s a good thing what you’re doing with the academy system, but for us, what you’re doing is just making it that much harder for some of these kids to be looked at.” He insists: “There is talent here. There’s just not the funding to do anything with these kids.”

Being Mexican-American helps Esmaldo and Gilbert Hernandez connect to academy players as well as their families. But there are some areas in which cultural differences make it a challenge for them to achieve the academy’s goals. 75% of players on the boys teams, for example, are Latinos while only 25% of players on the girls teams are Latinas. Little by little, Esmaldo says, they are seeing changing gender norms that are allowing more Latinas to play. “But still,” he says, “you’ve got old Mexican customs that girls aren’t supposed to play soccer.”

South Valley Chivas girls 1998 team (photo: South Valley Chivas Academy)

In addition, while Gilbert tries to help players to do everything necessary in order to ensure they are eligible to play at the college level (in his day job, he works for the local schools), he often has to fight against cultural norms, including the desire of parents as well as their children to keep family members close by. “For many, it’s like they are still living in Mexico,” says Gilbert. For them, the idea of going several hours or farther to play college soccer can be a tough sell. In some cases, talented players end up getting lured to play in local unaffiliated leagues made up primarily of Latino players. Gilbert and Esmaldo say that the success Alexis and Amber have had has shown some the possibilities that are out there, but it continues to be a tough slog.

The Hernandez brothers say they continue to do the work to support the academy because they want to see youngsters from the community (where they both grew up) succeed. Although they face many obstacles, they hope to see their hard work bear fruit. With half a dozen of their current U18 team being looked at by college coaches and some having interested pro teams in Mexico, their efforts appear to be paying off. The poverty and remoteness in the Central Valley may be obstacles, but South Valley Chivas is helping to overcome them in order to develop talented players. “If you have talent, someone needs to look at you,” says Esmaldo. “Talent is talent, no matter who you are.”

Assyriska fans hold up a giant Assyrian flag in support of their team

Assyriska was founded in 1974 by Assyrian immigrants to Sweden. Most of the founding members worked at a local truck factory who formed the club to play soccer in their free time. From those modest beginnings, the club slowly rose through the ranks of Swedish soccer.

In 2003, they made it to the Swedish Cup final, losing to established power Elfsborg. One year later, the team of founded by Assyrian immigrant factory workers won promotion to the Swedish Premier Division. The reaction was pure jubilation. The club marketing director Robil Haidari said, “At that moment we just felt such enormous joy, I figured everybody in the world is Assyrian now, even God is Assyrian, or at least a supporter.”

Assyrian residents of the town of Södertälje, the Swedish town where Assyriska are from, were similarly overwhelmed. Local resident Abraham Staifo attempted to explain his emotions:

It encouraged the young ones to feel pride in being what they are, and brought tears to the eyes of the elderly. It was so much more than just football. The Assyrian people have few opportunities to express themselves. We felt our hearts would shoot out from our chests. That is why the elderly cried.

Reaching these dizzying heights brought recognition to the team, not least among the estimated 2 million Assyrians living around the world. Club president Zeiki Bisso told FIFA’s website, “For all of us who were oppressed in our home countries for many years … this felt superb, it was something every Assyrian wanted to take pride in.”

Indeed, at times it seemed like nearly every Assyrian did take pride in the club’s success. Its matches were broadcast in 83 countries and the diaspora spoke about the team in glowing terms. Assyriska team scarves began to appear far from Sweden, including by Nick Dinkha, a Toronto resident.

The pride fans around the world expressed in Assyriska has everything to do with the often sad history of the Assyrian people. The Assyrians are indigenous to current-day Iraq and have lived there for thousands of years. They were one of the first groups to convert to Christianity. Even as many around them in the Middle East later converted to Islam, Assyrians continued to practice their religion.

Assyrians’ historical relationship with their neighbors is fraught with flare-ups of violence. Assyrians have been the subject of campaigns of oppression that has risen to the level of mass murder on several occasions. In 2003, political analyst Jonathan Eric Lewis wrote in Middle East Quarterly that of the events of 1915 when up to two-thirds of the Assyrian community of southeastern Turkey and northern Iran was physically decimated in a matter of months. Lewis also documents a 1933 event in which nearly 3000 people were killed by Iraqi and Kurdish fighters, the anniversary of which is a national day of mourning for Assyrians around the world.

Ottoman soldiers stand over the bodies of murdered Assyrians

In Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, things were not much better. Speaking the Assyrian language and advocating Assyrian nationalism were both criminalized. Many left the country and this exodus has accelerated since the US overthrew Hussein in 2003. The violence in Iraq is often described as a battle between Sunnis and Shiites, but Iraqi Christians have been intimidated and murdered across the country. When prominent Iraqi Assyrian leader Isaac Esho Alhelani was murdered earlier this month, he joined the ranks of many Christians targeted for their beliefs or their perceived wealth. Assyrians account for only three to five percent of the Iraqi population, but have accounted for roughly 40 percent of that country’s refugees.

Those leaving Iraq today are going to countries with established Assyrian populations. The United States has around 83,000 Assyrians, Jordan 77,000, and Sweden is third among diaspora countries with 35,000 Assyrians. Despite the growing numbers of Assyrians living around the world, many wish for their own country.

It is into this statelessness that a small Swedish soccer club founded by Assyrian immigrants entered. entered. Many claim Assyriska’s popularity is due to it being seen as a pseudo-national team. Club president Zeki Bisso says that “Assyriska feels like a national team for the entire [Assyrian] group.”

Assyriska has since been relegated back to the second division in Sweden. Its importance, however, has not been diminished. For the Assyrian population around the world, Assyriska is not just a soccer team; it is the most visible expression of national pride for an oppressed people without a nation.

Assyriska players celebrate after a goal

Further Information

A movie about Assyriska called A Team Without a Nation was made in 2006. I have not seen it, but would love to hear about it if anyone has.

Here are some of the most interesting highlights:

• Athletic Bilbao have been one of the most successful clubs in Spanish history. They have won the Spanish league title 8 times (most recently in 1983-84). Perhaps even more impressive, they have never been relegated from the top division.
• Bilbao are seen as a symbol of the Basque country. Their role in Basque identity is extremely important (indeed, Basque flags appeared to outnumber those of Athletic Bilbao in the stands of yesterday’s game). Fans of the club celebrate the success of the team as if it were a Basque national team (an entity that does exist, but which FIFA has refused to recognize).
• The importance of the club to Basque identity can be seen nowhere more powerfully than in their policy of only playing Basque players. To this day, Athletic have a team comprised fully of players who are ethnically Basque (or, in some cases, born in the region).
• This policy of only employing Basque players is seen by some as overly exclusive and impossible to maintain in this era of globalization in which Athletic’s opponents are buying the best players from all over the world. Many fans cite the case of the club’s refusal to buy the half-Basuqe, half-Equitorial Guinean Benjamin as an example of the overly exclusivist.
• Interestingly, while the club only has Basque players, they have not been shy about hiring non-Basque managers. Recent foreigners in charge of the team include Josef “Jupp” Heynckes, Luis Fernandez, and Howard Kendall. It is also of note that the club was founded by British sailors and only in the early years of its existence did it develop its policy of Basque exclusivity.
  
• A poll in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo in the mid-1990s found that 76% of the team’s fans would rather their club be relegated than give up their policy of having exclusively Basque players. Currently sitting in the relegation zone, this valuing of identity over success may be put to the test.
• The most colorfully named award in all of Europe, the pichichi, given to the top goal-scorer in Spain’s La Liga, is named after an early Athletic player who went by that name (but whose given name was Rafael Moreno Aranzadi).
• Athletic Bilbao play in one of the most famous stadiums in Spain, the San Mames, known by its nickname “The Cathedral.” According to Wikipedia, this moniker comes from the fact that “their stadium was built near a church called San Mamés. Mamés was an early Christian thrown to the lions by the Romans. The lions refused to eat Mames and he was later made a saint.”
• Athletic Bilbao may refuse to employ non-Basque players, but they are one of the few clubs (are there others? I’m not sure) in Spain with a female president. The game against Barcelona was the first for new head honcho Ana Urkijo.
• With Barcelona now sporting UNICEF logos on their jerseys, Bilbao are one of the increasingly few clubs without sponsorship on their uniforms. Last year, the management of the club did get approval to seek a jersey sponsor, but as of yet none has been found which would prove significantly lucrative enough to tarnish the red and white stripes which are a symbol of Basque nationalism.