Edward Opoku didn’t plan on attending the event that changed his life.
The Right to Dream Academy, an academy along the Volta River in eastern Ghana that focuses on education, character development and soccer, announced it would hold a tryout in Opoku’s village in Konongo-Odumase.
Opoku, however, was occupied by a family event.
“That was the day they were having a funeral for my grandmother,” said Opoku, a rookie winger with Crew SC.
As fate had it, the cemetery for the funeral bordered the field for the tryout. A friend figured Opoku (oh-PAH-coo) had a better chance of getting picked and gave the 10-year-old his shoes for the tryout. But Opoku needed more than that to stand out from a pack of 700 kids.
“Right to Dream said they were going to base it on three characteristics: attitude, education and footballing,” Opoku said.
He had the footballing. As the youngest of eight children, he had a habit of waking up before dawn and leaving the house to avoid chores and farm work. He occupied that time with near-constant soccer.
“No matter what, you need to find a way to do what you love to do,” he said. “It’s part of you and you can’t stop it.”
He had the attitude, too. Still does. Opoku, though, said he had never been to school. He saw that as a weakness. Right to Dream saw more in him. After another three-week tryout, he was the only kid from his village to stick.
A tremendous opportunity for Opoku frightened him.
“When I went there, I didn’t like it because I felt like when you are home, you have a freedom. You wake up early, leave the house, you control your own destiny and your life,” Opoku said. “Right to Dream was structured. You wake up, you play soccer, you have chores to do, you have classes, you train, study hall and it wasn’t for me.”
He called his mother, Regina, and cried. Opoku wanted to return home. His mother, in turn, told Right to Dream not to let him come home until he settled in. For almost 3½ years, Opoku said he did not return home, staying on campus or with an American family in Accra, Ghana’s capital city.
As part of the Right to Dream program, a handful of students are given scholarships to American boarding schools. Opoku left Ghana to attend the school in Millbrook, New York, which made for a rough transition.
Opoku was well-liked at Millbrook and a talented athlete but had to work to improve in the classroom and in his understanding of system soccer.
“He grew up as a soccer player, but he grew up as a young man, too,” said John Siegenthaler, Opoku’s assistant coach at Millbrook. “His sense of community, his connection to others ... his understanding of behavior in a culture that was not his own was dramatic and admirable.”
The family of one of his friends and classmates, the Langs, took Opoku in during summers and holidays and got him a tutor for standardized test prep, broadening his scholarship options. Opoku committed to play at Virginia over a handful of suitors.
Virginia coach George Gelnovatch saw in Opoku a quick, athletically gifted attacking player, but one he knew would struggle adjusting to Atlantic Coast Conference defenders.
“The strides he made in terms of (progressing from) being naive and immature and from a soccer standpoint pretty damn raw (were noteworthy),” Gelnovatch said. “A lot of growth, what can I say? We’re all proud of him.”
After a junior season at Virginia in which he scored eight goals and had four assists, Opoku signed a Generation Adidas contract with Major League Soccer and was selected by the Crew in the second round of the 2018 SuperDraft.
For most rookies out of college, playing time is scarce. Opoku has learned from a full year of training with the Crew but has played just 126 minutes this season.
According to MLS Players Association data, he’s making $96,000 in 2018, which makes for a comfortable — but by no means glamorous — life. That is sometimes lost on people back in his village, where he’s considered an icon.
“You go on WhatsApp and every kid and every friend in your village has your number and you’ve got one message after the other,” Opoku said. “Everyone is asking you for this and that.”
He can’t fulfill every request, but he does what he can. He has organized drives for shoes, clothes and soccer equipment for visits home and started a charitable T-shirt and bracelet brand based on his life slogan: “Be happy.”
Opoku does it because he knows there are kids like him out there: gifted, motivated and one giant break away from making it.
“No matter what, you need to find a way to do what you love to do,” he said. “It’s part of you and you can’t stop it.”