Our registered roster now carries players from fourteen different countries. Here is what that actually looks like on a Tuesday night in Salem.
Fourteen countries are represented in the Salem Panthers FC roster registered with the UPSL: the United States, Mexico, Congo, Venezuela, Gambia, Tanzania, Cameroon, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Panama, Guatemala, Colombia, Spain and Belgium.
On paper it is a line in a registration form. On a Tuesday night at training it is four languages in one warm-up, a rondo where the instructions are half English and half gesture, and a group of players who worked a full shift before driving to the field.
Some of our players arrived in the United States as refugees. Some came for work or for school. Some grew up here in Salem and have played on these fields their whole lives. Once the game starts, none of that decides anything. The ball does.
That is the whole idea behind this club, and it is why we keep saying it: more than a club, a place to belong.