On a Saturday morning last September, Samuel Komolafe-Nath stood next to his older brother on the sidelines of a pickup game on Staten Island’s North Shore. The weekly soccer match brings together players from Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and of course Liberia, which counts a significant diaspora on the island.

The 18-year old Komolafe-Nath, wearing a FC Barcelona No.10 Lionel Messi jersey, patiently awaits the moment to come onto the field for the first time since arriving here a week earlier from Lagos. He moved back to Staten Island, where he was born, after 15 years in Nigeria.

“I left when I was really young, so this is all pretty foreign to me,” says Komolafe-Nath of his new life back in the U.S. with his dad, brother and sister. He studies Computer Science at the College of Staten Island, where he hopes to play soccer in the fall.
A voice calls him onto the field: “Messi, you’re in.” His brother looks on attentively.

Scenes like these play out every week in parks run by New York City and on high school athletic fields across the five boroughs, where African immigrants gather to practice, compete, or simply catch up with old friends. Soccer in New York City offers significant social, cultural and sometimes economic support for the African diaspora, one of the fastest growing immigrant communities in the city.