{"id":409457,"date":"2026-07-23T14:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T14:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/409457\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T14:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T14:22:13","slug":"maleda-where-san-joses-brightest-soccer-stars-get-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/409457\/","title":{"rendered":"Maleda \u2014 Where San Jos\u00e9\u2019s Brightest Soccer Stars Get Started"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cristiano Ronaldo takes the ball and pushes toward the opponent\u2019s goal. He keeps it close and weaves past Lionel Messi. A few steps later, Messi again \u2014 in fact, there are quite a few Messis on this field. And even a couple of Lamine Yamals<\/a> running around, too.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Saturday morning at Del Monte Park in San Jos\u00e9, and hundreds of kids have come out for practice with Maleda Youth Soccer Club. Inspired by this summer\u2019s World Cup<\/a>, many wear the jerseys of their favorite players.<\/p>\n

\u201cSiuuu!\u201d Christian Brook, 10, shouted after practice, emulating Ronaldo\u2019s iconic celebration<\/a>. His team may have lost its scrimmage, but that doesn\u2019t dim his smile.<\/p>\n

Brook usually plays right wing and said that\u2019s one of the reasons he likes Ronaldo, who excels in attacking positions. But when he plays defense, Brook thinks of another player \u2014 Naomi Girma, currently center back for England\u2019s Women\u2019s Super League club Chelsea FC and one of the most talented defenders<\/a> for the U.S. Women\u2019s National Soccer Team.<\/p>\n

\"\"(L-R) Naomi Girma, #4 for the United States, celebrates after her team\u2019s 1-0 victory against Colombia during a SheBelieves Cup match at Sports Illustrated Stadium on March 7, 2026, in Harrison, New Jersey. (Brad Smith\/ISI Photos\/USSF via Getty Images) A young Naomi Girma, who has played soccer competitively since she was a child growing up in San Jos\u00e9. (U.S. Soccer via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cShe played here, just like us,\u201d he said, adding that her family is Ethiopian, just like his. Dozens of other kids at practice immediately recognized Girma\u2019s name and shouted with pride that the soccer superstar also hails from San Jos\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started playing with Maleda,\u201d Girma \u2014 who was unavailable for an interview for this story \u2014 told KQED<\/a> a few months ago.<\/p>\n

Girma\u2019s father was one of the handful of South Bay immigrant parents who came together in 2004 to help start the club. \u201cIt was just for Ethiopian families to come together,\u201d Girma said. \u201cBut I also had a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the 2026 Men\u2019s World Cup takes its place in history, soccer fans now prepare for next year\u2019s Women\u2019s World Cup in Brazil. The U.S. has won the tournament four times \u2014 the most of any nation \u2014 and Girma is a strong contender for the squad after a stellar performance in the last World Cup. In Maleda, families that saw her score her first goals are excited to cheer her on. And for some, Girma\u2019s journey affirms one of the missions of the club: to help kids build a stronger sense of self through playing soccer and at the same time, learn more about their Ethiopian heritage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen our kids go to school, they are surrounded by many different cultures,\u201d said Selome Alemayehu, the mother of two boys playing in Maleda. \u201cBut when they come here, they get the taste of Ethiopia. It\u2019s important for them to also know where they came from, what their culture is, because they don\u2019t see all these people Monday through Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Goalkeeper Andreas Demke, 12, catches a ball as Imani Moten, 10, watches nearby during Maleda Youth Soccer practice together at Del Monte Park in San Jos\u00e9, California, on Saturday, July 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

Powered by the volunteer efforts of dozens of parents like Alemayehu, Maleda \u2014 which translates to \u201cearly morning\u201d in Amharic \u2014 also provides an affordable entry to soccer, something experts say is necessary to help both women\u2019s and men\u2019s soccer in the U.S. grow stronger and develop the next generation of the sport\u2019s superstars.<\/p>\n

According to research from the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, soccer is more popular than ever, with more than 25 million Americans playing the sport this year. But data from the U.S. Soccer Federation shows that among kids, participation drops dramatically by the time they become teenagers. Around 70% of children quit by age 14.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though it\u2019s hard for my kids to wake up for school, they\u2019re the first ones waking up on Saturday morning,\u201d Alemayehu said. \u201cThey rush me, instead of me rushing them.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially my little one. He\u2019s only 7, but he\u2019s always saying he will be the next Maleda soccer player that\u2019s going to be just like Naomi.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u2018Being one\u2019\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been more than 20 years since Maleda head coach Solomon Wolday came to California from Ethiopia, where he first fell in love with soccer as a boy, playing with other kids on his street.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t take too much to get kids to get out and play,\u201d he said. Like many of the other coaches on the field Saturday, Wolday is a volunteer and also a parent. All three of his daughters honed their soccer skills at Maleda.<\/p>\n

\"\"Maleda Youth Soccer Head Coach Solomon Wolday checks in with his players after practice at Del Monte Park in San Jos\u00e9, California, on Saturday, July 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

Children can join the club as soon as they turn 5 and learn the basics \u2014 dribbling, passes, different formations. \u201cIt\u2019s not very competitive at that level,\u201d Wolday said, adding that the main objective is to help kids learn about the values that come with soccer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey learn the value of hard work and teamwork,\u201d he said. \u201cIt also shows them how to cope with losing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maleda only practices on Saturdays from March to August and charges families a $200 registration fee per season, regardless of how many kids a family has playing in the club.<\/p>\n

Travel and academy clubs in the Bay Area, which usually have a more rigorous practice schedule and travel across the state to play in different tournaments, often charge thousands of dollars per player each season.<\/p>\n

\"\"Maleda Youth Soccer players put their hands together after practice at Del Monte Park in San Jos\u00e9, California, on Saturday, July 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"Maleda Youth Soccer players sit in a circle after practice at Del Monte Park in San Jos\u00e9, California, on Saturday, July 18, 2026. Maleda Youth Soccer Club is primarily comprised of Ethiopian families.<\/p>\n

The club\u2019s accessibility helps families get and stay involved, said Meseret Gualle, who forms part of Maleda\u2019s leadership team and first joined when her daughter started playing four years ago.<\/p>\n

Anyone can join the team, but most families trace their roots to Ethiopia. \u201cWe Ethiopians have a lot of different ethnicities, languages, tribes,\u201d she said. \u201cThis program brings all of that together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bay Area has been home to a thriving Ethiopian community for more than 40 years. Many families who first moved to the region in the \u201980s and \u201990s were fleeing Ethiopia\u2019s civil war and found economic opportunities<\/a> in Silicon Valley building the electronic components for personal computers during the first dot-com boom. Thousands of Ethiopian families now help shape the identity of cities like San Jos\u00e9 and Oakland. And Meseret pointed out that it\u2019s here in the Bay Area where Ethiopia\u2019s vast cultural diversity meets in one place.<\/p>\n

\"\"Abigail Kume, 10, puts her arm around Imani Moten, 10, during Maleda Youth Soccer practice at Del Monte Park in San Jos\u00e9, California, on Saturday, July 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cOutside of what region you\u2019re from, your religion or what language you speak, Maleda focuses on our kids,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

There are coaches who can talk to families in the language they\u2019re most comfortable in, including Amharic, Oromo and Tigrinya. \u201cWe\u2019re here for our heritage, culture, history and just being one,\u201d Meseret said.<\/p>\n

What began as a community effort to provide a safe space for kids to play soccer and learn more about Ethiopian culture has become part of a bigger, cross-cultural push in the Bay Area to make soccer more accessible.<\/p>\n

The region\u2019s first National Women\u2019s Soccer League team was founded in 2023 by four legends of the sport \u2014 Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osborne, Danielle Slaton and Aly Wagner \u2014 who were either born in San Jos\u00e9 or played in the South Bay.<\/p>\n

And as the U.S. prepares to both host and compete in the 2028 Summer Olympics and the 2031 Women\u2019s World Cup<\/a>, the country is looking for new ways to boost talent that\u2019s historically been forced out of the sport because it\u2019s too expensive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nGetting everybody on the field\n<\/p>\n

After the U.S. men\u2019s national team was eliminated from the World Cup with a 4-1 loss against Belgium, fans began debating what\u2019s holding American soccer back from its full potential. Some pointed<\/a> to the very high cost of joining youth teams \u2014 called \u201cpay-to-play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young talented players whose families cannot pay thousands of dollars a year are left out of competitive clubs. The price of developing young soccer talent in many Latin American and European countries is a fraction of what it costs in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\"\"6- and 7-year-old Maleda Youth Soccer players practice together at Del Monte Park in San Jos\u00e9, California, on Saturday, July 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

Pay-to-play is part of the problem \u2014 but not the full picture, said Simon Tobin, head coach of men\u2019s soccer at San Jos\u00e9 State University. \u201cHow can we make a sport that doesn\u2019t cost a lot to play more cost-effective?\u201d he said. \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t have under 10s and under 11s traveling a couple hundred miles to go play a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

But spaces to play soccer at a competitive level in the Bay Area are limited.<\/p>\n

In San Francisco, when officials announced that the city\u2019s historic Kezar Stadium will be the home field next season for the new Major League Soccer Next Pro team Golden City FC, that got pushback from San Francisco City FC<\/a> \u2014 the oldest supporter-owned soccer club in the country.<\/p>\n

San Francisco City FC fans argued their team was being pushed out from where they\u2019ve hosted games for the past decade. Tensions over who gets access to soccer fields come up<\/a> decade after decade and are likely to become even more fraught as interest in the sport grows.<\/p>\n

\"\"Maleda Youth Soccer Club Coach Semert Haile throws a soccer ball into the air for her 6- and 7-year-old players during weekly practice at Del Monte Park in San Jos\u00e9, California, on Saturday, July 18, 2026. Maleda Youth Soccer Club is primarily comprised of Ethiopian families.<\/p>\n

And now as an adult living in San Jos\u00e9, she\u2019s always bringing new families into Maleda, so their kids can play soccer without blowing the budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun to play and learn with them. They have a pure heart,\u201d she said between drills.<\/p>\n

The blazing San Jos\u00e9 sun doesn\u2019t slow her down. She\u2019s been coaching for more than a decade with Maleda and remembers when Girma and her family would come to practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook where Naomi is now,\u201d she said. \u201cI have a vision that many of these girls and boys will be even better than Naomi. That\u2019s my hope. That\u2019s my dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story includes reporting from KQED\u2019s Pendarvis Harshaw<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cristiano Ronaldo takes the ball and pushes toward the opponent\u2019s goal. He keeps it close and weaves past…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-409457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}