There is a shoebox at Kei Kamara’s mother’s house in Los Angeles that was buried in a closet until recently unearthed. It is full of mementos from the earliest days of her son’s soccer career. Upon first lifting the lid, few initially reveal their greater significance: a stack of photographs, some starting to peel around the edges; a couple of medals won at long-ago youth tournaments, a security badge.



For Kei, rummaging through the box earlier this winter brought vivid memories. Good ones, mostly, even of a time that was often a struggle — success tends to romanticize humble origin stories, especially for the protagonist himself.



It’s been 20 years since Kamara immigrated to the United States from Sierra Leone, a refugee from his homeland’s civil war. It’s been 15 since he last lived full-time in LA, when he made the jump from D-II Cal State-Dominguez Hills to the pros.



Although the shoebox served as a welcome...