Pat Brennan | Cincinnati Enquirer

The Enquirer / Pat Brennan

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Futbol Club Cincinnati is like most professional sports teams in that players and coaches aren't local for the most part. They come from almost everywhere but Cincinnati.

FC Cincinnati's workforce is one that is conditioned to traveling and living in strange places for their livelihoods. And as such, branching out into the community they play for can be an extraordinary chore.

The seemingly mundane and simple requirements of life – things like socializing, making living arrangements and enrolling children in local schools – aren't so simple.

More and more, though, FC Cincinnati's players and staffers have grown into the city they represent.

Unlike in FC Cincinnati's early days when its transient players mostly confined themselves to the club's block of apartments at a complex in Oakley, Cincinnati isn't just a stop on the constantly-spinning carousel of career destinations for many in the 2018 team.

Rather, Cincinnati is home. Two prime examples of the club's new reality exist in first-year members of the club.

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One is a player that essentially never left home until his career brought him to Cincinnati.

The other is a coach that's traveled for work at every stage of his career.

Together, they tell of a rapid assimilation into Cincinnati culture, and of outsiders quickly growing to love the Queen City.

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"I'm very settled and it does feel like home"

It was quite a sight to see Nazmi Albadawi traipsing about Cincinnati's east side the night of July 16, but you'd have been hard-pressed to recognize it was Albadawi in the first place.

For the occasion of a Harry Potter-themed trivia night at The Pub at 2692 Edmondson Road, Albadawi was resplendent in full wizarding regalia: He donned a robe, thick black glasses, wand, and lightning-bolt scar etched onto his forehead.

He attended the trivia night with FC Cincinnati supporters. The trivia team took first place in the contest, and Albadawi was recognized for having the best costume.

"I'm a big Harry Potter fan," the 27-year-old Albadawi said later.

Guys I went to Harry Potter trivia night @PubRookwood and Got first place with a dope team of @abbirose @trishapocalypse @lauren0117 and won the costume contest thanks to the help of the amazing @yasmmeeen . What a night pic.twitter.com/6b7TRBS0fV — Nazmi Albadawi (@NazmiAlbadawi) July 17, 2018

Kareem Elgazzar

About two months later, Albadawi was back on the Cincinnati streets to attend his first-ever NFL game when the Bengals hosted the Baltimore Ravens at Paul Brown Stadium.

"I was there and they won, so I'm not saying I'm good luck," Albadawi said. "I'm just pointing that out."

It's not extraordinary that Albadawi ventures out into public for entertainment – until you consider how far Albadawi's come since arriving in Cincinnati.

A native of North Carolina, Albadawi's ongoing time in Cincinnati represents his first extended stay away from the region he called home prior to joining FC Cincinnati.

For his college soccer, Albadawi stayed in-state to play at North Carolina State University. When it came time to start his professional career, he played for North Carolina FC.

Seeing a trend here?

Albadawi's move to FC Cincinnati was understandably rough early on in 2018. "Homesick" was the word coaches used to describe the biggest challenge facing the player back in the spring.

But that was some time ago. Since then, Albadawi's personality unveiled itself on and off the field.

On the field, he has nine goals in 2018 and is a regular contributor.

Off the field, he is himself again, and he wants to continue being himself in Cincinnati.

"I want it to be my home and I want to be here for as long as I possibly can be," Albadawi said. "If I play well, hopefully, I can be here for a while. I want to make it feel like home. I want my fiancé to feel at home as well. Everyone’s been so welcoming that it’s been easy, but that’s what I try to do. No matter where I go, where I play, I try to make it be my home.

"Thankfully, I’m very settled and it does feel like home now."

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"Maybe I'll be here for the rest of my life – with 10 MLS Cups"

One of the first calls Jack Stern made after committing to the FC Cincinnati coaching staff prior to the 2018 season was to Kate Solomon, the club's senior director for marketing and community engagement.

Stern had always made it a point to dive into large undertakings in order to assimilate to the places his job's taken him, such as learning French while coaching with Montreal Impact.

In Cincinnati, Stern sought out Solomon's advice on a local charity to get involved with. They plotted a course for him to work with the Over-the-Rhine-based Center for Respite Care, which serves local homeless through rehabilitation and trying to break the cycle that keeps people on the streets.

Stern's parents long ago instilled in him an affinity for causes related to homelessness.

Stern was initially raised in an impoverished area of south London. His parents were active in supporting charities that benefitted homelessness there, and Stern sought to replicate that in Cincinnati.

"It’s something sort of close to the heart and I think homelessness is something that gets overlooked a little bit," Stern said. "There’s no cause or charity that’s more worthy than another, but I feel that it’s probably a cause that people shy away from a little bit more. I feel like sometimes it’s a touchy subject for people and I think that having worked in homeless charities before and been involved in that side of things, it’s amazing to see how easily people become homeless.

"How quickly a couple of tragic events can conspire and all of the sudden – we think it’s never going to happen to us, but it can. It can happen to anyone. One bad incident and a spiral of events, so I really felt that I wanted to try to help people that had been in that situation."

Stern couldn't have known this would be the case, but homelessness became a pressing issue in Cincinnati culture this past summer as homeless camps were routinely uprooted and disrupted.

Stern also lives in Over-the-Rhine – a neighborhood where homelessness is more visible than in most areas of the city.

Clearly, Stern was a natural fit to contribute at the Center for Respite Care. That fact only became more evident as his stay in the city continued.

His arrival at the charity was timely, too, as his presence has provided more visibility and awareness.

Since getting involved, Stern's introduced FC Cincinnati players to the center. In a few weeks, Stern is scheduled to speak at a fundraiser. That all means more exposure for the center.

That's an addition to his small and probably unnoticed contributions as an OTR neighbor, such as frequent interactions with nearby homeless.

Stern's involvement with the Center for Respite Care is a defining feature of his life away from work, and it's made him the appearance of more of a longtime Cincinnatian even though he's resided there less than one year.

That's an appearance he's eager to maintain, Stern said.

"I feel very at home here but this work has definitely made me feel a connection to Cincinnati quicker than I might have otherwise," Stern said. "I've always tried to have the mentality that wherever you go – and that's the nature of this job, you're going to move around – you should treat where you are or whatever you're doing as if it was your job for life, and as if you were going to live in that place for life.