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Manuel Sobral, 31, came to Canada as a refugee from Angola in 2001. He ended up in Ottawa, impoverished, living at a Salvation Army shelter and struggling with addiction. Now clean, Sobral began coming out to Ottawa Street Soccer as an alternative to what he calls “the downtown life.”

“Part of my recovery from addiction was finding something healthy as an outlet,” he said.

Photo by Jean Levac / Ottawa Citizen

Sobral, who works doing maintenance at the mission, says he enjoys seeing other disadvantaged people take up street soccer. On a recent Tuesday night, the school gym became a mini United Nations with players from Canada, Jamaica, Somalia, Portugal, Ethiopia and Guatemala showing off their footwork and dribbling skills.

“You can do so much positive with your time,” Sobral said. “They talk about what they went through. I talk about what I went through. It’s pure fellowship. It’s joyful. We’re here on a Tuesday night and we’re having fun.”

Sobral will be among about 10 players who will be trained through Ottawa Soccer Officials. In addition to the two-day referee course, the groups will be taught money management and budgeting skills, Liang said. The training will be done with the help of Ontario Soccer Association referee instructors and the Eastern Ontario District Soccer Association.

Liang and Mostafa are part of Enactus uOttawa, an international organization dedicated to empowering individuals through entrepreneurship.

“The goal of the project is to get them into all soccer leagues,” Liang said. “They may be coming from Ottawa Street Soccer, but they can get them involved in all soccer levels, right across Ottawa. With certification they’ll be able to referee games and they get paid to do that, so it gives them job experience.”

The experience will also build their “soft skills” — leadership, communication and self-confidence, for example — improve their resumes and provide contacts for job searches, she said.

If the program works, the training could expand to include volleyball and basketball officiating, Mostafa said.

bcrawford@ottawacitizen.com

Twitter.com/getBAC