I feel blessed. We’ve all been through things, and you can make that difference. … When I play under 17, I have the largest fans club ever. They gave me support. They will not sleep whenever I play a night game. … So I want them to know, no matter what you do, never give up. One day or the other, things must get better. – Abdoulie Mansally

SANDY — The coach called his name three times before Abdoulie Mansally dared to believe it was him he was addressing.

“We were, 600 of us, sitting on the ground,” said the Real Salt Lake defender. “They call out, ‘Abdoulie!’ But Abdoulie is like John (in America). There might be 11 of them. They call me again, ‘Abdoulie Mansally!’ I wait, almost wait three times. My heart was beating because I didn’t think it was me. You see more kids talented, more skillful. I was praying to God that maybe I will make it.” Finally, his desire to play for his country’s under-17 development team pushed him to his feet.

“I could stand straight,” he said. “It was me. There were about 600 kids and they only selected 30.” That moment changed Mansally’s life.

Training with The Gambia’s under-17 development team meant opportunity. It was the first time he’d have real equipment, real training and, maybe most importantly, enough to eat.

The morning of his tryout, he knew he needed energy. So he picked a mango from the tree near his house and hid while he ate it. He hid because, unlike every other day, he wasn’t sharing with any of his five brothers or his mother.

He hid because he didn’t want anyone with whom he was competing to know that he didn’t have every advantage they had.

Nine years have passed since that day, and Mansally no longer hides.

He embraces his past, including the poverty that nearly trapped him in the small, rural village of Basse near Tallinding. Even though he only returns to The Gambia for about a month each year, he feels a sense of responsibility and loyalty to those he left behind.

“Their story is my story,” he said of those who live in his native country, including his brothers and mother. “Their struggle is my struggle.”

From the moment he began earning any money playing soccer, Mansally was determined to share with those who loved, supported and helped him along the way.

That desire evolved into something larger and more complex than he could address himself after he received a letter from the family of a little girl named Malla Manneh.

“She live five minutes from where I grew up,” Mansally said of the girl who is battling cancer. Her family asked for help with medical bills as she was having tumors removed from her face, along with chemotherapy and radiation.

Mansally has happily helped those who live in the village where he grew up. He sends half his paycheck to his brother and mother and they help those who need food, help with medical costs or help paying school fees.

“It’s part of my life, part of who I am,” he said. “Even before I become a professional soccer player, if I had a little thing, I would share with my friends or a neighbor who need it.”

But helping Manneh was more complicated than just writing a check. She needed to travel out of the country for treatment that might save her life.

“She wasn’t having any hope,” he said. “I call her personally. But for me, I don’t know what I’m going to do for her.”

Mansally said his father told his children that if they are unable to do great things, they should do small things in a great way. That’s the idea behind his efforts to create the Mansally Foundation. (www.mansallyfoundation.org)

The foundation will help those in his native country with everything from school fees to healthy food to medical treatments. He said his teammates have always been extremely supportive of his efforts to help his native country, especially donating soccer cleats and kits that he distributes for free.

“They tell me, ‘Whatever you need, just come to me,’ ” he said. “It’s not just me, my teammates are 100 percent behind me. (They) support me to do these things.”

In fact, Mansally was awarded Real Salt Lake’s Humanitarian Award last week for his efforts to create the Mansally Foundation and address the needs of the community in which he was raised.

But it was the generosity Mansally observed while living in Utah for the last three years that moved him to expand his efforts beyond what he and his teammates could support.

“The people are so generous and kind here,” he said. “I have so much hope and faith in the people of this great city of Salt Lake.”

While he’s asking for donations, Mansally is also raising money by holding soccer clinics that will teach more than passing, dribbling and shooting. On Dec. 6 from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m., he’ll host a clinic at Elite Development Academy, North Salt Lake, where he will teach the participants about The Gambia and the needs of the people they are helping with their attendance. He’s asking each participant to donate $100 to the foundation, and promises fun for the 20 participants. To sign up, email mansallyfoundation29@gmail.com.

Donations of any soccer equipment, including cleats and shin guards, are also being collected at EDA, 506 N. 700 West, North Salt Lake.

Mansally is nervous about asking for help, and he knows his English can be difficult to understand. So he tried to write out his story, his rationale for starting the foundation on two pieces of lined paper from a spiral notebook. He tried to read what he'd written, but he couldn't pronounce the words he looked up on an electronic thesaurus. He accepts some help as he reads, but eventually, folds the papers into eighths and relies on his broken English to help him explain what's drives him to help people he doesnt' know.

"When I train with kids," he said, "I see myself. I see that love of soccer. I know just a little can make things better. Even just a smile can change things."

Mansally used his time with The Gambia’s development program to then make the country’s Youth National Team and in 2009, the senior National Team. He signed with the New England Revolution in late 2007, and then with Real Salt Lake on June 20, 2012.

He said the most difficult aspect of adjusting to playing in the MLS was the cultural differences. He jokes about trying to buy food from a drive-through window without a car, and nearly doubles over with laughter theorizing how a buffet restaurant would go out of business on the first day in Africa.

He has never been resentful because he was born poor. He lost his father when he was so young, he has to rely on the memories of others, including friends and neighbors, to fill in the gaps.

He was so poor he had to drop out of school, and he can’t even say how much education he actually had. Partly, he smiles, because he was often running away from where his mother sent him in order to play soccer.

“Soccer is just part of my life,” he said. “When I was young, my dad would bring me a soccer ball, and I would never go anywhere without that ball.”

While others celebrated holidays or participated in other traditions, he could always find a field on which to play soccer.

One of the reasons he takes donated soccer kits to The Gambia is because he didn’t own his own pair of cleats until he made the roster of a professional team at age 15. Instead, he’d run to a friend’s house, borrow his cleats, and then take the shoes back because almost certainly, someone else would need them for his game.

“Sometimes we’d play three games a day,” he said, adding that a single bag of rice often had to last his family two months. “And no food. You just go home, drink a lot of water and go to bed.”

With six boys to raise alone after being widowed, Mansally said his mother couldn’t pay his school fees. His two older brothers continued to go, but he focused on soccer.

That strategy miraculously paid off about 18 months later, when a coach helping the newly hired under-17 national development team coach from Ghana saw him playing and wrote his name on the tryout invitation list.

While some of the players used the bus money they were given to buy food, he said he wanted to be sure he was on time. So he relied on that single mango and a lifetime of playing soccer to fuel his dream during that tryout.

After coaches told him he’d made the team, he returned home to Basse. He told a friend he loves like a brother, even before he told his mother.

“And my friend, he took a piece of chalk, and he write on the board where we sit everyday,” Mansally said. “One day, things must get better. This mean a lot. You’ve been struggling, waking up at 6 o’ clock in the morning to run, to practice, just to make a difference. Once they select you, you just thank God. And that made me never give up. No matter what happens, I know what I have come from, and I will never give up.”

And that is exactly how he wants the children growing up in The Gambia to feel — hopeful and determined.

“I feel blessed,” he said. “We’ve all been through things, and you can make that difference. … When I play under 17, I have the largest fans club ever. They gave me support. They will not sleep whenever I play a night game. … So I want them to know, no matter what you do, never give up. One day or the other, things must get better.”

Twitter: adonsports

EMAIL: adonaldson@deseretnews.com