If someone had told Abou Cisse when he was 16 that he would live in Prince George, British Columbia, for the next eight years of his life, he would never have believed it.
With a high school and university sports career under his belt now, the University of Northern British Columbia Timberwolves midfielder can’t quite fathom how far he has come since he was a fresh-faced teenager discovering the city for the first time.
Originally from Bamako, Mali, a capital city of over 2 million people, Cisse moved to Montréal when he was 13. His father wanted him to focus on getting an education in Canada throughout his high school and university years.
“I didn’t want to go to Canada, to be completely honest,” Cisse told Unique Togetherness. “I wanted to go to Europe to continue playing football, but my dad wanted me to have that educational background, so we moved to Montréal when I was 13.”
In the summer between Grades 10 and 11, Cisse travelled from Montréal to Prince George to visit a cousin on what was supposed to be a short trip. Yet, after impressing UNBC head coach Steve Simonson during his time there, the vacation became the first look at his new home.
The attacking midfielder then made a verbal commitment with Simonson and decided to hone his soccer skills in Prince George through high school, before joining UNBC’s varsity team in 2018.
The Timberwolves aren’t like any other U SPORTS team in Canada; they’ve drawn on every corner of the globe, bringing in student-athletes from nations including Mali, Liberia, Japan, Germany and India. So while Cisse is a key part of the puzzle, the global game is alive and well in the capital of Northern British Columbia.
At the same time, the consistent connection between the Timberwolves and the Victoria Highlanders semi-pro team in League 1 Canada has also allowed soccer to thrive with global representation on Canada’s West coast.
Simonson, who took over the Timberwolves in 2015, also coached the Highlanders’ men’s team during their Pacific Coast League soccer seasons, as well as in their first season in the inaugural League 1 BC campaign this past summer.
Student-athletes such as Cisse, Kensho Ando, Daniel Zadravec, Cody Gyspers, Loic Benquet, and many more have spent time playing for both teams under Simonson, allowing them to develop their footballing profiles while also pursuing an education.
“Having that chemistry among us through the summer with Steve to a buildup through the next season has helped in the past,” Cisse, who played with Victoria for three PCSL seasons, said. “This year, we had our best season at UNBC, and about 70 per cent of the guys were playing with the Highlanders, so we had to continue our cohesion.”
While the ability to play near year-round is an asset for those integrating into Canada and striving to bring UNBC to the top of U SPORTS, moving from overseas can still be a shock.
Toranosuke Omori, one of the first Japanese players to join the Timberwolves, showed up to training with an umbrella as snow pelted down on the pitch on a brisk November day in his first year; he wasn’t quite sure what to do.
“Some guys can’t believe how cold it gets, or they see their first snowfall and play in the snow for the first time here,” Simonson said. “Between the city size, geography, location, and the weather, this is probably as Canadian as it gets to them, so it’s special to see.”
Yet, there’s a special connection that each of the players on the team has. While the 2022 team featured eight players from Prince George, most come from outside of town, whether from Germany and the other side of the world, or nearby cities such as Fort St. John, B.C.
“We’re a small school, and we really want to encourage international students and players to come, and even though Prince George has a lot of roots in industry, you’re just seeing a lot more diversity up there and every in every way, shape or form,” Simonson said. “It’s something to be proud of.”
Although adjusting to the weather and cultural makeup of Prince George, a city of 70,000, can be a challenge, integrating into a new school and gelling football cultures also presents adversities to the young men making their way to the UNBC program.
At many U SPORTS schools and soccer clubs around Canada, athletes hail from a similar region, often coming from closely related cultures, and have a footballing understanding that is consistent with their teammates. For UNBC, however, the preseasons focus on connecting cultures and playing styles of the global game into one cohesive unit.
For Simonson, however, there’s the challenge of intertwining personalities from around the world on top of that, as that impacts how his coaching is approached. For some, caring about a coach’s personal life outside the game is off-bounds, while others won’t offer their input or express themselves within the game.
“I must know that people are transitioning from a different country and soccer culture,” he said. “We’ve had players that that come in, and they’re just not quite the right fit for us, and that can be a challenge — the last thing we want to do is remove somebody because they’ve come all this way.”
While Cisse had spent three high school years in Prince George, he familiarized himself with the area’s culture, despite being referred to as “the French guy,” in school because of his struggles in English. Despite that, he wasn’t the most confident joining the UNBC group.
“I was a very shy guy at first because I had an accent and came from a different soccer culture,” Cisse said. “I was a first year, and it was very stressful because I was the youngest guy on the team, and for the first time, I wasn’t the best player on the team because this was a higher level.”
However, Simonson knew how to handle these situations through his experience drawing on international student-athletes. “He told me that we all go through these emotions and situations, that it’s okay to make mistakes, and that we’re going to get over it,” Cisse said.
With UNBC being a smaller school and having significantly fewer resources than some of the major contenders within U SPORTS men’s soccer, it’s always been an uphill battle. Yet, the international flair adds an intriguing level to their game.
At points throughout a match, you can have Ando and Omori speaking Japanese in the midfield while Cisse and Benquet chat in French down the wing and into the attack. The languages and different footballing styles take time to mix, but when they do, they create a soccer melting pot that is difficult to defend.
As the technicality of the Japanese stood out, while the intelligent piercing runs from Cisse and Benquet hypnotized defences, it has created the perfect mix of attacking flair with defending awareness not seen anywhere else in U SPORTS.
“They’re all used to seeing the game differently from where they come from; things you can do in France or Germany are maybe not the same in Japan or Canada,” Simonson said. “That’s the part I like, and then you’ll see people come in with French language skills from different countries, and now they’re talking French and having a good time playing beautiful soccer.”
While Cisse didn’t instantly feel like he belonged, it all changed when he was subbed during his second match, facing the TRU Wolfpack. Coming in as an attacking midfielder, with the nerves of a derby, the pressure was paramount.
By the 31st minute, however, he had settled into the game’s rhythm and slotted home his U SPORTS goal. “I ended up scoring a lot more goals for UNBC, but that first one is one of my best memories because I was so much more confident after that.”
From that point, Cisse scored 10 times throughout his U SPORTS career while playing an integral role in midfield.
For a school like UNBC, which faces the challenge of being from a smaller town and having a relatively limited athletics program, the men’s soccer team offers a look into the game’s globalizing power while acting as a burgeoning light for the sport and international outreach in Canada.
Although they’ve yet to win any trophies with the group, either as the UNBC Timberwolves or Victoria Highlanders, there’s something special brewing in British Columbia, and players like Abou Cisse are wholly bought into an experience they could never have imagined.
“We have people from every continent coming together and bringing their cultures, skills and experience together to strive towards the same goal, and it’s beautiful to be a part of,” Cisse said. “Prince George may be small; you see a lot of different backgrounds around here, and that’s something I love.”
Unique Togetherness 
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