TUCSON, ARIZ. — Victor Mansaray had quite a weekend.
On Saturday, he scored his first goal with the Seattle Sounders first team.
On Sunday, he celebrated his 18th birthday.
But on Monday, he is scheduled to be back in class at Fife High School.
“I think he’s a very talented player who sometimes loses focus in the game, and we talked about being focused, and I thought he was a man possessed (Saturday) when he got on the field,” Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said. “… He’s still trying to finish high school, so we’re trying to get that part done as well, and he’ll train with (USL Sounders 2 this) week there. But I was very happy with his attitude and his approach to the game. And I think everybody could see that he’s got talent and he’s a big boy.”
Seattle already was trailing Sporting Kansas City, 3-0, when Mansaray was subbed on in the second half of their Desert Diamond Cup match. Mansaray had been on the pitch for about eight minutes when his goal came, heading in a corner kick from fellow-homegrown Aaron Kovar.
“I was just trying to make an impact, and that’s what I did,” Mansaray said. “I was at the right spot at the right time. I was just trying to finish my chances.”
Soon after, Mansaray had the ball at his feet in front of the SKC goal again. However, this time he couldn’t get in position to launch a shot, so he chose to send the ball wide to veteran Kenny Cooper. That decision almost got Mansaray an assist to go along with his goal, but Cooper’s shot banged off the far post.
“I was about to hit it, to be honest,” Mansaray said. “It was rolling out to me and I was thinking about hitting it. But then it got tangled with my feet. Cooper was in a nice position, so I was trying to lay him off, and he hit a nice shot. We were just unlucky it came off the post.”
Mansaray was born in 1997 in Sierra Leone and also spent time in Jamaica before his family moved to the South Sound. He lived in Puyallup before moving to Fife and joining Norpoint FC. He entered the Sounders FC Academy during the 2012-13 season and scored 11 goals over 20 matches. The next season, he led the U-16s with 18 goals in 24 games. In November, he signed as the club’s fourth homegrown player, listed as a 5-foot-11, 180-pound forward.
“I think the time was right for me to take the next step going forward, and it’s a dream come true for me to sign with Sounders FC,” he said at the time. “I’m surrounded by the right people, and I’m looking forward to working hard and getting better.”
Mansaray also has played for the United States U-18 national team.
Schmid saw this Arizona trip as part of his continuing education, even though his high school education kept him from sticking around for the full two weeks that the club will be in Tucson.
“We brought him down here because I wanted him to experience it for at least a week,” Schmid said. “… I thought it would be good for him to be here and to be around the group. That’s an important factor of growing as well.”
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