By: Evan Ponce
Thirty years old, playing after long break from soccer in the Cambodia Professional League, how did he get there? Well lets start from the beginning. Tony and his wife Denise went on a service assignment in Cambodia. The service was to work with youth adult on the exchange program. His reasoning was, “you know growing up in a Mennonite church…felt like the right thing.”
Tony joined and amateur team in Cambodia. One day the team played another team that was almost professional, “I scored” and after the game the team “talked to me” to join their team, so he said yes. He also said he might not be able to be at all the games and practices because he had a full time job at the time.
He started the season, they “played two times” a week he said, “it was different than college” because “we’re faster and technically better skilled”. He had to miss three games because of work. The team got ninth in the league. Sadly he only played one season.
This was Tony’s road to professional league