CITIZEN OF THE World

Congolese native Yannick Nzosa played for professional teams in Italy and Spain before he turned 17. Now that his name is moving up the 2022 pre-draft boards, the former soccer player has one thing front and center in his mind—succeeding for his family back home.

- FRANKLYN CALLE

AT 14 YEARS old, Yannick Nzosa found himself boarding an airplane alone, saying goodbye to his family in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and en route to Rome, Italy. He was embarking on a journey in 2017 that was about more than basketball. With the weight of his family and country on his shoulders, Nzosa headed north to The Eternal City to join Stella Azzurra, an amateur basketball club in the country’s Serie B league.

“It was really difficult for me to leave my family. My mom encouraged me to go to Italy to follow my path. She knew it would be difficult at first, alone on a new continent, but she told me, You need to go there and work hard! It was difficult when I first arrived in Italy, getting used to the cold weather was complicated but I finally managed to deal with it,” says Nzosa, in his native French, through a translator. “Sometimes, after a tough practice, I felt homesick. I was thinking about my family and I needed to hear their voices. I was lucky enough to have some good people taking care of me, helping me.”

“When he left for Italy, he was very emotional. He cried when I joined him one day after his arrival, because he told me it was something big for him to leave his country to go to Italy,” adds Joe Lolonga, a mentor from back home and now his manager, who is also communicating in French through a translator. “It’s a big opportunity for him to help his family and I told him, The way you can make us all proud is by playing really well and defend the culture and the color of Congo by staying self-disciplined, by working hard, by staying focused [and] by listening.”