8 — Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

From Ghana to Ann Arbor, Osman and Zakyi don’t forget their past 

The ball was often makeshift, a 

few paper bags knotted together 

or a pile of folded clothes tightly 

wound 
by 
rubber 
bands. 
The 

children kicked it around with their 

bare feet, the bottoms caked with 

dust and sand. The street was their 

pitch, and the kids scurried in and 

out of oncoming traffic. 

It wasn’t perfect. But it was 

soccer. 

For junior forwards Umar Farouk 

Osman and Mohammed Zakyi, 

this was how their careers started. 

Long before being teammates at 

Michigan, they roamed the red 

clay streets of Tamale, Ghana, as 

neighbors from lower-middle class 

families who played every day until 

the sun went down. 

“Everyone knew who I was, 

everyone knew who Umar was, 

because anywhere there was a 

soccer match going on, we were 

there,” Zakyi said. “That’s how 

Umar and I knew each other, we 

were always playing soccer.”

Osman and Zakyi’s paths from 

Ghana 
to 
Ann 
Arbor 
started 

together 
and 
largely 
remained 

together. Each departed Ghana 

— Osman at 15, Zakyi at 17 — to 

attend preparatory high schools in 

Connecticut on scholarship. Before 

that, each attended the prestigious 

Right to Dream Academy in the 

country’s Eastern Region. 

Founded in 1999 by Tom Vernon, 

Right to Dream doubles as both a 

school and soccer factory, designed 

to outfit younger players with 

opportunities to advance their skills 

on a=nd off the pitch — opportunities 

they might not otherwise have. 

“I got to the Academy and it 

meant everything,” Zakyi said. “I 

was provided with soccer cleats. I 

was given food, given shelter, given 

education. Everything was provided 

for, and that’s when I started taking 

soccer more seriously.”

Spots in the Academy are both 

limited and highly coveted. Once a 

year, Right to Dream sends scouts 

to each of Ghana’s 10 regions to hold 

tryouts. Osman remembers close to 

500 kids swarming his, with each 

hopeful having only 20 minutes of 

playing time to prove himself. 

From the initial field, scouts 

chose 11 players from each region 

to move on to the second tryout. 

This pool is then narrowed down to 

one final group of 11 who compete 

against current Academy-goers, a 

test to see if they can hang with the 

tougher competition. 

Osman and Zakyi each joined 

Right to Dream in 2009, each only 

10 years old. 

“It was very stressful,” Osman 

remembered. “First the tryouts, 

then leaving your family that young 

to go to a completely different 

place. There were points when I 

got homesick, but I kept thinking 

that my institution at home wasn’t 

that great, and Right to Dream was 

giving me this great opportunity. 

So I had to overcome my fear and 

I think at that moment I became a 

man, working for myself and my 

family.”

At 
Right 
to 
Dream, 
the 

opportunities 
were 
boundless. 

Osman and Zakyi traveled the 

world, competing against other top 

academies. Zakyi spent time from 

the U12 level to the U18 training 

with Manchester United. Each 

had access to training, expertise 

and invaluable experience in a 

professional soccer environment. 

Soon, 
scouts 
took 
notice 
and 

America beckoned. 

But to get to America — to earn a 

scholarship to a preparatory school 

— prowess on the pitch wasn’t 

enough. Soccer skills had to be 

accompanied by good grades. 

“Growing up, I didn’t want to go 

to school,” Osman confessed. “My 

mom, she always wanted me to 

go to school, but we didn’t always 

have the financial support. Right 

to Dream came along and I learned 

the value in getting an education 

because soccer isn’t going to be 

there forever.”

Soccer can be a passion, but it 

can’t be life. It’s a lesson Zakyi 

learned the hard way. 

A torn meniscus suffered early on 

in his career at the Academy forced 

him to the sidelines for two years, 

stripping him of his foundation. 

“That’s when I decided to take 

school 
very 
seriously,” 
Zakyi 

said. “Because I knew if I don’t do 

anything about school and this 

happens to me in the professional 

world, my life is done. It was all 

soccer, soccer, soccer until the 

injury. But after, I started studying 

really hard, taking a lot of exams so 

I could not only come to America 

but also succeed in the classroom.”

Getting an education is a luxury 

that Zakyi’s dad, a high school 

dropout, never could afford. Same 

for a handful of Zakyi’s childhood 

friends who quit school and reverted 

to hustling and violence after their 

respective soccer careers flopped. 

None were fortunate enough to use 

soccer, a passion, as a springboard 

to greater heights in life. 

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily

Junior forward Mohammed Zakyi grew up in Ghana before moving to the United States and getting the education his father could never afford.

See ZAKYI, OSMAN, PAGE 7

JARED GREENSPAN

Daily Sports Writer

Projecting Michigan’s 2020 starters in the absence of spring play

This past Saturday would have 

been Michigan’s spring game if not 

for COVID-19, but in its absence 

all that remains is speculation on 

what we might have seen. The 

biggest takeaway from spring games 

is typically getting a peek at the 

rotations and seeing who works out 

with the first team. Luckily, we’re 

not totally in the dark. The 2019 

season offered plenty of clues as to 

who could be among the Wolverines’ 

starters in 2020. The Daily’s football 

beat projected Michigan’s starting 

lineup and broke it down, position 

by position:

Quarterback: Dylan McCaffrey

This position has been a highly-

publicized battle between redshirt 

junior Dylan McCaffrey and redshirt 

sophomore Joe Milton. Both have 

their pros and cons — Milton has a 

big arm but lacks accuracy, while 

McCaffrey has more speed but less 

arm strength. Neither has had many 

in-game reps the past few years and 

without a spring season, it’s nearly 

impossible to tell where the battle 

is at. That said, the lack of spring 

practice probably gives McCaffrey, 

with his extra year of experience 

— something Michigan coach Jim 

Harbaugh values immensely — the 

edge. Still, offensive coordinator 

Josh Gattis has expressed a desire to 

use both quarterbacks extensively 

in 2020 and this position should 

continue to be one of intrigue 

throughout the season.

Running 
back: 
Zach 

Charbonnet and Hassan Haskins

Arguably 
Michigan’s 
deepest 

offensive 
position 
group, 
this 

season’s 
running 
backs 
room 

should be among the Wolverines’ 

strong suits. The run game has two 

reliable workhorses in sophomore 

Zach 
Charbonnet, 
who 
broke 

the program’s freshman rushing 

touchdown 
record 
last 
season, 

and redshirt sophomore Hassan 

Haskins, 
who 
made 
a 
strong 

impression in the second half of 2019 

after converting from linebacker. 

Beyond that, Michigan will welcome 

back senior Chris Evans from a one-

year academic suspension, while 

freshman Blake Corum and redshirt 

sophomore 
Christian 
Turner 

could factor in as well. In Gattis’s 

up-tempo offense, there’ll be plenty 

of snaps to go around.

Wide receiver: Nico Collins, 

Ronnie Bell and Giles Jackson

Michigan returns its two biggest 

producers at the position in Ronnie 

Bell and Nico Collins, making this 

one of the offense’s strongest spots 

headed into next year. We already 

know that Bell can produce at a 

high level in the college game, as he 

broke out last year to become Shea 

Patterson’s favorite target. Collins 

comes into next season as one of the 

most potent big-play threats in the 

conference, standing 6-foot-4 with 

jump-ball ability that stands out. 

Behind them, Giles Jackson figures 

to get a bulk of snaps in the slot or 

H-back positions after a freshman 

year that saw Gattis get better 

and better at leveraging Jackson’s 

unique skill set. 

Offensive line: Jaylen Mayfield, 

Chuck Filiaga, Zach Carpenter, 

Andrew Stueber and Ryan Hayes

This group is arguably Michigan’s 

biggest question mark outside of 

quarterback going into 2020. The 

unit loses four starters from a year 

ago, leaving only junior right tackle 

Jalen Mayfield. All four of those 

departures could be selected in this 

weekend’s NFL Draft, which speaks 

to the talent that the Wolverines are 

losing at the position. Fortunately 

for Harbaugh, he and his staff 

have recruited well at the position 

recently, leaving Michigan with a 

deep but unproven group for 2020. 

Ryan Hayes figures to slot in at left 

tackle, where he started in place of 

the injured Jon Runyan early last 

season. Hayes is a 6-foot-7 former 

TE, giving him a prototypical 

tackle’s body.

At guard, Stueber and Filiaga 

are the most likely starters. Stueber 

was in a battle with Mayfield for 

the starting right tackle position 

last year, before tearing his ACL in 

fall camp. Though he was playing 

tackle before the injury, his bigger 

frame means he’ll likely shift to 

guard to make way for Hayes and 

Mayfield at tackle. As for the other 

guard spot, Nolan Rumler was a 

four-star recruit in 2019, giving him 

the highest upside of Michigan’s 

potential 
options, 
but 
Filiaga’s 

additional two years of experience 

make him the most likely option. 

He’s been the Wolverines’ backup 

left guard for the past two seasons, 

seeing snaps in eight total games.

Michigan’s 
biggest 
challenge 

on the offensive line will likely 

be replacing center Cesar Ruiz, 

a potential first-round pick on 

Thursday. The top candidates seem 

to be sophomore Zach Carpenter and 

fifth-year senior Andrew Vastardis, 

who has backed up the position the 

past two years. Carpenter, though, 

received plenty of buzz last year and 

was named Michigan’s offensive 

scout team player of the year.

DESIGNED BY JACK SILBERMAN

DAILY FOOTBALL BEAT

Daily Sports Writers

Read more online at Michigan-
Daily.com

