The management of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers was well aware of Abdul-Karim‘s leadership. This is also one of the reasons why the team told him that they wanted to meet him during the evaluation camp.
On April 10, 2024, AK watches the Canadian Football League draft on television with his family. The first rounds pass without him being named.
His phone rings at the start of the sixth round. On the other end of the line, it was the head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers announcing that he was selected by the Winnipeg team, at 56th place.
He congratulated me. He told me he couldn’t wait to see me at training camp in a few weeks. My mother threw herself into my arms. I was crying, he says with a big smile.
He takes a moment to step into the past.
I remember [quand je suis revenu] at home, around the age of 9, to tell my father that I wanted to play football. He was very excited until he understood that I wanted to play American football, and not European football, he says with a laugh.
He went to buy me a pair of cleats, but came back with a pair of baseball shoes, rather than American football.
If his father was a talented soccer player, his mother was renowned for her speed in athletics. I thought for a long time that I had my father’s speed, but it’s more like my mother’s, explains the young athlete.
A few weeks later, he proudly donned the colors of the Blue Bombers for the very first time during training camp. All smiles, he blends in with the team’s starting players. He even played an exhibition game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders on May 20, 2024.
