Abdallah Bah has been named SPAAR Hero!

Realtor® Nichole Hayden had a chance to sit down with SPAAR Hero Abdallah Bah recently to hear his story. Abdallah is passionate about helping others and coaching soccer for young people as a means of teaching them lifelong skills for adulthood and success, and his path to this passion is personal.

As a young man, Abdallah immigrated with his family from Sierra Leone, Africa to Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Having played soccer in his home country, he began to play in Minnesota where he connected with other people, including others from Sierra Leone, and formed a new community. Soccer helped him learn the language, supported his development and growth, taught him humility and confidence, and greatly impacted his connection with others. All these skills, coupled with his athletic abilities, led Abdallah to college on the East Coast with a soccer scholarship. Throughout his time in school and on the field, he was told he had the leadership skills to be a coach.

After graduating with his bachelor's degree, soccer once again led Abdallah back to Minnesota. In 2016, he was asked to play on the Minneapolis City Soccer Club, a new amateur professional soccer team. During this time, Abdallah was hosted by a family who continued to support him while he obtained his citizenship. Abdallah recognized the importance his participation in soccer was to his acculturation, community connection, academic success and development into a principled young man.

While working full time in finance, Abdallah began private soccer coaching, coaching teams, and became involved with The Sanneh Foundation, established by Tony Sanneh, a former professional soccer player. Abdallah has played and coached with Tony who, as a professional athlete, had a plethora of choices and chose to give back to his community and start The Sanneh Foundation that supports community-based organizations and assembles a supportive network within the community that provides positive environments for urban youth to become positive and productive adults.

Abdallah has volunteered with The Sanneh Foundation in a coaching capacity working with BIPOC families who don't have the means and supporting the ability of their children to attend soccer, basketball and pickleball summer camps for free.

Abdallah also worked for two years with the Dreamline Program, which began in 2020 and works with local schools in and around the Twin Cities, supporting kids from elementary to high school, where he provides coaching, academic mentorship, and social and emotional learning.

"I take a lot of pride in showing up,” Abdallah said. “You may not always want to (show up), but my goal is to help kids learn that it is always the first step."

This work taught Abdallah about communication, mediation and working with people's emotions. Abdallah was a mentor at North Saint Paul High School and while there, in his first year with Dreamline, he had a caseload of 90 students, prior to another mentor joining the site, communicating with students to ensure they are where they need to be. He also communicated with parents and teachers to ensure everyone was on the same page with expectations and goals.

All the coaching and communication skills lent themselves perfectly to Abdallah's real estate career. Through his ongoing volunteering and coaching, Abdallah will continue to dedicate and give back to the community.

"We are nothing without our community. They are what build you up. If you build them up, they'll do the same for you,” said Abdallah when asked why he volunteers. Having grown up in the Twin Cities, Abdallah believes there is a lot of untapped talent and has his eyes set on getting a soccer team in North Minneapolis High School; if shown the game, the opportunity for positivity is endless.

SPAAR Hero is a program of SPAAR’s Community Engagement Committee, sponsored by SPAAR’s REALTORS® Charitable Foundation. Members of SPAAR’s Communications Committee interview and write the SPAAR Hero articles, including this interview by Nichole Hayden. As part of the SPAAR Hero program, a $250 donation is made in the SPAAR Heroes names to their charity of choice.

Know someone who should be named a SPAAR Hero? Email spaar@spaar.com so the next SPAAR Hero can be identified.