By Jinseong Kim

AFC Ann Arbor are excited to announce that current Liberian international Angeline Kieh is joining the club for the 2022 USL W League campaign. The Campbellsville rising junior starring in her native Liberia, remains an international with her country’s side and led her side in points as a sophomore last season.

Born in Monrovia, Liberia, Kieh has been one of the top prospects of not only her home nation but the entire West African women’s soccer scene. Starting playing football on the street at an early age, Kieh quickly stood out as a prominent striker in the Liberian Women’s First Division.

At the age of 17, she scored 47 goals in the 2018/19 season and finished the season as the top scorer. With Kieh’s contribution, her team, Earth Angels FC, won the league and the FA Cup that season. Kieh was also selected as the Most Valuable Female Player in the Liberian Women’s First Division in 2019 and 2021.

Last year, Kieh decided to head overseas to the United States to pursue a new challenge. In her first season at Campbellsville, she started 17 out of 18 games, scored 11 goals, and provided 10 assists. Her numbers were good enough to establish her as the top-scoring and assisting player of the team. Her performances over the season were also enough to be selected as the NCCAA DI Midwest Player of the Year, and NCCAA 2nd Team All-American squad.

The Liberian revealed she was impressed by the philosophy of the team and the direction it’s going. “My [Campbellsville] coach told me about the team, and I did my research and saw [AFC Ann Arbor] is a team that focuses on making players better and improving as a team,” Kieh said. She would add, “What got my attention mostly about the team is that AFCAA gives me a sense of belonging and I’m looking forward to an exciting summer.”

As a current Liberian international, Kieh contributed to Lone Star’s 2020 WAFU Zone A Women’s Cup run. The team finished 3rd by defeating Cape Verde 1-0 in the third-place match with Kieh logging the game-winning goal. On her international experience and moving away from her hometown, Kieh stated, “There are so many different experiences [between playing in Liberia and the United States] that I’m experiencing now: change in environment, playing style, and improved facilities. However, playing for my country has been great and I’m looking forward to being improved and get called up again.”

Despite her early struggles dealing with poverty, driven from a long lasting civil war, she never gave her dream, and the support from Football to Develop Destitute (FODEDE) has been essential to her. “FODEDE played a very important role in my life because if not for FODEDE I will not have gotten out of high school,” she noted. Now, with a continuing collegiate career (and beyond), Kieh has become part of the organization and been involved in philanthropic acts for the youth struggling from the same pain. “My role in FODEDE is to encourage girls and boys who find themselves in similar situations as myself and change their stories,” Kieh elaborated. “I hope to be the beacon of light for them [emphasizing] that the future is bright.”

Boyzzz Khumalo, head coach of the Women’s team, reiterated the importance of vast experience Kieh has. “It is very important for us to have players who have experience simply because we have a short season. We want players who come in right away and make a difference. Players with the experience can help younger players get better and younger ones can look up to them [experienced players] and see how they do things. For me, it’s a win-win situation either way.” He then added, “We want to have a mixed-up team, both young and old. We are not building a team only just for this year. We need to think about building a team for the future. Hopefully those young players, who are looking at players like Angeline right now, will be the player that somebody else will be looking up to in a few years.”

Ultimately, Kieh is eying to compete at the top-most level of the sport. “I want to become a professional player to help my country intellectually. I would like to help reach my nation for the Africa Women Cup of Nations, and eventually play the World Cup with them.” Kieh ended, confidently, by stating, “I’m ambitious and with my influence and hard work, we can achieve that with the girls in my country.”

We, AFC Ann Arbor, welcome Angeline to The Mighty Oak family once again.