Elks kicker forges special bond through soccer with group of Edmonton kids

Canadian Football League player Boris Bede came to Edmonton this year to kick a ball for a living, but now he finds himself kicking a different kind of ball in his spare time to maintain a special bond he has formed with a group of kids.

“I just hopped in and started playing with them,” Bede recently told Global News about the connection he and his sons have found with a diverse group of kids in northeast Edmonton.

The 34-year-old Edmonton Elks kicker said he was playing with his sons at a northeast Edmonton playground this summer when they spontaneously joined in on a lively soccer game.

“They accepted me and said, ‘Hey, come back tomorrow.’”

Bede did just that and now usually partakes in playing soccer with the group a few times a week.

“They’ve taken both of my boys in and taken care of them,” he explained.

Bede first began his CFL career in 2015 with the Montreal Alouettes. He then spent three seasons with the Toronto Argonauts where he would help the team win the 2022 Grey Cup championship before signing a two-year contract with the Elks in February.

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Bede was born in France and later moved to the United States as a teenager before eventually coming to Canada. He said a number of the kids he has been playing soccer with the last few months are also relatively new to Canada, something that makes the friendship “that much cooler.”

“We’re all just kind of in the same situation,” he said. “I love the diversity that we have.

“The main thing is these kids here just really care for each other.”

Earlier this month, Bede invited his soccer friends and their families to watch him and the Elks take on the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He said he enjoys being an “ambassador” for the Elks and for the CFL and was glad to be able to have the group join him for the game.

— with files from Global News’ Slav Kornik