Among all of the off-season transfer arrivals across the NPL, there is little chance that any have quite the backstory that new Kingston City recruit Mouad Zwed has.
The winger moves to Melbourne from Canberra having spent the last seven years of his life living in the nation’s capital where he honed his football skills in the territory’s top football competition. However much of his story goes beyond the football pitch with Zwed and his family not escaping the harsh realities that has plagued his war-torn homeland of Libya over the past five years or so.
The 23-year-old was born in post-Cold War Poland where his father was completing his PhD before the family moved back to Libya shortly after his birth. It was on the streets of Tripoli were the young Zwed fell in love with the game playing street football non-stop throughout the warm Maghreb days.
“I’ve been playing football since I was a kid in Libya but never played for a proper football club with all my childhood been mainly spent playing street football where we’d play on carparks, make our own goals and usually play three times a day,” Zwed said.
“It’s different over there as the chance to join junior clubs is very limited so most of us just play out on the streets.”
In 2008, the Zwed family departed Libya once more as his father accepted a new diplomatic position with the Libyan consulate in Canberra. Football immediately became a way for Mouad to integrate into life down under with the then 16-year-old joining the junior set up at local club Woden Valley.
He fondly remembers how he was caught offside six times in his debut 11-a-side game which he attributes to the fact that up until then he had never played a proper competitive game. After spending two years in the Under 18s, Zwed was elevated into the senior squad in 2011 and impressed under coaches Tony Olivera and Alex Redmond.
At this point, the teenager also began his Bachelor of Information Technologies at the University of Canberra as trouble began to brew back in his homeland. The Arab Spring which began in late 2010 began to affect Libya and resulted in full-fledged conflict between the Gadhafi regime and opponents searching for democratic change in the North African nation. Mouad’s father in Canberra made the decision to speak out against the regime and side with the pro-democracy protestors, potentially putting his family’s life in danger.
On the field, Zwed began to turn heads with his displays on the wing and followed coaches Olivera and Redmond to Tuggeranong United. There, the boyhood Barcelona fan who considers Lionel Messi to be his football idol, helped United claim the 2013 Federation Cup earning them qualification into the inaugural FFA Cup.
Although the Canberra based side’s run in the competition ended at the first hurdle with a 6-0 defeat against the Melbourne Victory, the game did thrust the then 21-year-old into the nation’s spotlight with his plight been covered by Fox Sports.
He subsequently moved to local powerhouse Canberra FC whom he helped win the 2015 Capital Football NPL crown under coach Zoran Glavinic, providing assists aplenty from the wing while chipping in with three league goals himself. But Zwed had his eyes set on the bigger picture and wanted to try his luck away from the capital but lacked the interstate contacts to make such a move a possibility, up until a month ago.
“I’ve always wanted to get out of Canberra and test myself at a higher level but the opportunity never arose as I didn’t really have any connections anywhere else” said the winger.
“One of my friends who used to play for Woden got me in touch with Matthew McNamara, who is Director of Professional Football Consultants and I spoke to him about my football ambitions and he encouraged me to come down to Melbourne to give it a go.”
With McNamara’s help, Zwed was able to secure a week-long trial with NPL2 outfit Kingston City and immediately impressed the Clayton-based outfit prompting manager Nick Tolios to offer him a contract.
“I wanted to give it a go as this is the chance I’ve always wanted and he organised for me to come down to Melbourne where I trialled at Kingston City and its thanks to him that the move eventuated.”
Despite his short time at the club so far, the Warsaw-born Zwed has been impressed with the set-up at the club adding “I’ve only had a few training sessions with the club so it’s hard to gauge but from what I saw it was pretty intense despite the fact that it’s only pre-season”.
“I’ve spoken to both Nick [Tolios] and assistant Bill [Theodoropoulos] and met a few of the players and they all seem like good people who are easy to get along with and I enjoyed training with them for the week I was here and look forward to playing with them this season.”
Zwed also spoke about his long-term aims both on the field and off it where the 23-year-old is months away from graduating from his Bachelor’s degree.
“One of the non-football reasons behinds my move to Melbourne is that it’s obviously a much bigger city than Canberra where there exists more job opportunities and every time I’ve come down to visit I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time down here.
“I still harbour dreams to make it professionally as a footballer and I know some people may look at my age and say that window of opportunity has passed but you never know what can happen in two or three years time.”
While his family has subsequently returned back to Libya, Zwed has no such desires with the conflict in Libya still ongoing as the country plunged into civil war falling the ousting of Gadhafi with rival rebel groups battling against one another in their attempts of filling the power vacuum left behind.
The new Kingston City signing had originally intended to return to Tripoli following the end of his studies but with no end in sight to hostilities, he sees Australia as his long-term home. Keeping in touch with family back home has also been made difficult for the former Woden junior who admits that the process of communication is “difficult at times”.
“It’s still not safe over there and I speak to them once every few weeks as logistical and connections issues make it very difficult to keep in contact,” he said.
“They’ve moved back over there as they are used to the lifestyle and still have plenty of family and friends there.”
While Kingston City’s home ground of the Grange Reserve is a world away from the war-torn streets of Libya, Zwed will no doubt exuberate the same enthusiasm and passion for the game in the red stripes of City in 2016 as he first did all those years back on the concrete and dusty pavements of Tripoli.