His passion for soccer survived 3 years in a refugee camp. Now this St. John's player is pushing for the pros

Felly Elonda is one step closer to reaching the highest level of Canadian soccer, but the young player's love of the game began far from the fields in St. John's where he honed his skills.

Elonda was born in Congo and spent three years in a refugee camp in Zimbabwe before moving to St. John's at 10. 

"The love of football for me has always been there, even in the refugee camp. Whenever there was a game on, me and my buddies would all go to someone that had a TV to just watch a game," he said.

"If you see something on TV like Ronaldinho, or Robinho, [Didier] Drogba, you see them doing these crazy things on the field. So after the match, you all go outside, bare feet … and just try to imitate what they were doing on TV."

In St. John's, Elonda began playing soccer at Leary's Brook Junior High and was spotted by Ian Osmond, a coach with the Feildians Athletics Association.

"I was dropping my son off to the junior high soccer practice and I said 'I'll stick around and watch it for five minutes,'" said Osmond.

"I saw this thin kid on the field, I'd never seen him before, and by the third touch of the ball, holy smokes, this guy is really, really good."

Osmond went on to coach Elonda with Feildians for six years, a time which the young player said helped him to develop his skills on the pitch.

"It was new to me because growing up it was very disorganized, right? It was just me and my friends outside kicking the soccer ball around … there was always a ball around, or if not, my friends and I would always grab plastic bags and then just wrap it all around together and make it into a soccer ball and just go outside and have a kick," Elonda said.

"When I had that opportunity to join Feildians, it was completely new to me. I wasn't