Kapolei family follows 12-year-old’s pro soccer dream to Brazil

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Last spring, Kapolei’s Seba Gonzalez was a rising star with the Hawaii Youth Soccer Association.

Read more West Maui restaurant battles high surf after surviving wildfires, floods

Fast forward to this summer, the 12-year-old and his family re-located to one of the world’s soccer capitals and are now residents of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“We never imagined we’d be leaving Hawaii to be honest with you,” said Seba’s father, Miguel Gonzalez. “We thought Hawaii was gonna be the place where we would stay and Seba would grow up, eventually go to college on the mainland. When this opportunity came about, it was just something we couldn’t pass up.”

That opportunity was a chance to join the Resende Football Club, a talent development academy with a reputation for helping its athletes go pro.

“Forty players are fighting for 20 spots and the competition is unreal here,” said Seba, who is in his third month training with the club. “The physicality, mostly everything is different from Hawaii. It’s way different, you can tell.”

The Gonzalez family is getting a glimpse of how serious Brazil is about its soccer, especially during the World Cup.

Read more Suspect arrested in deadly Keeaumoku St. shooting

This year, the nation is looking to add its collection of five world titles, which is already the most all-time.

“You just see how much it means to them and how much they love the team,” Seba said. “How much soccer is life. Like I keep saying, it really is for them. It’s all they think about.”

Seba has fully embraced that dedication as he hopes to one day play for the world-famous FC Barcelona.

The family wants this experience to show others the benefits of betting on yourself.

“I think the biggest lesson we wanted Seba to learn from this is: you gotta pursue your dreams… You have to pursue your dreams, no matter how crazy they seem,” Miguel said. “In six years, he’s gonna be 18 years old and if we don’t do this now, it’s gonna be a situation where we’d always think, what would have happened?”

Read more First Alert Forecast: Tracking a large south swell plus slower winds for a few days