Khalid Hersi holds a Hearts of Pine jersey while posing for a photo with his family last week in Lewiston. Photo courtesy of Hearts of Pine

A long-awaited knock by Hearts of Pine coach Bobby Murphy changed Khalid Hersi’s life.

“It was a pretty tough day, because I just had a feeling,” Hersi said. “I knew I played good at the tryout, so I was waiting. It was pretty stressful just waiting for him to come through the door. I was just sitting there the whole time, low-key nervous.”

Murphy arrived at the Hersi residence in Lewiston last week to inform Khalid that not only was he the newest player to sign with the new Portland-based professional soccer franchise, but he’d also make history as the first Mainer to make the team.

Hersi, 20, jokes his father’s intense training regiment finally stuck with one kid. Originally from Somalia, Khalid’s parents, Abdullahi Abdi and Nadifo Issak, immigrated to Atlanta, where Khalid was born, before planting roots in Lewiston with when he was 2 years old.

“It’s been the dream ever since I was playing soccer, my whole life,” Hersi said. “… there’s people that go all over the world just to play professional soccer, it’s not something easy. The fact that (a team) came to Maine, it was too good of a chance. I’ve been working my butt off for the past three months just to get the opportunity, and to be honest, it worked out pretty nice.”

Khalid Hersi is one of six sons to play soccer at Lewiston High. In 2019, he was a part of the Lewiston team that made a bid for the state title, but lost 5-2 against Falmouth. Khalid, a freshman, was playing alongside his brother, Bilal, who played Division I soccer at Siena. Khalid played at Lewiston for three years, then accepted a full-ride offer to play with a soccer academy in Spain.

He also played for Pathfinder, a United Premier Soccer League team in upstate New York, and for the University of Southern Maine in 2023.

“I remember him starting as a freshman and playing as a freshman,” Lewiston High boys soccer coach Dan Gish said. “That doesn’t happen often. He doesn’t take no for an answer. If he didn’t make a certain team, he just keeps plugging away, and he’s put that work in and developed. He knew the things he needed to work on, and he would work on it and put the time in every morning.”

Lewiston’s Khalid Hersi, center, battles for the ball with Edward Little’s Jack Thompson, left, during a September 2021 game in Lewiston. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Khalid more recently played for Lewiston-based Wahda United FC, which is coached by his older brother, Abdijabar Hersi.

“(Khalid’s) never forgotten where he’s come from. And, you know, obviously, his family coming to the United States, and the sacrifices his dad has made and what the family has given to us as a community in helping us with training players in offseason,” Gish said.

Abdijabar called Khalid “a commanding presence in the midfield, with exceptional skill and game intelligence,” with an ability to “control the tempo of the game and distribute the ball with precision, as well as outplaying his opponents with a skillset beyond his years.”

Khalid said he’s gotten 30% better as a player from playing for his brother at Wahda United.

“I’m very calm — like, very calm,” Khalid Hersi said of his playing style now. “I’m a technical player, I can create a lot of plays on and off the ball, I kind of give that aggression. Mainly, I’m a very, very good on-the-ball player, technically, and can make plays out of nowhere.”

Gish said that he sees the 20-year old as “the conductor” on the pitch, who can dominate games when he chooses to.

“I can honestly say, when he played for us, he was almost too unselfish,” Gish said. “I’m like, ‘Khalid, you’ve got opportunities, you’ve got to start taking them.’ I know he’s worked on that, but I’m telling you, he is a sneaky weapon that can make another team pay if they’re not paying attention.”

Lewiston High School athletic director Jason Fuller said signing Khalid Hersi was a good decision by Hearts of Pine because of the type of player and person Khalid is.

“He understands how to represent people, how to represent himself and people he plays for,” Fuller said. “He’ll do all those things really, really well.”

Added Fuller: “When you do the right things as a student, a player and as a citizen, good things happen to you. I think you’ve seen that with the Hersi family — they’ve done the right things. They’ve worked really hard at it, and the result is they’ve had opportunities at the next level that some other kids may not have.”

Khalid attributed all of his success to his family. He said his parents, eight brothers and one sister have stuck with him through every team tryout, success and disappointment. The Hersis once again showed up when Murphy came knocking on the door of their home in Lewiston.

“They’re proud. My parents, obviously, got a little emotional, just because it’s not a feeling that they’ve felt before,” Khalid Hersi said. “Obviously, my dad has been working so hard just for somebody to make a professional team. He went through seven brothers now, so he’s just (dedicated) this whole time for somebody to go professional. He’s worked his butt off, to be honest, just doing everything he can, whether it’s taking us to go train, or opening somewhere else for us to go train, waking up. Same thing with my mom.”

Now, his parents can watch the dream play out while Khalid represents Portland, Lewiston and Maine on the pitch in a Hearts of Pine jersey.

“I feel like I just now have so many little kids looking up to me. It’s so motivational,” Khalid Hersi said. “Saturday, I was at the Wahda United U-17 team training, and all these little kids were like, ‘Oh, my God, are you the kid that just signed?’ I was like, ‘Yeah,’ and they were like, ‘Can we take a picture?’ I just know that kids are going to feed off of that. Now they’re going to be motivated, knowing that they have a professional soccer here.”

Fuller’s glad the Hearts of Pine took not only a Mainer, but a player from Lewiston — a city that loves hockey but is becoming increasingly known for soccer.

Now, the Lewiston High School boys soccer team isn’t only capturing state titles, it is developing professional athletes.