Deep Dive: How Pa-Modou Kah came to Pacific FC
On cross-continental relationships and ties formed at Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Pa-Modou Kah is getting honked at by a red Hyundai. It is a cold and wet afternoon in Langford, British Columbia. (A redundancy, I suppose: October and rain are one and the same on Vancouver Island.) The driver—a fifty-something woman—spotted him on the short walk from the practice pitch back to Starlight Stadium. She beams and toots her horn. Kah smiles. Behold: another moment in the life of the most famous man in Langford, British Columbia’s premier notwithstanding.
One year and nine months since he was announced as Pacific FC’s second-ever head coach, Kah has emerged as one of the Canadian Premier League’s brightest talents: a vocal leader who, in his first season, led PFC to a first-ever playoff berth1 and is now poised to finish his second season with a chance at the number-one overall seed.
He is not merely appreciated on Vancouver Island; he is beloved.
“You have to be passionate in this sport to be successful,” says Pacific FC co-owner and CEO Rob Friend, “and he’s a guy that never takes a day off.”
It seems a natural fit now—like October and rain, you could say—but Kah’s arrival came as somewhat of a surprise in 2020: a first-time head coach whose most recent stint came as an assistant with FC Cincinnati—then the worst team in Major League Soccer.2
It shouldn’t have surprised at all; in fact, Kah’s arrival to the island nearly came a year sooner. To trace the Gambian-Norwegian’s ties to the Tridents is to follow a story that spans two decades and three countries.
It begins with a water bottle.