Arcadia: Lone
Star’s Lone Goal Hero
By Julu M. Johnson, Jr.
Although the Liberian national football team, the
Lone Star suffered a 4-1 loss at the hands of the Eagles of Mali in
Bamako recently, Arcadia Toe was the name on the lips of Liberians.
Since scoring the lone goal for his country
on his debut, Toe has attracted the attention of soccer fans and
Liberians wherever he goes. “Are you Arcadia Toe who scored the lone
goal?” was the question posed by a lad when seeing Arcadia entered a
photocopy center on Broad Street.
Even in Mali, local fans fought for his autograph and
demanded souvenir for him following the match in Segou. Each boy
opened his copy and demanded that Arcadia sign before boarding the
Lone Star bus.
Toe has gotten this huge popularity not because very
little is known about him in local football but the goal he scored was
Liberia’s third in the entire 2006 Nations and World Cup qualifiers.
The striker, who has never played active soccer in his native
land, was born on August 20, 1982 in Yekepa, Nimba County. Toe
narrated that he had to flee Liberia in 1989 due to the civil war at
the time. It was in Ivory Coast, where the Toe family sought refuge,
that Arcadia began his soccer sojourn with Tabou FC for three years.
Thereafter, Arcadia and his family moved to Ghana when
the Liberian international played for Antapa United in the second
division and then Samatex FC in the same category.
After graduating from the T-Polytechnic with an AA
degree in Engineering, Arcadia crossed to Niger to join Urana FC in
1998. From there, he landed in Libya at the request of Al-Wahda and
later Al-Ittihad, the club of Al-Saadi Kadafi, the son of the Libyan
leader Muammar Kadafi.
The Chinese side Guangzhou FC became the first of
numerous Asian clubs to hire Arcadia in 2000. The same year, the
Liberian switched to Vietnam to kick ball for Can Tho FC and he went
on to play in Thailand with Sisaket FC.
Bangladesh became Arcadia’s next destination, beginning
with Dhaka Wanderers. He played three matches in the Super League with
three goals. Abahani recruited Arcadia for the Federation League only
to finish second to eventual winners Muktijoddha.
In order to sharpen their attack for the Asian
Champions League, Muktijoddha contracted Arcadia with his first match,
in which he got a goal, being in Turkmenistan in 2004 against Nissa FC
Ashkabad and later Nijmen of Lebanon in Dhaka. In the same
competition, Arcadia and Muktijoddha faced Al Shabb Club of Yemen.
Meanwhile, Arcadia was a hat trick hero when Muktijoddha met his
former club Dhaka Wanderers.
He was on the move again and JPS Kelantan (the outfit
that once had Alexander Cheneken Freeman) of Malaysia was the lucky
one to grab the Liberian hitman.
Apparently a hot cake in the Asian region, Arcadia is
now with Al Shabb of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the city of
Dubai.
He got the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award at Abahani
in 2003 and scored the only goal when the club won FA Cup in
Bangladesh.
He was top scorer of Muktijoddha in 2004 with
seven goals and second highest marksman in the entire league.
Arcadia, during his vacation period, loves
playing offseason matches for Liberian premier league champions Mighty
Barrolle. He scored the lone goal for the Rollers when they fell 2-1
to the national team Lone Star in 2001.
He gives praises to his parents and a number of
personal coaches and trainers for the giant step he has taken in his
football career.
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