Sadom Kaewkanjana matches Wei-lun's 64 in $5 Million PIF Saudi International, as home star Khalid Attieh dazzles
sports1 hour ago
Nobody would have raised an eyebrow if Mattia Sparacino had shown a desire to be as good a footballer as a Paolo Maldini or a Franz Beckenbauer.
For a teenager who was born to an Italian father and a German mother, Sparacino’s hero is baseball icon Barry Bonds as he fell in love with one of America’s biggest sports at the age of three.
Now this 18-year-old student of GEMS World Academy hopes to become the first player from Dubai to play in the Major League Baseball.
Such is Sparacino’s talent that he has already earned a baseball and academic scholarship at the Occidental College in the US, paving the way for the rising star’s return to a country where his journey as a young baseball player began 15 years ago.
“I was born in Chicago, in the US, and I have been playing baseball since I was three years old after my dad introduced it to me. I have developed a passion for it over the years,” Sparacino told Khaleej Times.
Sparacino, though, could not continue his affair with baseball after his family moved to France from the US. And it wasn’t until the Sparacino family left Europe for the UAE that he got a chance to rekindle his love for the sport.
“Actually what happened was, I lived in the US for the first six or seven years of my life. Then I moved to France where I didn’t play any baseball at all. In most of Europe, baseball isn’t really a big sport. So I didn’t really have the opportunity to play,” he said.
“So when I moved to Dubai, I didn’t know that I would have the opportunity to play baseball here. But luckily enough I found a place to play.”
And that place is the Dubai Little League where over 200 people play baseball.
“So at the Dubai Little League, we have a great facility. We have over 200 people playing from six years old to 80 years old. So it’s great you know, lot of people from lot of different schools, different countries, it’s really a melting pot of nationalities where you meet people from all over the world,” said Sparacino who earned the chance to get a scholarship while playing baseball during a visit to the US last summer.
“Now my goal is to play professional baseball after university and it will be an incredible experience to be the first person from Dubai to play Major League Baseball. It would give me a chance to talk about Dubai and everything that it has done to me,” said Sparacino.
The youngster then opened up on his biggest idol.
“Barry Bonds is one of the most famous baseball players of all time. He had that ability to play the game with such skills,” Sparacino said of the legendary Bonds who holds the record for most career home runs (762) in MLB history.
“He is confident and humble, two great traits to have, you know, to being confident and humble at the same time, really letting your ability to speak for yourself.”
Finally, Sparacino revealed why watching his other favourite player, Noah Syndergaard, the New York Mets pitcher, has helped him evolve as a player on and off the field.
“He has so much power and so much potential, but the way he keeps his calm in tough situations, I find that really admiring,” he said.
“You never know he is having a good day or a bad day and that’s a really important skill to master playing a sport or doing anything in life.”
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