CHARLOTTE (CHARLOTTE SPORTS LIVE) — Just two days after turning 16, Nimfasha Berchimas became the ninth youngest player to debut in the MLS.
A moment so big, that even a week later it’s still hard to put into words. “Is this really happening?” He said with a grin on his face.
Having been with Charlotte since he was 12 years old, Berchimas is the first Charlotte FC homegrown product to graduate from the academy to the first team.
“It was a very crazy experience, just for the first time getting my debut and then there was like a lot of people texting me like ‘congratulations,’ and I was just like, ‘wow, I really made it.'”
His rise to the first team is impressive, but it is not crazy to imagine for those who have had a hand in his development.
“He has a special talent,” Berchimas’ U-15 academy coach Jorge Herrera said. “His speed, his ball dribbling and all the stuff was always there. We knew that he had something special.”
But ‘special’ doesn’t happen overnight, and neither does achieving a certain level of emotional maturity needed to perform at the top.
“Learning you don’t have to be sad or mad about the decision-making in a game,” Berchimas said. “You just have to move on and be happy the whole time and just play yourself.”
Herrera recalls the moment he saw it starting to click. “I think by the time that he started training with the second team with Crown Legacy and then to workout with the Under-17s was a game-changer for him. I think his confidence was big time. Now the question is, ‘can he stay there?'”