Soccer has been a part of Kyle Johnson’s life since he started playing the game at age four, and he passed that love along to his son. Now, he’s making sure everyone in his community has the opportunity to play soccer if they have that same interest.

When his son started playing soccer with the Como Park Soccer Program in St. Paul, Johnson noticed the lack of diversity on the girls’ side of the game. He started training young women in the community who were interested in soccer, and ended up coaching the high school girls’ team at Como Park High School for a handful of years.

After seeing how much of an impact he made with that one high school program, Johnson started thinking bigger, and first helped found Like a Girl, an organization that works to create opportunities for equal play for girls in soccer, and in 2021, Johnson created the Karen Football Association.

The KFA uses soccer to help girls in underserved communities in the St. Paul area advance in other areas of their lives. The program is available at little to no cost to the players, and is open to anyone who wants to play soccer – but its main focus is serving immigrant communities such as the Karen community. In the Karen community, girls’ interest in soccer and other sports isn’t always supported by their families, and Johnson is both working with the girls to help them gain knowledge about the sport and with their male counterparts to show them that women belong everywhere men do – including the soccer field.

Through his work with KFA, Johnson helped form both the Karen National men’s and women’s soccer teams, all-refugee soccer teams representing the Karen people around the world. Through the KFA, Johnson partnered with St. Paul Parks and Rec to open up even more soccer opportunities for young people in the area. In 2019, Johnson was nominated for the MLS Works Community MVP, and he served as the Karen Women’s’ National Team coach from 2019-21.

Johnson uses soccer to help build leadership skills in the youth who attend his clinics. Through his work with the Karen community, Johnson is helping to break down barriers for girls on the soccer field to help show them that there are truly no barriers for them anywhere in life.