FRISCO — Add another chapter to Bernard Kamungo’s incredible story.
Kamungo, a former refugee from Tanzania who turned up for FC Dallas affiliate club North Texas SC’s open tryout in 2021, was named to the MLS Next Pro Best XI on Friday. He’s eligible to help the club he played with most of the season in the playoffs, which begin Sunday in St. Louis.
Yet the FC Dallas coaching staff thinks Kamungo is far more than just a good story.
He was signed to a first-team deal in late August and made his MLS debut with a 20-minute cameo against the San Jose Earthquakes Sept. 17. The 20-year-old wants to do more than make up the numbers: He wants to help FCD and North Texas win trophies, and he wants to do it now.
“To get an opportunity to help the second team and the first team? That would be incredible,” Kamungo told The Striker this week. “That’s a huge opportunity for me, and I’m just looking forward to it.”
Opportunities keep coming for Kamungo, who played at Abilene High School and had to be convinced by his brother to try out for NTSC. His talent at that tryout was clear and only has been solidified by two seasons focusing entirely on the sport.
He scored 16 goals in 24 appearances for North Texas, dwarfing the six goals he scored last year. That’s attributable to the learning experiences he’s had showing him how to be a professional player.
“Everything you put in yourself, how you sleep, everything you do matters,” Kamungo said. “Right now, I try do everything well off the field and on the field.”
With winger Alan Velasco injured and likely recovering from a thigh problem until the end of the regular season, Kamungo has become an interesting option off the bench for FCD manager Nico Estévez. FCD has sometimes lacked a change of pace off the bench, occasionally turning to a fullback as a winger to see if it gives the front line a spark. Kamungo could be a player who gives FCD a different dimension if he is able to make his moves more quickly than he did with North Texas.
“He’s just going to have to adapt to the speed of play, which is very different to what he’s used to in MLS Next Pro,” the manager told The Striker. “The demand is higher here, and he noticed that in the game against San Jose.
“From there, he just need to get to know his teammates better, make sure his teammates understand his abilities, he needs to understand the game plans, and from there it’s just being himself, which has gotten him to where he is. He doesn’t need to change that.”
It’s an important lesson for him on the field, where he needs the confidence that he fits in with seasoned veterans during the most critical part of the MLS season. Off the field, Kamungo seems unlikely to change.
He speaks often with his brother Imani but said he sometimes is slow to share positive news with the rest of his family, particularly his mother, who often becomes overwhelmed with just how far her son has come.
The player himself can’t pretend, though, that he doesn’t have some of the same moments when he stops to think about going from Tanzania to Abilene to becoming an FCD pro player who may help the team in the postseason.
“For me, it’s just been really unbelievable. It’s not something I can just leave in a moment and move on,” he said. “But there may be things still yet to come, so I’m looking forward to more big, big moments.”
So is FC Dallas. This story is far from having its last chapter written
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