It was eight years ago that Osvaldo Alonso casually walked out of a Houston-area Walmart and started a new life. The decision to defect from Cuba was not one he took lightly, as it meant that he may never see his friends and family again.
That he established himself as one of the top players in MLS and became a U.S. citizen were proof enough that it was a good decision. But he's also been slowly reunited with much of his family, too. His mother and sister have since relocated to the United States and a few months he saw his father for the first time since 2007.