RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Back when migrants were pouring into Europe, a Hungarian TV camerawoman was caught on video tripping a Syrian refugee and his son as they scrambled across the border between Hungary and Serbia. That video went viral. The woman lost her job, and the man she kicked - well, his life has also changed drastically since then. Reporter Lauren Frayer caught up with him in Spain, where he's been granted asylum.
LAUREN FRAYER: Last September, Miguel Angel Galan was working in his office south of Madrid when he happened to glance up at the TV...
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LAUREN FRAYER: ...And first laid eyes on Osama Abdul Mohsen being tripped by a Hungarian TV camerawoman.
MIGUEL GALAN: (Speaking Spanish).
LAUREN FRAYER: "It made me so angry I started searching the Internet," he says. "I found out he was a soccer coach back home in Syria, and that's the moment when I realized I might be able to help." Galan runs Cenafe Academy, the biggest soccer coaching school in Europe, which was looking for someone to boost its ties with Arab coaches. He started working the phones, finally reached Abdul Mohsen in Germany, and offered him a job. Weeks later, he was here with two of his sons, aged 17 and 8.
OSAMA MOHSEN: I'm very happy - very, very happy. Thank you.
LAUREN FRAYER: They've become local celebrities and got to meet their idol, soccer superstar Cristiano Rinaldo.
LAUREN FRAYER: Hello, salam aleykum.
LAUREN FRAYER: Abdul Mohsen and his sons now live in a furnished apartment paid for by the soccer academy.
OSAMA ABDUL MOHSEN: I think at first it maybe a joke. But another telephone, telephone, telephone, and your job and your house and anything - just come here. That is better for my future.
LAUREN FRAYER: He says he rarely thinks about Petra Laszlo, the Hungarian camerawoman who has since apologized for tripping him.
OSAMA ABDUL MOHSEN: I don't know, but I think this woman don't like refugees.
LAUREN FRAYER: The whole journey was traumatic. Abdul Mohsen says his youngest son, Zaid, still cries every night.
OSAMA ABDUL MOHSEN: That's very small. He need mama always. He need mama always. In night, when you sleep, baba need mama. Baba, I need mama. It's very, very, very difficult.
LAUREN FRAYER: Abdul's wife and two other children are stuck in Turkey. Spain won't grant them asylum without papers that they haven't been able to get from the Syrian Embassy. Abdul Mohsen says he's grateful for Spain's hospitality, but if he can't be reunited with his family, they might have to go elsewhere.
OSAMA ABDUL MOHSEN: I hope Washington, New York, Chicago - direct I go. (Laughter) Yes.
LAUREN FRAYER: For now, though, this 52-year-old man is adapting to life here and learning to cook.
OSAMA ABDUL MOHSEN: I ask my wife, and she told me, take this chicken and - I cooking. Yes.
LAUREN FRAYER: Is he a good cook?
MOHAMMAD MOHSEN: Yes, if he needs.
LAUREN FRAYER: His son Mohammad says he's not a bad cook, actually. The boys are learning Spanish. They all go to Mohammad's soccer practice together. His dad is the coach, of course.
OSAMA ABDUL MOHSEN: (Speaking Spanish)
LAUREN FRAYER: Short pass, long pass, run - Abdul Mohsen knows the most important Spanish words here, he says, laughing, and heads back onto the field, his one real refuge where language doesn't matter. For NPR News, I'm Lauren Frayer in Getafe, Spain.