OSU medical student represents US in first Transplant Football World Cup

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – An Ohio State University medical student who was once in dire need of a kidney is now taking his athletic skills to the international stage.

Soccer has been a part of Mohamed Emlemdi's life since he was a child. In recent years, it's played a bigger role.

“To get back into athletics, it was really inspiring for me to see and it kind of led me here," he said. 

First, however, he found out he needed a new kidney during his sophomore year of college in Cincinnati. He got that kidney from his college roommate. 

“He saved my life, and that whole crazy whirlwind of a year turned my life upside down, but also kind of catalyzed my interest in medicine," Emlemdi said.

He had become an avid wrestler but could not do that anymore because of the transplant, so he got back into soccer. His transplant surgeon, also a kidney transplant recipient, told him about competitions specifically for those who have gotten organ transplants. Now, Emlemdi is about to play for the U.S. in the first Transplant Football World Cup.

“It's kind of a dream I never knew I had come true, if that makes sense. It's unbelievable," he said.

Emlemdi's medical journey inspired him to get into medicine. He's president of an Ohio State medical student transplant education interest group. Dr. Uday Nori, a kidney transplant doctor at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center (OSUWMC), advises that group.

“Participating in competitive sports, pursuing a medical career, I can't ask for any better example of what a successful kidney transplantation should look like," Nori said about Emlemdi.

Emlemdi is working to become a kidney transplant doctor too.

"I’ve gone through it and I'm able to like see past it, it's kind of encouraged me to like kind of pay it forward in a way hopefully for people like me, my future patients and everyone across the world really," he said. "I remember being so sad and down and upset about my situation but here I am now a few years later, I never believed I would have made it this far so now I kind of want to help other people make it here and go even further."

The opening ceremony for the Transplant Football World Cup is Sunday in Italy. Emledi's first game is Monday. A liver transplant recipient who had their transplant done at the OSUWMC is also playing on the same team as Emlemdi.