Life in a refugee camp.

Long before he became a soccer prodigy who's now a rookie striker for Real Salt Lake, the 17-year-old lived more than half his life amid the grim destitution of a refugee camp in Ghana, after his family fled civil war in their native Liberia in West Africa.

"Once you know some of the stories behind Alex Nimo, you begin to have a better appreciation for why he doesn't seem to back down from anybody out here," coach Jason Kreis said. "He's one of the littlest players on our team and he's the youngest player on the team, and he doesn't shy out of any tackles. Puts his head in places where other players won't, and you begin to have a real understanding why that is."

Certainly, nothing came easily for Nimo.

His family fled the First Liberian Civil War in 1990, when he was just an infant, fearing the ghoulish atrocities that ultimately led to war-crimes charges against the rebel leader whose insurrection ignited the six-year conflict that killed between 50,000 and 200,000 people and forced a third of Liberia's 6 million citizens from their homes.

Once settled in Ghana, the diminutive Nimo - even now, he stands only 5-foot-5, though with the build of a college wrestler - grew up admiring the older boys who played soccer in the afternoons even while death and despair surrounded them.

"I really wanted to play," he said.

Nimo was young and small, and the older boys often angrily chased him from the field, he recalled. He did not comprehend his dire living conditions until he was perhaps 6 years old. Meanwhile, his father - once a stable government employee - found work as a bus driver and toiled such long hours that he seldom saw his family.

But the Nimos managed better than most.

Though Nimo declined to go into detail in a recent interview during RSL's preseason training camp, he recalled in his first expansive interview on his childhood that many of his fellow refugees had no access to food or medicine. He remembered his mother covering his eyes as they passed dead bodies in the streets.

"Every morning you'd wake up and somebody was dead," Nimo told U.S. Soccer.com. "Sometimes, someone was laying in your front yard . . . dead."

Nine years Nimo lived in the refugee camp, ultimately finding a place in the afternoon soccer games by proving - even without shoes - that he could hold his own against much bigger and older players. In 1999, with the help of Catholic Ministries, his family was granted political asylum and moved to Portland, Ore.

"Everything just kind of opened," Nimo said, "Like, 'Wow, we can go to the store and get this, you can get money. You can do this, you can do that.' . . . I was just like, 'Wow, this is like a privilege. This is like a miracle and I'm going to just live it to the best of my ability.' "

And that is saying something.

Nimo and his older brother dazzled coaches at a tryout at the FC Portland Academy in 2000. The late coach Clive Charles invited Nimo into the academy, where he starred until becoming an American citizen last year and joining the U.S. Soccer Under-17 Residency Program in Florida.

Since then, Nimo has become a standout on the Under-17 national team, starting all four games for the Americans in the FIFA U-17 World Cup last summer in Korea. RSL made him the 17th pick of the Major League Soccer SuperDraft in January.

"We think he's just an enormous talent," RSL general manager Garth Lagerwey said. "He's born of tough circumstances and he has overcome them. . . . We have positive evidence that he's going to respond well to adversity."

And though Nimo does not like to revisit his difficult childhood, he said he told his story publicly after a troubled high-school friend in Portland seemed inspired by it.

"There is nothing worse that you have been through that you can't bounce back from it and focus on what you want to do," Nimo said. "That's why I really gave that story, just to help others out."

mcl@sltrib.com

Alex Nimo

Striker, RSL

Height: 5-5

Weight: 140

* The 17-year-old spent the first nine years of his life in a refugee camp in Ghana.

* RSL made him the No. 17 pick of the Major League Soccer SuperDraft in January.

* Nimo dreams of playing for the U.S. in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Season-Opener

RSL vs. Chicago Fire

At Rice-Eccles Stadium

March 29, 4 p.m.