Bill Plaschke: Immigrant sports star pursues different dream far afield
The old soccer star hobbles through the rows of plastic-covered clothes, dribbling a ball down a rocky pitch in Lebanon.
There is a dark circle of sweat forming on the collar of his gray shirt, audible cracks coming from his bowed legs, but he’s moving now, racing across the fields of his past, navigating the cramped dry cleaning shop of his present.
There is a customer who has brought an American flag to the counter, and Koko Kederian needs to hustle up there and make an assist.
“Sir, sir, good news,” he says. “We don’t charge to clean the American flag.”
Welcome to Champion Cleaners, on the corner of a weathered block of Pasadena, alive on the foot of a former star for the Lebanese national soccer team.
For 35 years now, folks have walked inside with arms full of dirty laundry, and left with pockets full of wisdom and grace.