Playing on the streets as a kid in Ethiopia, Yohanes Zewdu dreamed he could become a famous soccer player. He believed it was possible. He prayed for it. He was dedicated. But there was a problem.
“There we didn’t have an actual soccer ball,” he said. “Where I’m from, you buy milk in a plastic bag. And then we would find trash and other stuff — whatever you can find. Paper or socks. And you stuff it in there and you make a soccer ball. That’s how I would spend my days.” For Zewdu, it wasn’t much of an issue. Not at the time. It was all he knew and he loved to play.
After moving to the United States when he was 10, that playing career never took off. He played into high school in Las Vegas before reality finally caught up with him. His eventual career path, though, might be more unlikely than had his original dream come true. Over the past decade, Zewdu has transformed himself into someone else: Johnny Vegas. A concierge, a lifestyle manager, a guy high-profile soccer players go to when they’re looking to have a good time.
Need a yacht? Call Johnny. Need a hotel suite? Text Johnny. Need a dinner reservation? Hit up Johnny on WhatsApp.
When he started working as a valet attendant at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, there would have been no way to predict that job would lead him to where he is now: living in Dubai, running his own business catering to the rich and famous and gearing up for the World Cup.
Zewdu recalls with vivid clarity the day he first set foot in the United States. The move was made possible through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, which uses a lottery to make 50,000 Permanent Resident Cards available for people all over the world who meet criteria involving education and work experience. His dad, who had left Ethiopia to study chemical engineering in Russia, qualified and was among the roughly 5,000 people from Ethiopia selected that year.
