UEFA and UNHCR manage the Unity Euro Cup for the second consecutive yr and Spain competes for the primary timeIt is a soccer event to “strengthen ties between refugees and their host communities”, say the organizers The groups have to be made up of refugees and other people from susceptible teams with at the very least two ladies
The world of soccer is able to producing headlines and controversies equivalent to that of Vinicius -victim of racist insults-, but additionally of strengthening ties and appearing as an integration instrument. This is how Ebrahim lives it, the captain of the Spanish refugee staff. A staff made up of women and men from Mali, the Ivory Coast, Honduras, Morocco, Ukraine or Afghanistan, like Ebrahim.
The 26-year-old solely has phrases of gratitude and satisfaction for the chance that Spain is providing him. It has allowed him, he explains to NIUS, to start out a brand new life away from the Taliban regime and now he has been chosen as captain of the staff that can take part in Frankfurt (Germany) on June 28 within the second version of the Unity Euro Cup: the event organized by UEFA and UNHCR “to strengthen ties between refugees and their host communities”.
In this version, 16 international locations of the European Union will take part. Spain will achieve this for the primary time and can current themselves with a staff that already trains each Saturday on the Ciudad del Fútbol de Las Rozas, in Madrid. A staff made up of refugees and other people from susceptible teams, which additionally contains two ladies, as required by legislation. All educated by “prime” professionals equivalent to Jesús Paredes, bodily coach with Luís Aragonés, stand out within the Football Federation.
Ebrahim P. RFEF
Space for ladies, not for discrimination or racism
When the technical staff met Ebrahim, they’d little doubt that he have to be the captain. One yr and two months in the past the younger man arrived in Spain as a refugee, after having studied Law and Political Science in Afghanistan. Soccer was considered one of his passions, in reality, he performed within the college league, however all the pieces modified when the Taliban got here to energy.
After an extended journey, which Ebrahim prefers to neglect, the younger man is now learning photovoltaic vitality and the set up of photo voltaic panels in Madrid. His dream is to work and reside from it sooner or later, in addition to to have the ability to proceed enjoying soccer, “his drug, his escape route,” he says. And he want to do it like he’s now, with a staff that he feels happy with, wherein he has a household greater than associates and in which there’s additionally room for ladies, one thing unimaginable within the Taliban’s Afghanistan. A soccer the place “there isn’t a margin for variations, discrimination or racism,” Ebrahim explains to NIUS.
The pictures and shows of affection between the staff members of their first coaching are proof of this, as could be seen within the video that heads this data. Refugees and susceptible individuals who take into account soccer rather more than a sport. “It is a vital a part of my life and my happiness,” says Ebrahim, who in the present day is lastly in a position to have a look at his future with hope, after having to go away his nation behind. That is the spirit with which the gamers of the Spanish Refugee Team prepare each Saturday on the Ciudad del Fútbol in Las Rozas and with which they may play the Unity Euro Cup on June 28.
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