Dream Come True For Congolese Kids at World Youth Cup

GOTHENBURG, Sweden—This past week, Sweden’s second city, Gothenburg, has been filled with soccer-playing youths participating in the Gothia Cup, also known as the World Youth Cup.
Dream Come True For Congolese Kids at World Youth Cup
Platter of pakoras, samosas, and onion fritters (Nadia Ghattas/The Epoch Times)
7/23/2009
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/PHOTO3.jpg" alt="DENTIST VISIT: Yonette Milan Dou (right), one of the leaders of the Congolese boy's team FC Brazzaville, with Ankara (left), waiting to go to the dentist as Karl-Johan Ericson looks on.  (Barbro Plogander/Epoch Times)" title="DENTIST VISIT: Yonette Milan Dou (right), one of the leaders of the Congolese boy's team FC Brazzaville, with Ankara (left), waiting to go to the dentist as Karl-Johan Ericson looks on.  (Barbro Plogander/Epoch Times)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1782542"/></a>
DENTIST VISIT: Yonette Milan Dou (right), one of the leaders of the Congolese boy's team FC Brazzaville, with Ankara (left), waiting to go to the dentist as Karl-Johan Ericson looks on.  (Barbro Plogander/Epoch Times)

GOTHENBURG, Sweden—This past week, Sweden’s second city, Gothenburg, has been filled with soccer-playing youths participating in the Gothia Cup, also known as the World Youth Cup. Teams from 63 nations were present for the opening at the Nya Ullevi arena, including a boy’s team from Congo.

The opening had the air of a scaled-down Olympic Games, with music, speeches, and the marching-in of the teams who eventually filled the whole field. Six young players took the “Gothia oath” of fair play and respect in Arabic, French, German, Spanish, Swedish, and English in front of the big crowd.

This year saw the first visit of a team for 14-year-old boys from Congo, FC Brazzaville. They came from a soccer school started by the Gothia Cup and the Swedish mission church, Missionskyrkan. Each year, the church sends a few “soccer volunteers” to the school in Congo.

Many children in Congo have suffered because of the war. They have lost their parents, homes, and hope for the future. Center Gothia Cup has contributed to many youths from different ethnic groups interacting in their clubhouse and on their soccer fields, something most of them wouldn’t have been able to do before.

In Brazzaville, it is said that the soccer project has been an important contribution to the peace efforts.

Karl-Johan Ericson, one of the soccer volunteers has just returned from eight months of working in Congo. Him and his team are at Heden, a former military exercise field in the heart of Gothenburg, which now the home of six soccer fields.

He sppoke to The Epoch Times outside a temporary dental clinic built for the soccer-playing youth.

“The entire team is here to have a checkup. They can’t get dental care at home, because they have no money. Everyone gets an examination and they even get their teeth fixed, it’s great.”

Great or not, the Congolese kids can’t be coaxed to smile for the camera. Of course they’re not alone in being afraid of going to the dentist.

All the sights and sounds of being in Sweden are perhaps getting to them as well. This is their third week in the country. They arrived two weeks in advance of the tournament to allow time for meeting other team members and preparing for the cup.

“To them, this is amazing in many ways, something very different from what they’re used to—lots of new impressions.

“To come here and play soccer is a dream for them”, said Ericson.

This year the dream came true. “This year we were able to bring a team over, thanks to a fantastic private sponsor, a Mr. Per Johansson.”

It must indeed have seemed like a dream to the boys during the opening of the Gothia Cup, when the speaker told the audience about the soccer project in Congo as the players ran out on the pitch. The stadium with some 52,000 people gave them a roaring cheer.

After two wins and a loss, the Congolese team went up against the Chiparamba Great Eagles from Zambia. The Great Eagles proved too much, and FC Brazzaville was eliminated. The Zambian team would go on to win in their age group.

Quick Facts

The Gothia Cup was started in 1975 by two Swedish soccer clubs in Gothenburg. Nowadays only one of them, BK Häcken, is still arranging the tournament.

BK Häcken and the Gothia Cup run soccer schools in Burkina Faso, Thailand, and Congo, where soccer, education in democracy, and regular school subjects are on the curriculum.

In the tournament’s first year, 275 teams from six countries participated, playing on six fields.

This year, 1,561 teams from 63 countries participated, playing on 110 fields.

About 34,200 youths aged 11–19 participated. Together with parents and coaches, the total number of participants was 59,200. They were billeted in 60 schools and 15 hotels.

As of this year, Gothia Cup is also officially The World Youth Cup.