Football as an integrative factor for refugees, also in the Bilbao final
As part of the Europa League final played in San Mamés on Wednesday, the Spanish refugee group played on Tuesday in Bilbao Group players and combined UEFA volunteers are an integrative symbolic match.
A social project sponsored by the Royal Spanish Football Association, in cooperation with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is striving for “healing and opening wounds” through a huge football potential, “said Pedraz, a delegation of Acnur Euskadi.
The match in front of the Bilbao Arriaga Theater is “preparing for players’ international participation,” said Lourdes Calvo, UNHCR Spain’s communications manager.
The election was created in 2023 and created from countries such as Afghanistan, Mali, Gambia, Nigeria, Peru, Ukraine or Guinea.
The team Currently twenty players, most refugees and at least three womenTo train weekly at their Madrid headquarters while combining sports and their work.
“The special job of the project is not only the competition, but also its continuity: they train every week, feel some part, and it generates the community,” Calvo explained.
He highlighted the integrative nature of the project and stressed that football, in addition to being an inclusive tool, is also a “powerful way to cure the trauma, for those who came to the country after difficult experience.
Most were selected through social organizations that accompany the refugee and immigrant population in Spain.
Between playersEbrahim Pishtaz has been living in Madrid for almost four years and practices as a team captain– “I’m not the best player, but I understand most of the football and I can communicate in several languages,” said the Afghan player.
“When I arrived in the country, I was in a defense hotel,” Pelhtaz said, adding that they were looking for people who liked football, “loves” the organization.
The captain said that wearing the team’s team is “an honor”, and in addition to being a member of the team for almost three years, his teammates are “as a family”.
He repeats his story with the variations of other colleagues. Stanley Iidowu, working in Madrid for three years as a gardener while training for the national team.
For Idowu, the experience goes beyond football. “It is important that, although we come from different countries, we are all the same,” Nigerian said, stressing that “no matter black or white in the team.”
Another player, Nikita Daleyki came to Spain with her mother and sister three years ago from Ukraine. Now, in 21 years, the national team is active while playing in the Torrejon Sports Group.
Jesús Paredes, a two -year coach of the Spanish refugee group insisted that he was important through trust and stability training routine. “Not everyone was easy, but they feel part of a team here, they feel greeted,” he said.
In 2023, the selection first participated in the Social Eurocup, a non -professional competition in which the deportive human and supportive approach prevails.
Following this year’s Netherlands, the team will compete again in Italy (2026) and the 2027 competition is expected to take place in Spain.