Two teams of boys, one in the Campania capital, the other in the strip battered by the bombs: the Spartak San Gennaro, the Al Haddaf Team and a twinning born in the sign of peace
In front of the bombings and refugees of Gaza, a boy from Spartak San Gennaro asked his coach: “But can those children play football?”. The question generated a magic bridge. For 7 years Spartak San Gennaro has been playing the guys of the most popular neighborhoods in Naples for free. They train at Filangieri, a former juvenile prison. “Spartak” because the Spartans were tough, “San Gennaro” because it is upper help. In January the twinning with the Al Haddaf Team, Bet Lahia club, north of Gaza. A wonderful friend of friendship. Palestinian and Neapolitan children exchange the movies of their respective games and cheer on each other. Those of Naples with the shirt: “all the ASGS and ‘creatures”, those of Gaza painted “Spartak San Gennaro” with the ashes of their bombarded houses. Mohammed al Sultan, a young coach, told in a video: “We escaped from the north, the most bombed area, to the Beir refugee camp at Balah. Here, among the curtains, the team was reborn …”. On May 16, Mohammed, 23, died under the bombs of Israel, with the brother Bahaa, 14, footballer. Yesterday, at the Ventaglieri park, the friends of Spartak remembered them: “A thousand red poppies for Mohammed and Bahaa”, their photos, the banners, “who resists, never dies”, a football tournament. The dream is to play soon together, in Naples and Gaza. In peace. Pep Guardiola has just indicated the road: “Giving up ideologies and divisions, choosing the value of love for life and the care of others. Gaza is a pain that I feel throughout the body”.