Only smiling faces during a special game of RKEDO JO11- 1. Players Daan Otter (10) and Joey Beuling (11) wanted to play a match against the young refugees from the emergency shelter, who are being cared for next to the club. “I wanted to help them.”
Joey came up with the idea, together with his buddy Daan. “The refugees are taken care of next to the club. I often see those tents and then I think: they have nothing at all. That’s why I wanted to help them. And I thought: maybe they want to play football against us.”
Jeroen Floris is coach of the boys of RKEDO JO11- 1. He has continued the practice match and speaks in advance of an ‘interland’. With a wink, of course. “Nice initiative from the boys, isn’t it? Our boys always want to play football and it’s a nice outing for the children from the emergency shelter. I understood that they had been training for two weeks.”
Fanatical
A few hours later, there is a fanatical football game, especially by the young refugees from Syria and Eritrea, among others. First 8 against 8, according to the rules, but there is little question of an equal battle. “So in the end everyone participated and I think it was 16 against 8. Several players aged 5 or 6 participated. Oh, who cares? They played good football and I only saw smiling faces.”
The supporters – mostly parents of the young refugees – made themselves heard along the line. Coach Jeroen: “That created a very nice atmosphere. In the end it was something like 18-2 for us, but that’s not the point. Fortunately, they were able to score two more times. It was very successful.”
Afterwards, penalties were allowed to be taken on Joey, who is the keeper of RKEDO. “Most players were rather small, so I deliberately let those penalties pass,” said the keeper and initiator.