It remains to be seen whether Jordan Botaka, ex-player of AA Gent, STVV and Charleroi, will return to Israel as a player for FC Ashdod. But the Dutch Congolese will never forget the way he left exactly two weeks ago today. At the Dutch Football International, Botaka (30) gives the chilling account of the most anxious 20 hours of his life. “The pilots had to single-handedly avoid the missiles.”
Friday evening October 6. Unsuspectingly, Jordan Botaka boards the bus with his Israeli team FC Ashdod towards Nazareth for the away match against Maccabi Bnei Raina. The Dutch Congolese went to bed on time that evening and set his alarm for 9 o’clock, but just before his alarm goes off, he is woken up and all hell breaks loose.
“I thought I was dreaming. Out of nowhere I suddenly heard a loud banging on my bedroom door. “Wake up, it’s war!” was shouted in the hallway. I was still ‘high’ from sleep, but then I knew it was not a dream,” Botaka told the Dutch ‘Football International’. “I saw people crying and screaming in panic. Then it completely dawns on you that something is wrong totally wrong is. It seemed like a movie to me.”
Yet it was the harsh reality. From that moment on, Botaka tries to book a flight home as quickly as possible – he still lives in Ghent – but that turns out to be no easy feat. Flights to Brussels and Amsterdam were cancelled, those to London fully booked. With some luck, he manages to get one of the last tickets on a flight from Tel Aviv to Paris that same evening.
However, then a rather major problem arises. Botaka’s passport was still in his home in Ashdod, a city half an hour’s drive from the Gaza Strip where the rockets had already hit heavily. However, Botaka (and a teammate) had no choice but to move from Nazareth to Ashdod through the ‘war zone’. “That was such a scary ride. There was no one on the track and above my head I saw the rockets flying in the air. My heart rate skyrocketed. There was no one in Ashdod, just smoke.”
Once he has arrived safely at his home, Botaka quickly changes clothes and collects his most important belongings, including his passport. He leaves the rest in Ashdod. Then we head towards Tel Aviv airport with a lot of fear. “There were soldiers everywhere. Every few kilometers we had to stop at checkpoints and only if they trusted you were you allowed to continue. Meanwhile, the fighter planes flew just above our heads.”
Botaka reached Tel Aviv airport safely, but had to leave some of his foreign teammates behind. They had not (yet) been able to book a ticket and had to sleep one to two nights at the airport. Where Botaka is once again terrified in a packed plane. “It was around 8pm and dark. The pilots had to ensure that they would avoid the missiles themselves. I sat by the window, looking outside the whole time. Saw the pilot choose a different course. You felt the tension. All you heard was the crying of babies.”
After twenty minutes the redeeming news was announced that they had left the ‘danger zone’ behind them. After which Botaka got a splitting headache, as a result of the fatigue and fears he had experienced all day. Sadness too, because of the teammates he had to leave behind. His family picks him up in Paris. At 5 o’clock in the morning, 20 hours after he heard the banging on the door in Nazareth, he was back home in Ghent. He could hardly sleep the next few nights. Three to four hours. Every time he heard a loud noise, he was terrified. He lost four kilograms due to the stress.
Botaka now trains with a personal coach. Waiting for news when the Israeli competition will resume. He has daily contact with people from the club and teammates. But his future seems especially uncertain.
READ ALSO: EXCLUSIVE. Lior Refaelov flees Israel before the war: “My place is now in Belgium, with my family”
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