Post by marinermick on Oct 16, 2007 10:41:47 GMT 10
By Tom Smithies
October 16, 2007 12:00am
AUSTRALIAN squads usually come from fairly far afield but this is quite possibly unprecedented.
Three members of the under-17 squad that last week left these shores for a tournament in Singapore originally arrived in Australia as refugees from Africa.
They have left behind civil war and conflict and in at least one case have not seen their close family for years, and have rocketed through the Australian football system on pure talent alone.
Million Butshiire has been in Perth for three years after arriving from Congo, while Kamal Ibrahim and Tedros Yabio are both Ethiopians who have been in Victoria for four and 12 years respectively.
Ibrahim had never played organised football before he moved to Australia, pursuing only barefoot street games. He also hasn't seen his father in more than a decade, although he gets to speak to him occasionally.
Butshiire has come to the organised game even more recently, taking it up last year after a lengthy journey to Australia via Uganda and South Africa.
Yet the trio are this week in Singapore, going through the drills and practice games of U-17 coach Martyn Crook and dreaming of one day making it to the senior team.
All three are a triumph for this country and its footballing system, yet their selection for Australia's national U-17 squad sends the story into almost space-age science.
They simply have no paperwork to verify their age - leaving their homelands behind, they have no birth certificates to prove they qualify for this age group.
And so the FFA have used MRI scans of the growth plate in their wrists, a joint which, in practically all of the population, closes up at the age of 18. The scans have proved to the AFC authorities that the teenagers are exactly as old as they claim.
The AFC is particularly sensitive to concerns about age after the U-17 tournament in Laos last year, in which the home team appeared to be using players closer to over-35s than under-17s - and so the FFA have an MRI machine on stand-by in Singapore in case their whole squad suddenly has to prove it is still short of voting age.
None of which is a major concern for Butshiire, Ibrahim and Yabio, who are just delighted to be playing football for their adopted home. All three speak of their pride at being part of the squad which opens its campaign tomorrow.
Butshiire described the chaos that marked his switch from one continent to another: "When I left my country we hardly took anything, I only brought my school reports, so I don't have a birth certificate.
"I left Congo and went to Uganda for about 11 months, then went to South Africa on the way here. I've settled pretty well in Perth.
"Last year was my first season (playing organised football) - it's interesting because usually I only play for fun. Everybody was so serious, they all wanted to win the league, it was a good challenge.
"It's all happened pretty fast but it's good. It's not strange but it's totally different. Martyn's a good coach, tactically he knows his thing.
"I'm pretty proud of myself. Hopefully I'll get a professional contract, see how things go."
Crook, meanwhile, says the trio's emergence heralds a talent stream that could benefit the national teams for years to come.
He admits that players so relatively new to an organised, coached version of the game create unique problems but wants to turn that into a strength.
"The history of African players is that they very much play spontaneously and sometimes it can be difficult to get them to work within the team unit," he said.
"One of the three, Yabio, is much more of a team player, while the other two are much more off the cuff. But you have to live with that. They do work hard as well.
"We're starting to get more and more refugee kids coming through. It's difficult in our country at the moment to get them to play in club and rep teams because of the cost factor, but we've got some programs in place to help these kids integrate into clubs and we're starting to see the fruits of that come through.
"They're very motivated kids - they train hard, they always want the ball. They've earned what they've got and I'm very confident that in the future there'll be a lot more of them."
October 16, 2007 12:00am
AUSTRALIAN squads usually come from fairly far afield but this is quite possibly unprecedented.
Three members of the under-17 squad that last week left these shores for a tournament in Singapore originally arrived in Australia as refugees from Africa.
They have left behind civil war and conflict and in at least one case have not seen their close family for years, and have rocketed through the Australian football system on pure talent alone.
Million Butshiire has been in Perth for three years after arriving from Congo, while Kamal Ibrahim and Tedros Yabio are both Ethiopians who have been in Victoria for four and 12 years respectively.
Ibrahim had never played organised football before he moved to Australia, pursuing only barefoot street games. He also hasn't seen his father in more than a decade, although he gets to speak to him occasionally.
Butshiire has come to the organised game even more recently, taking it up last year after a lengthy journey to Australia via Uganda and South Africa.
Yet the trio are this week in Singapore, going through the drills and practice games of U-17 coach Martyn Crook and dreaming of one day making it to the senior team.
All three are a triumph for this country and its footballing system, yet their selection for Australia's national U-17 squad sends the story into almost space-age science.
They simply have no paperwork to verify their age - leaving their homelands behind, they have no birth certificates to prove they qualify for this age group.
And so the FFA have used MRI scans of the growth plate in their wrists, a joint which, in practically all of the population, closes up at the age of 18. The scans have proved to the AFC authorities that the teenagers are exactly as old as they claim.
The AFC is particularly sensitive to concerns about age after the U-17 tournament in Laos last year, in which the home team appeared to be using players closer to over-35s than under-17s - and so the FFA have an MRI machine on stand-by in Singapore in case their whole squad suddenly has to prove it is still short of voting age.
None of which is a major concern for Butshiire, Ibrahim and Yabio, who are just delighted to be playing football for their adopted home. All three speak of their pride at being part of the squad which opens its campaign tomorrow.
Butshiire described the chaos that marked his switch from one continent to another: "When I left my country we hardly took anything, I only brought my school reports, so I don't have a birth certificate.
"I left Congo and went to Uganda for about 11 months, then went to South Africa on the way here. I've settled pretty well in Perth.
"Last year was my first season (playing organised football) - it's interesting because usually I only play for fun. Everybody was so serious, they all wanted to win the league, it was a good challenge.
"It's all happened pretty fast but it's good. It's not strange but it's totally different. Martyn's a good coach, tactically he knows his thing.
"I'm pretty proud of myself. Hopefully I'll get a professional contract, see how things go."
Crook, meanwhile, says the trio's emergence heralds a talent stream that could benefit the national teams for years to come.
He admits that players so relatively new to an organised, coached version of the game create unique problems but wants to turn that into a strength.
"The history of African players is that they very much play spontaneously and sometimes it can be difficult to get them to work within the team unit," he said.
"One of the three, Yabio, is much more of a team player, while the other two are much more off the cuff. But you have to live with that. They do work hard as well.
"We're starting to get more and more refugee kids coming through. It's difficult in our country at the moment to get them to play in club and rep teams because of the cost factor, but we've got some programs in place to help these kids integrate into clubs and we're starting to see the fruits of that come through.
"They're very motivated kids - they train hard, they always want the ball. They've earned what they've got and I'm very confident that in the future there'll be a lot more of them."
