A civil war is raging in Sudan, with the best clubs playing as much as 4,000 kilometers away from home. And yet the national team is on the verge of qualifying for the next Africa Cup. About a country where football means much more to people than just goals and points.
Football is all too often laden with pathos. It is often given a significance that it cannot live up to. And yet there are examples that show that the round leather ball can develop a power that extends far beyond the pitch, the stadium or the TV broadcast. And such an event could occur if Sudan qualifies for the Africa Cup in Morocco in the next few days. This Thursday, the team will compete in Niger.
Ayman Abdelrahman’s current daily routine involves district league games with VfB Frohnhausen in the Essen area. This is nothing like the matches he once played in his native Sudan. In front of tens of thousands of people in the Sudanese Premier League, with enthusiastic supporters turning the stadiums into boiling cauldrons. And even if these memories are fading further and further into the distance, his thoughts still all too often drift back to his homeland.
