Former child soldiers, street boys in Somali U-17 squad

As Somali U-17 football team is due to be off to Sudan on Friday for CECAFA competition, a very well organized ceremony to see the team off was held at the Sahafi International hotel in Mogadishu on Thursday.

Authorities from the Somalia Football Federation, the national Olympic committee, government ministers, law makers, football fans and other guests participated in the ceremony which attracted the attention of many people, with the team including former child soldiers, street children and former shoe shiners after they were trained in football.

The SFF President Said Mahmoud Nur who addressed the ceremony said that his federation had done all it can to encourage the young boys who have passed through difficult circumstances since they started the training in June.

“There are former child soldiers, street boys and shoe shiners in the national team so this is one of the tangible achievements made by the SFF” Said Mahmoud Nur told the ceremony.

“Aden Hussein Ibrahim (Eeney) a former shoe shiner along with former street boys and child soldiers are now in the national squad and they are ready to represent their nation,” the Somali football federation president told the participants during the seeing off ceremony of the U-17 Somali squad on Thursday.

The acting President of the Somali NOC Hassan Ahmed Abdi “Elman” who delivered a short speech at the ceremony urged the young boys to do as much as they can to achieve success, saying that personally he had much confidence in them.

“I know how the country’s current situation is and the unprecedented circumstances you had experienced, as you even fled from your former training base. I am how ever confident that you will show good performance during the competition,” he told the young boys.

The Somali government Minister for Youth and Sports Suleiman Olad Rooble for his part said that the team’s participation in the competition was something cheerful and he hoped them to be successful.

“If you come back home with victory, the Somali president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed will be welcoming you at the airport and you will have a luncheon with him so I urge you to try your best,” the Sports Minister told the team.

The Minister for Transport Ali Ahmed Jama Jingili who also spoke at the ceremony praised the SFF for having done a good job for the whole nation, saying that SFF rescued many Somali children from taking up guns and instead led them to be football professionals.

“Know that representing your nation is the greatest reputation that one achieves and today you are very respectful because you are carrying the nation’s flag. I pray to Allah to give you the upper hand,” the minister told the team members.

“For me, your participation means a lot to me, because you are war-weary and you live in a country where everything is destroyed, but however I wish you to be victorious,” the minister said, adding that he was much happier than anyone in the world, because of seeing young Somali boys going abroad to represent the people and the nation of Somalia.

For his part, the Somali Telecommunications and Postal Services Minister Dr. Abdiri Zak Osman Jurile said that his meeting with the national team members marked a historical moment for him.

“When I see your beautiful dress made of the Somali flag, while the country is experiencing such bad circumstances and remember back the past history of the great Somalia, just tears of agony fall down on my cheeks. I don’t know what more I can say but hope you to be successful,” he told the team.

“Your participation in the CECAFA Under-17 competition cheers every Somali patriot, because as the country is experiencing such insecurity and lawlessness, you are now heading abroad to represent Somalia and compete with other boys of your age, but who grew up in law and order and sovereignty and have never heard bullets, while you were born in war times and still live in a volatile territory” Dr. Abdiri Zak Osman Jurile told the young boys.

The Somali Under-17 football team who have been training at the police academy in Mogadishu for the past several weeks after they fled from their former training compound will be off to Sudan on Friday for the CECAFA Under-17 tournament

The Somali team will first play against Nigeria on August 20 and will then face Sudan and Tanzania on the 22nd and 24th of August, as the competition which will kick off on August 19 will last until August 31, 2009.