At the Homeless World Cup in Paris, the Irish team have been playing well – but their true success is off the pitch, where they’re proving real champions
AUGUST IN Paris and the queues at the Eiffel Tower are dauntingly long from early morning. But on the nearby Champ de Mars there is a spectacle you don’t have to wait hours to see – and one that is equally wonderful and uplifting. It’s the ninth Homeless World Cup, with 64 teams competing all week in a fast-paced, high-scoring four-a-side format that leaves nowhere to hide and demands a deft technique.
The Republic has a proud record at the tournament, seeded seventh after finishing sixth in Rio de Janeiro last year. Even more impressive are the results off the field. Coach Mick Pender says in the past nine years, nine out of every 10 former players and staff have gone on to better things.
“The way we look at it, it’s about what happens when they go back. We’ve had great success with the programme where fellas have gone on to college, got jobs, gone back to families. Guys might even just get access to their children. Before we came out, one of the lads had a call from his solicitor saying the court had granted him access because he’s moving on with his life, which is great for him.”
It’s Pender’s ninth Homeless World Cup, and it is “absolutely the best thing” he does as an FAI development officer, he says. The eight players, selected from more than 500, wear the official Irish kit, and are given full international caps.
The team opened the tournament in fine style with a 12-4 win against Germany on Sunday. And that was even after the team’s very own Saipan moment: the training gear arrived two days late. The Republic’s international team of 2002 might have done well to respond as this team did – they let the captain deal with it. Gerard Twohig says he was given the responsibility, so “I put a bit of a hammer on DHL to get the equipment over”.
“It’s a big responsibility being captain,” he adds, “looking after the lads, keeping the curfew, making sure they’re eating right and drinking right.”
It was Twohig who put the gloss on a second Irish win on Monday, with a fine volley from just inside the opposing half to complete a 10-1 rout of Romania. The crowd loved it, especially the vocal Kenyans, who seem like an unofficial Irish supporters’ club.
Twohig is effusive about what being part of this team means to him. He began drug-treatment programmes four years ago and now works in a centre himself. “It means the world to me to have my father there in the stand. It’s great to have a relationship back with my family. To see them here, it shows how much I’ve turned my life around.”
Back on the pitch in the afternoon, Ireland lose 8-6 to Scotland in a high-quality, see-sawing match. “It was a tough game,” says Seán O’Connor from Coolock, who was a talented schoolboy footballer before he started “to get up to all sorts”. But playing football for Ireland is the best experience he’s had. “My family is so proud that I’ve come such a long way. This opportunity has been amazing. It’s really opened my eyes to education, to get back into football, to be here and see all these countries. Life is worth living.”
O’Connor is going back to do his Leaving Cert, while his teammate and fellow Dub Derek Smith is applying for a soccer career-development programme. The others, from Mullingar, Longford, Belfast, Wexford and Waterford, all have similar stories. For the co-founder of the Homeless World Cup, Mel Young, founder of the Big Issue in Scotland, this is what it’s all about.
“These are the poorest of the poor, the most marginalised people, but to watch this you’d never know. They are participating, performing, the spirit is fabulous. The important thing for the homeless is that they are part of a team. What you get is self-respect, self-esteem, confidence, you learn life skills,” he says.
“What we are trying to show is that for very little cost you can create great change. Yesterday, these people might have been sitting in the street, but now you’re applauding them. You can take those people in the streets, give them a different environment and create change. That’s the kind of initiative we need to take.”
Despite a frustrating 8-7 loss to Indonesia yesterday afternoon (having been 5-0 up), Ireland had sealed their place in the top-tier second round with a 6-3 win over Kyrgyzstan in the morning fixture.
So, the boys in green will be competing until Sunday, with their eyes on the big prize – and no doubt with the Kenyans cheering the loudest. It’s easy to assume the usual popularity of the Irish is the reason for such support, but this time it goes deeper. Pender describes the FAI’s work in Aids orphanages in Kenya and explains that the Irish players traditionally “adopt” a Kenyan player for the tournament, sharing what little they have with those even less fortunate than themselves.
More often than not in life, sport is blown out of all proportion. At the Homeless World Cup it’s the other way around: one’s own problems are put in proper perspective, and football is shown to be not just a game, but something through which people can show their endless capacity to break stereotypes, surprise, change and grow.
If you’re in Paris over the next few days and want to feel good about the human race, there’s only one place to go. Otherwise, you can watch the online coverage at homelessworldcup.org.
