Photo credit: T24
When Antonio Rudiger entered the first fray as a substitute during Germany’s World Cup opener – a 7-1 victory over Curacao at the Houston Stadium – hee knew his karge extended family would be watching on proudly.
BBC reports that the Real Madrid defender’s parents had managed to flee Sierra Leone”s decade-long civil war for a new life in \europe.
“There was only the decision to get out of there,” Rudiger told BBC Sport Africa.
“I spoke many times with my brother about it, and he told me the stories of what he saw there and what a march they made from Kono (the family’s home district in the far east of Sierra Leone) to the capital city to find a bit of safety.”
The distance between Kono and the capital Freetown is approximately 210 miles and the journey proved perilous, with Rudiger’s uncle taking extreme action to prevent his nieces and nephews being swept up by rebels and turned into one of the thousands of child soldiers forced into battle during the conflict.
“[He] hid them in a bag of rice and then went back to get them and then to continue the journey,” Rudiger added. “And sometimes they had to lay low, pretending they [were] dead not to get shot or to not get abducted.”
He was born in Berlin and he remembers growing up in one of Germany’s refugee centres.
“We had our room, then a family next to us had their room, so we were all together,” he said.
In this tournament, diaspora players and fans have already made their mark.
