Italy Fields an All-Refugee Team

They speak different languages. They can’t use their real names publicly because it would endanger their familes at home. They have to call the opposing teams each week to make sure the other side doesn’t wear blue, because blue jerseys are all the team has.

Welcome to Liberti Nantes, the first Italian team composed entirely of refugees.

The team … includes players from the some of the most war-affected nations on the planet, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea, Sudan, Guinea, Nigeria, Togo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

All of them are political refugees – looking for a new start and fresh hope. [...]

This team is not a firm guarantee of their future in Italy for many of the squad members. Because their asylum claims are still in doubt, they cannot be registered and get a contract to play in a professional or semi-professional team.

And in case you were wondering, as I was, where the name comes from? (By the way, the linked article has an excellent in-depth discussion of the lives of the individual players — a very interesting read.)

The team’s name, Liberi Nantes, comes from a verse in Book I of the “Aeneid” by Virgil. The exiled Trojans, fleeing their burning city, had shipwrecked and only a few of them (rari nantes) immersed in the vast sea (in gurgite vasto) reached shore. The Trojans were refugees, too, forced to flee a war, and, like the players of the Liberi Nantes, they crossed the Mediterranean in search of a place to start life anew.

And when they got there, they found “welcoming centers” to live in and an uncertain future. Except for football, which gives the same kind of escape the world over.

Embedded video from CNN Video

Some Related Stories:

Category: World Football