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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Fiona Kelliher

Discipline, teamwork, acceptance: why football is a lifeline for queer Cambodian teens

Van ‘Pa Vann’ Sovann and players in the team bus.
Van ‘Pa Vann’ Sovann and players in the team bus. Photograph: Courtesy of Document Our History Now

As a teenager Lorn “Leak” Sreyleak looked forward to playing football every week with friends in his home town of Kampong Chhnang. But the 15-year-old couldn’t help but envy another team that sometimes practised on an adjacent pitch.

Led by a gruff coach affectionately called “Pa Vann”, or Dad, some of the players reminded Leak of himself: although he was born biologically female, Leak had known since childhood that he was a boy.

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