“Football for me means everything. When I started at 13 years old, it was a hobby. But after that, I found that it was a game where when you go onto the pitch you don’t think about anything. You have a lot of worries, you have a lot of problems but you keep them off the pitch. You focus on your football and you enjoy your time with your friends.
“It makes me so happy. I don’t have any worries. I don’t think about the problems that I have. It’s…” Here, Najma Arefi pauses. The 19-year-old Afghan footballer considers her words carefully, wiping away a stubborn tear in the process. Almost indiscernibly, the earnestness in her voice notches up an octave. “It’s like a safe place for me when I’m playing football with my teammates.”
The final sentiment is important. Football has long been the tonic providing generations with personal escapes from life’s mortal coils; acting as, essentially, a safe place.
