13 years old Chafik Hammouma boarded a small boat bound for the unknown. In his small town very close to Tangier, the expectations of a young man his age were not so rosy. He knew that if he wanted a better life, he had to step up and leave his parents and five siblings. Staying was not an option. He was forced to mature. Most Hispanic adolescents in their generation do not realize what it means to be away from the comforts of home. “Life is always hard for people who have nothing,” he says with a certain resignation. Almost nothing is left of that boy who left his home wearing almost nothing and only having enough money to pay for his trip to Spain. Now 18 years old, he works as a waiter in Bilbao. Thanks to Rugby, he managed to integrate into a team where “everyone is very kind to me”. and for the moment he does not think about what the future will hold for him. “I just know I don’t regret anything because you learn from everything,” she says.

four attempts

Before arriving in Arcos de la Frontera (Cádiz), Chafik had seen his dream of setting foot on Spanish soil frustrated four times. “We were a gang of about 40 people who had to pay a thousand dollars to get us here. Spain”. Naturally, he had no money. It was his father, a farmer with limited financial resources, who lent it to him. “It wasn’t easy for him to do this because he knew that besides not having much money, he knew that his son would risk his life in this venture.” Escape was difficult. And so, thanks to the GPS, they always locate them before they reach Spanish waters, take them back to Morocco and send them to the police station.

This never deterred him. Traveling with Chafik, the group managed to get to Arcos de la Frontera one night after inflating the boat and filling the tank with petrol. When they approached the beach, engine broke down. They were then forced to call the Spanish police on their cell phones so they could come and call them.. Those over 18 were sent back to Morocco, and Chafik entered a children’s center where they “did not even prepare paperwork for you, drive us to school or take us out.” They then transferred him to Almería “where I was very comfortable” and from there to another center in Granada “here”. they didn’t give you clothes and they gave you a frozen meal that you had to put in the microwave to eat”.

This did not please him and He escaped from the center with his three friends. The four young men spent almost an entire day walking through the mountains and “sleeping in the trees in the dreadful cold” until they reached a town. “People didn’t understand what we were saying and didn’t pay much attention to us.” Luckily, they came across several shops owned by Moroccan citizens who “give us some money”. with this help They came to Madrid by bus. Arriving in the capital, Chafik decided to continue his solo adventure and go to Bilbao. He passed through a minors center in Amorebieta (Vizcaya) and then another in the Bilbao district of Zurbaranbarri. One of his trainers, Jon, was the one who got him interested in rugby. “He showed me pictures of when he played and insisted that I try it.”

And it did. One fine day, he came to the El Fango field, where Bilbao Rugby University is training. “It got me hooked,” she says. Now he plays as the second line in the Basque League team. He finally feels happy. “I have no words to thank for what the club and my teammates have done for me since I arrived. because most of the time they make me feel like I’m in my small town in Morocco”. His happiness also comes from his team’s recent victories against Belgium, Spain and Portugal at the World Cup in Qatar. “It was incredible, and we all went out to celebrate it,” she recalls. In San Francisco’s Bilbao neighborhood, there was a football party unprecedented since Athletic’s success in the league. Meanwhile, he is counting down the hours to return to his town on Christmas Eve to spend a few days with his family, whom he hasn’t seen in months.

from Nador to Ordizia

His compatriot Mohamed Amine al Aamrani was also very clear that life in Nador (Morocco), just 16 kilometers from Melilla, would not be easy for a teenager. Taking the risk of jumping over the fence in the border city or getting on a small boat was always an adventure with no end. Despite everything, the idea of ​​emigration came to his mind one day. The reward was none other than finding a place with a better quality of life. Many young people around them are willing to pay a high price for this. He was one of those kids who decided to bet everything before they came of age. He was luckier than others who perished at sea or on the same fence. you can count. At 21, he found a place on the Ordizia rugby team, which “helps me forget all the problems and concentrate on the things that really matter, thanks to the great atmosphere that exists.”

Mohamed Amine al Aamrani spent his childhood with his parents, an older brother and a younger sister. From the age of seven, he used to go fishing on the boat with his father while studying. This was his way of helping the family. At the age of 17 he made the most important decision of his life: to leave Morocco. “There was no other choice because all the doors were closed there.” He told his parents and they did not object. “They had to accept it,” she recalls. They knew that many young people their son’s age were following the same path. He prefers not to comment and remember anything when coming to Spain. “We started from this question,” he says.

the point is He arrived in Almería on a boat before he turned 18, speaking almost no Spanish.. His mother tongue is Riffian, though he speaks some Arabic and French, like most of the inhabitants of Nador. When he arrived in Spain, a friend of his picked him up and took him to Barcelona, ​​where they told him that San Sebastián was the best opportunity for a boy his age to thrive. He didn’t hesitate and stood in the Basque Country with what he wore one fine day. “I went to a local police station and from there they took me to a center for children.”

He did not stay in the center for long because a few days later he was transferred to another in Segura, just 11 kilometers from Ordizia. was where you areAn educator with a youth team from Ordizia saw that this 188-centimetre, 123-pound boy has a pilier body and should benefit from it. “I had no idea what rugby was, so I signed up to try it and I am very happy with the opportunity they gave me”. When he came of age, they took him, along with five other Moroccans, to an emancipation flat in Beasain. He decided not to sit idly by. Any opportunity to evolve was to take advantage of the time. This prompted him to take a welding course, which now makes a living at a company in Urretxu.

When Ordizia started training with the youth team, she was the only foreigner in the team. “At first they didn’t know you but over time I gained their trust and now I get along very well with everyone.” From youth he went to the M23 team. In his first year, he made his Division of Honor debut against Aparejadores de Burgos. Under the command of his coach, Iñigo Marotias, in the Castilian-Leonese city. It was the 2019-20 season. It was just “three or four minutes”. He wasn’t scared, but he was a little nervous on the bench “until you jumped on the field and changed your chip.” The opponents managed to disperse the group in their first melee and When the police officer in front of him saw him so young, he tried to scare him by “yelling in my face from a very short distance”.

The next season, fate demanded that the same pilers who signed for Alcobendas go to the Altamira field. Mohamed left with a few minutes left. In the first melee, he managed to collapse the opponent’s first line. He suddenly remembered the man who had tried to scare him on his debut a year ago, and shouted defiantly that a Moroccan guy had his heels stuck in the grass and wasn’t going to back down. With this data, good rugby fans will have already guessed that pilier is none other than the famous and now infamous Gavin van den Berg.

Mohamed has only played three games this season because he injured his ankle in the early days and knocked him down. On a sportive level, things are getting stronger, and on a personal level, things are not going badly for him, even though his mother has been hospitalized in Spain. And that got him a little worried. He keeps in touch with his parents, to whom he sends photographs frequently, and was able to visit them last August as his papers were ready. Being away from his maternal home did not separate him from his religious ideas. Rather, he remains steadfast in his convictions, as the fact that he is a Muslim causes him to refuse to drink beer or other alcoholic beverages with his companions in the third term. He loves Basque Country food, “especially skewers” and what he can’t stand is “it’s too cold and rainy in here”.

Titi, precedent

In Spain, there are also cases of sub-Saharan Africans with rugby experience who decided to jump over the fence in hopes of signing up for a club. maybe Thierry Futeu’s case is best known because he came to play more than a dozen matches with the national team. And they forgot their request for Spanish citizenship in a drawer at the Ministry of Justice. It was decided for other athletes to be granted with a letter of naturalization, of course, these were athletes with a desire to win a medal, basketball players or football players to compensate for the loss of a player in a world championship. Requests from rugby players must be in another folder without the ‘urgent’ stamp.

Cameroonian citizen Yves Kepse was the first to jump over the fence or to cross it.. He left his home in Banganté in 2012. For two years he wandered and lived in poverty in Nigeria, Niger, Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco. Too many bad experiences for a 21 year old. He passed through the ranks of Rugby Club Valencia and CRAT from A Coruña to settle in France. Futeu only took a month and a half, traveling through several countries before reaching Melilla. The third expedition was the temptation to jump over the fence and set foot on Spanish soil. His commitment to the team is unwavering. He goes every time they call if his team lets him. He does not forget those who helped him a lot when he came to Madrid.

In Sevilla there is even a team from the Andalusian Regional League, CR San JerónimoIn accordance with an agreement signed with the SAMU Foundation three years ago, it is responsible for the education of children staying in centers for Unaccompanied Migrant Boys, Girls and Adolescents (NNAMNA). They managed to set up their own team consisting of young people who came to Spain from African countries such as Morocco, Senegal and Cameroon. They stay overnight in Fuentequintillo, Polancos or Valencina, all in the state of Seville, and their colleagues encourage them by going to the matches. Non-sport trainers have confirmed that thanks to rugby, the level of conflict among these youngsters has been significantly reduced and at the same time their Spanish speaking fluency has increased, which can help their integration in the short to medium term. .