The six players of Team Cambodia were exhausted after another successful Homeless World Cup, and proud at what they had achieved in Poland. Playing a total of 12 games overs 8 days and taking on countries whose players were nearly always older, physically bigger and more experienced Cambodia finished 34th out of 48 countries and in our final game beat Wales 7-3.
Off the pitch our players were great to work with. Always respectful of myself, Jimmy and Vibol they embraced what the Homeless World Cup is all about and went out of their way to meet players from other countries, learn about their cultures and be open to new experiences.
Now that the Homeless World Cup is over they are very much focused on furthering their education or getting a job so they can support themselves and their families. Two of them are learning how to be mobile phone technicans, one wants to be a moto mechanic and another is going to be a lawyer whilst another two are still focusing on finishing high school. When I said goodbye at the airport they very kindly told me that if I ever broke my phone in a moto accident whilst crashing into someone else they could fix my phone and moto and represent me in court. Good guys to know.
We would sincerely like to thank HFCA's partners Cambodian Children's Fund, Riverkids Foundation, Cambodian Kids Foundation and Happy School for taking these six young boys who were destined for a life of poverty and helping to turn them into young men that we can all be proud off
Thanks to our sponsors SMART, GFSS, Flight Centre, Collingwood Rotary Club, donors and you for your support.
Paraic Grogan, Chairperson HFCA, Jimmy Campbell, Head Coach, Vibol Chao, Country Manager and all the other HFCA volunteers
