World Cup champion training football coaches in Lebanon

TYRE, Beirut, Lebanon: Social initiatives are increasing in Lebanon; many hear about them, participate in them, or at least know someone who is. But, seldom do we hear of social initiatives that are related to sports, mainly ones that target children.

This time, however, with SAHA (Sports And Humanitarian Assitance); a different frame is dominating the social initiatives scene.

In South Lebanon, for instance, Tyre is witnessing a kind of a mini World Cup. For a whole day, youngsters are being united by football, showcasing their achievements, after more than a year of being coached and trained by international and local coaches.

“War Child Holland,” “Right to Play” and “KNVB World-Coaches,” chose to organize their own mini-tournament for youth in Lebanon, while the whole world is busy watching the World Cup in Russia. 

The “Mini World Cup” is part of Summer Development League in Lebanon, which will run throughout the summer, and is themed around diversity and social inclusion. The league was organized by both the youth leaders and community members.

The “guardians” of the event were Johan Neeskens, Dutch star player in two World Cup finals in '74 and '78, and Desiree van Lunteren, current player of the Dutch women’s team and European Champion, who became European Champion with the Dutch women’s team in the summer of 2017.

The presence of the players in the event, War Child Holland mentions, is to inspire the youth to achieve their dreams.

The Mini World Cup started as Palestinian children danced joyfully and showed their traditional folk dances, minutes before the tournament started. Soon after, 200 children, who were joking and laughing before the “serious” part started, were ready to rock the court with their professionally acquired skills. The first match was a friendly game played by children with special needs and the international coaches. 

Not only did the court include football games, but also awareness games, local foods, World Cup and cultural stands. The initiative, which started in 2016, has had many benefits on youth, even ones beyond sports.

Chloe Younes, Communications Advisor at War Child told Annahar that “kids used to form groups: Lebanese children would sit together, Syrians together, and Palestinians together. This, however, changed after telling them that everyone can be playing football together and that nationality is not an issue.”

Ziad Kanaan, from “Right to Play,” informed Annahar that the project started in 2016 with a pilot phase that included 3500 children, 50% of them are females. It achieved great success in communities, and the organizers were able to expand the fund in collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The project is still running until 2019, and the organizers are hoping to train more coaches, together with the Lebanese Football Federation and the KNVB (Dutch Football Federation).

“We are training the coaches on how to integrate life skills with football activities, to enhance the children’s life skills on different levels: teamwork, communication, problem-solving, and how to manage their emotions in order to achieve better social cohesion,” Kanaan said.

The project, which is being organized in five areas in Lebanon (Beirut, Tyre, Saida, Akkar, and Tripoli); will be taking place on a weekly basis.

Coach Johan Neeskens used to dream of becoming a famous football player one day. “I am very happy to be here today, and this my third time in Lebanon,” he told Annahar. In the last two years, Neeskens gave many courses for the coaches training children and taught them how to prepare a tournament “not only with 20 or 40 people but also over a hundred people.”

“This is the moment for them to show us what they have learned, and we will see how it is going to work out today,” he said.

The program is very important, he says, because the coaches make sure that the kids enjoy doing sports, and in this case football, together, football brings people together."

Desiree van Lunteren said that “it’s great to see all the kids here having fun, and it’s also great to see that there are lots of girls here,” which she found rather unusual.

Van Lunteren seemed satisfied with the players’ performance.

One of the passionate youth coaches participating was Ibrahim Baalbaki, a 21-year-old engineering student who has been managing to find time to participate in the project for the past two or three years.

After someone told him about the initiative, Baalbaki was excited to learn what football had to add to him.“Through Football, you can improve children's behavior, especially that children love it,” he said.

Baalbaki is currently training children in Ain Baal village near Tyre, and is glad that students are not only learning football but also humanitarian values.

One of the children Baalbaki trains is Assil, a 16-year-old girl who started playing football two and a half years ago, mastering his craft for an hour and a half on a daily basis. “Our captain united us and created a team whose members became more like friends,” she said, adding that “this is what football is really about: uniting people.”

Ali and Hussein, two young boys whose friendship seems unbreakable had a different view of the whole thing: FUN!

10-year-old Hussein, who is in Grade 4, loves football because “it’s so much fun.” Ali, his 9-year-old friend, hopes to become football player with “Tadamon Sour” local football team.

The kids’ enthusiasm was reminiscent of international football legend Johan Cruyff’s words when he said: “Football has to be fun for kids or it doesn’t make sense.”