Player Spotlight: Benjamin Anazemba (Freedom FC)

I came to Korea when I was twenty-eight. It has been nineteen years now. The hardest thing for me wasn’t the language. It was the quiet after work. You finish a shift, eat by yourself, and go home. No noise, no talking, just sleep. For a long time I thought maybe that was what life was going to be.

When Sunny called me about Freedom FC, I laughed. I hadn’t worn goalkeeper gloves since university. But I went anyway. That first day, everyone came early. Some hadn’t played in years. We were like kids who couldn’t wait for the bell to ring. We didn’t even care if the goals were small. Just playing again felt like a celebration.

I didn’t play in our first friendly because they said it was for the younger players. I still shouted the whole match. My throat hurt after, but it was a good kind of pain. I remember thinking, this is what I missed. The sound of the ball, the voices, the feeling that Sunday means something again. Football doesn’t change your life, but it reminds you what joy feels like.