Player Spotlight: Omar Al-Masri (Joyful FC)

[Translated from Arabic original text]

I play left wing. I like running fast and chasing the ball. Coach says I should save my energy, but I forget. When I start running, it’s hard to stop. Sometimes I go too far, and everyone shouts my name to come back. That always makes me laugh.

At home we play near a school wall. There’s a hole in it that we use as the goal. When the ball goes through, we have to run around the wall to get it back. One time it hit a metal bucket and made a loud bang, and the whole street turned to look. We laughed so much we couldn’t keep playing for a while.

In Jeju the field is soft and green. It feels strange because the ground at home is hard and dry. I fell a few times, but it didn’t hurt. The Korean kids are quiet when we first start, but after a few minutes they begin to smile and shout too. When we play together, it feels like we’ve known each other a long time.