Player Spotlight: Sunny Emeh (Freedom FC)

When I came to Korea in 2007, I thought weekends would be for football. Back home in Nigeria, everyone plays on weekends. You finish work, you take off your shoes, and you find a field. Here, it was different. There was always more work. Factories, night shifts, overtime. The lights never went off.

I played a few times with random teams, but it never felt right. You play a game, then everyone disappears again. When Freedom FC started, I thought maybe ten people would come. That morning, I saw almost thirty. Some came in jeans, some with shoes too small. They were laughing before we even started. I realized then how much everyone had been waiting for this.

We didn’t have a real pitch, just a small futsal court. But it didn’t matter. For sixteen years, I hadn’t touched grass with people who called me teammate. When we finally played our first match, we scored four. When the whistle blew, grown men were hugging each other and crying. I felt something wake up again. Football is not about winning. It’s about feeling alive in a place that sometimes forgets you.