The captain of the Mekelle 70 Enderta football team, Anteneh Gebrekirstos Haile, remembers as if it were yesterday the day his team, representing the Tigray region, won the Ethiopian championship for the first time. It was in July 2019.
The stadium “was full of energy and emotion, the stands were full of passionate fans” of the team from Mekele, capital of Tigray, recalls this 31-year-old football player.
“The most beautiful day of my life”, he confesses to AFP.
However, silence invaded the stadium in 2020. The war between the federal government and Tigray authorities devastated this region in the north of the country, until the signing of a peace agreement in November 2022.
Thousands of young Tigrayans have been forcibly drawn into the conflict, including Anteneh.
“There was a general feeling that it was better to go to war than die at home,” he says.
Traumatized
Kibrom Asbeha, 26 years old and the team’s striker, explains to AFP that he and his younger brother took up arms to join their parents, both enlisted.
The war took his brother away before the peace agreement was signed and he was reunited with his parents. Despite the war, the passion for football remained intact.
“I even watched the Ethiopian first division games on Facebook Live, hoping to be able to play football again after the war,” he recalls. But returning to normal life was not an easy task.
In addition to the lack of income (no club member receives a salary), the trauma of war continues.
“On the battlefield, the intensity of the moment often hides emotions, but the memories haunt you when you return home,” he adds.
The conflict, for which a number of victims was never given, was also the scene of acts of sexual violence on both sides.
UN investigators also accused the Ethiopian government of trying to starve the Tigris to weaken the power of rebel authorities.
“Unifying force”
Bringing the players together on the field and forming a team was a big challenge, says coach Goytom Haile, 39 years old.
“The war stole a lot of things from us (…) It will take a long time for us to get back to what we were before, but we will get there”, insists the coach, who asks for financial help for the team, which he considers a “unifying force” and places as Example is the figure of the Ivorian star Didier Drogba, who at the beginning of the 2010s put his prestige at the service of peace in his country.
Undefeated
All efforts have already allowed the team to return to the elite of Ethiopian football and its fans are already dreaming of seeing the club relive its glory years.
“Even if it’s not like it was before, I’m optimistic that things will change,” says Zelalem Etakility, a 30-year-old man who has supported Mekelle 70 Enderta since he was a teenager.
“Football can help us with political, economic and financial reconstruction.”
For Anteneh, returning to the field is already synonymous with “healing” and “hope”: his club can be proud of having finished undefeated last season.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
Kingston is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
