Eritrea - Ministry of Information

Giorgis didn’t leave any choice for the Somali authorities because he did not have any paperwork. Accordingly, it was decided for Giorgis to be deported to where he came from. “That was out of the question”, Giorgis said to himself and cut a deal with the Somali authorities to allow him to work for a couple of months and make some money for his way back. Giorgis was not at all planning to go back home; In fact by then he had already developed the idea of going overseas.

Talking about international soccer competitions, whether at international club level, youth national team or the senior national team itself, Eritrea has never gone beyond first pre-qualifying stages except on very rare occasions. At least that was how it was until about the end of 2006 when the wind of change breezed over Eritrean football.

October 2009
Eritrea’s future in the soccer world rests upon its young talented players who play here and there in the streets, school pitches and mini-soccer fields. Very young students, with an average age of 13, who polished their eye-capturing skills and techniques in such pitches, were picked up from a tournament held in Asmara and represented Eritrea, under a team name Warsay, in the 37th Norway Cup in mid June 2009. They came back holding a big trophy that attests to their excellence.

Giorgis’s travels: The incredible adventure…
When he first arrived in Gonder, he was fortunate enough to find a job to maintain his living and later met an Eritrean man who owned a bakery in the town. He was employed there and stayed in the town for a little more than a year. Giorgis was fast at studying languages. He could communicate in English from his bible studies at the missionary school he was attending in Mendefera and managed to speak and understand Amharic from his stay in Gonder. “Somehow, I was not satisfied with how I was doing in Gonder”, Giorgis said, “So I decided to move on towards the west and so I took off once more.”

To start with, in the early 90s Eritrean football clubs and its great number of superb players was a pride for Eritrea. Undeniably, the root of foot ball as a popular game dates back to the late 50s or early 60s. Eritrean players, then under Ethiopian colonization defied all the political barriers and proved their superiority. Despite the unwelcome attention they were getting, Eritrean players were the most important and dominant members of the Ethiopian national teams...

“I just took off, but I honestly didn’t know where I was going”, Giorgis, a man in his late sixties said narrowing his eyes remembering his long and adventurous journey as a young man.  His full name is Gebregiorgis Mengistu and works as a watchman at the regional administration office in Medeferea located opposite to where he went for his elementary studies. The journey began back in 1954, when Giorgis was 17. They were the times when Eritrea was in a deep political turmoil with the enforcement of Federation and uprising of young Eritreans for an independent Eritrea. Giorgis was then a student with very humble background, which was a constant cause of restlessness. .