An African soccer team in Cairns

Growing up in Sudan, Yor Asheen would play soccer with a sock full of rubbish, kicking to his mates on quiet back streets.

"We'd just kick around and have fun, you know. Forget what you're seeing [around you]," he says.

When he migrated in 2006, the first question he asked on Australian soil was where the nearest soccer club was.

"I asked the lady that was helping us and I said football. She said they call it soccer over here," he says smiling.

Now Yor hopes the game will bring Africans in his new home of Cairns closer together.

Last year, Yor tried to put together a team made up exclusively of African players to play in Division Two of the Cairns District and Soccer Association's competition.

"It just came to my mind, 'Why don't we make a team?' because we all played in different teams and we'd play against each other," he says.

After a promising start though the team fell over just before the start of the season.

But this year, with greater numbers and support from the Redlynch Soccer Club, the team has entered the competition as Redlynch Gold and currently has one win and one loss for the season.

Some of the players don't speak English but Yor says there is a common bond between the players who come from Sudan, Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"When we first started the team and said it was going to be African, everyone [in the African community] was interested ... we're there as African people together and that's what we wanted."

Kelly Wetzel, who is helping the team says the relationships formed off the pitch are more important than wins and losses.

"What we're trying to do is bring the whole African community together, get closer with each other because we're all from different parts and we all speak different languages, but when we come together, it's a really exciting thing," she says.

"People from different countries tell us stories and that's a really good part of it."

Redlynch Gold are currently looking for sponsors to help them in their inaugural season. If you'd like to become a sponsor, please contact ABC Far North on 1300 801 222 and we'll pass on contact details.

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