Refugee scores top soccer honour

By Loukas Founten

Updated October 09, 2012 08:58:16

Two years after fleeing oppression and poverty in his homeland, an Eritrean refugee has shared the top individual prize in South Australia's premier domestic soccer competition.

Alemayo Kebede was awarded the Sergio Melta Medal for best player in the state's Super League, alongside Raiders midfielder Nicholas Orr at a ceremony at the weekend.

Kebede and Orr each received 20 votes, one clear of Campbelltown City captain Vas Parhas.

It is the second time Orr has won the award in a tie, after claiming the honour in 2007 when he played for Para Hills.

For Eritrean international Kebede, the achievement completes an amazing journey after he and his national squad team-mates vanished from a tournament in Kenya, in December 2009.

The squad sought refuge in a Kenyan refugee camp, then relocated to Australia in late 2010.

After months without kicking a ball, the group arrived in Adelaide and dispersed among the local clubs.

Kebede's Croydon Kings finished top of the table this season, but bowed out in the finals series when it lost to grand finalists Adelaide City and eventual premier MetroStars.

Kebede, 25, said winning the award was a surprise.

"I've been in Australia for two years and for the first time being the best player. It was a good season for me and for my team to be champion and yeah I was really happy, even though I didn't expect it," he said.

"I was nervous, even I couldn't walk straight. It's my life, I love soccer and I played for the Eritrean national team under 17s and senior for many years. Yeah, I don't want to stop soccer, I love soccer and I would like to thank everyone, my team-mates who cared for me and encouraged me. I've been here for two years and everyone's friendly and I really enjoy it, I like this team."

The softly-spoken attacker said he had spoken with his family in Eritrea and they were extremely proud of him.

"I called them last night and they were very happy," he said.

Croydon's Mark Brazzale collected the Martyn Crook award for best coach and said Kebede had repaid the club for the work it had done to help him settle into Australian life.

"We've got him a job and we've helped him out in that way and he feels very much at home here ... and that's what we're trying to do. We're a club that's got a bit of multiculture in our club so we're trying to get everybody and have one happy family," he said.

"He's going to be here again next year so we want to build something here. We've got a lot of young guys coming through so we want to have a good side for the next two or three years and he's definitely part of our plans."

Last season two of Kebede's compatriots scored A-League contracts with the now-defunct Gold Coast United club.

Tags: refugees, human-interest, community-and-society, soccer, sa, adelaide-5000, australia, eritrea

First posted October 09, 2012 08:55:56

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Liverpool, Man Utd honour Hillsborough dead

By Europe correspondent Mary Gearin, wires

Updated September 24, 2012 11:57:30

Both players and fans of Liverpool and Manchester United have shown their respect for victims of the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy, despite fears of trouble at the match.

It was the first home match for Liverpool since the release of a report clearing its fans of blame 23 years after the FA Cup semi-final where 96 people died.

There were fears that the distasteful chants often accompanying the fixture, in reference to the Liverpool fans killed at Hillsborough and the 1958 Munich air crash that decimated United's team, would tarnish the occasion.

But the tone was set when Manchester United's players emerged on to the pitch at Anfield with "96" on the backs of their tracksuits, earning loud applause from the 44,000 crowd.

Manchester United legend Bobby Charlton presented former Liverpool striker Ian Rush with red roses, before Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard and his United counterpart Ryan Giggs released 96 red balloons, one for each of the dead.

The words "The Truth", "Justice" and "96" were spelled out by spectators holding red and white cards.

United won the Premier League match 2-1 after a typically contentious encounter between the two sides, but manager Sir Alex Ferguson said the afternoon had been about far more than football.

"Liverpool did a fantastic job today, the fans were terrific and I don't think there can be any complaint on that part," he said.

"It was a nice touch Bobby Charlton giving the bouquet to Ian Rush and it demonstrates these two clubs can do things with unity and then we got on with the game.

"There was ferocity and it was intense and it has been a good day for football."

Ferguson and Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers had appealed for calm ahead of the match amid fears the tensions which always accompany the meeting of England's two most successful teams would spill over.

The United manager had written to his club's fans urging them to show respect to the Hillsborough dead, saying the clubs' intense rivalry "should never be based on personal hatred".

The long-awaited independent probe into what happened at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium 23 years ago absolved Liverpool supporters of any responsibility for the disaster, and was heavily critical of the police.

It found that the accounts of some officers had been changed in an attempt to deflect blame on to the Liverpool fans, and that dozens of the dead might have survived if they had been treated quicker.

The report was the result of a long campaign for justice by relatives of the dead after the police at the time blamed drunken fans for causing the overcrowding which led to the disaster.

Gerrard's own cousin, 10-year-old Jon-Paul Gilhooley, was the youngest fan to die in the disaster at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

Outside Anfield, flowers were laid at a memorial to the dead and a Manchester United shirt was attached to the railings. On it was written: "For the Hillsborough families. Justice at last."

In the wake of the damning report, the British government is examining the possibility of holding new inquests into the deaths which could lead to prosecutions.

ABC/AFP

Tags: human-interest, soccer, sport, english-premier, united-kingdom, england

First posted September 24, 2012 05:45:45

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