LITHUANIAN LEGACY REAPS REWARDS FOR DEDICATED DUO
Credit: Dan Higginson
It’s the penultimate day of the 2023 Homeless World Cup in Sacramento and the Lithuanian team coach, Stasys Pranevicious, draws my attention to a spectator up in the bleachers. “This guy is a big fan”, he says with a smile.
The man he points to appears unassuming, wearing a cap to shade his face from the California evening sunshine. His name is Giedrius Lubas, a former player from 2006 when the Lithuanian team first participated in a Homeless World Cup, and his story is as inspiring as the tournament itself.
It all started, Giedrius explains when we meet after the game, back in Lithuania in 2003. Having been dependent on alcohol for many years, he stopped drinking that year and, determined to stay sober, he found street soccer. Giedrius had not played football since he was a child but on taking up the game again he found a sense of purpose and discipline.
It was also through the sport that he met ex team mate and friend Stasys. A former footballer himself, Stasys explained how many ex-professional players turn to alcohol or drugs to fill the void when they are no longer able to play sports at a competitive level. He also understands that once deciding to give up drinking something has to be found to replace it.
“When you stop drinking you have more time. You always must be busy [to keep from drinking],” he underlines.
In 2006 Stasys and Giedrius established FK Feniksas in Lithuania, an organisation set up to help recovering alcoholics and addicts to integrate back into society through sport. Having heard of the Homeless World Cup, their goal was to bring a team from Lithuania to the tournament for the first time.
That year the duo succeeded in taking a team of eight players to the Cape Town tournament who, like themselves, were all recovering alcoholics. Giedrius and Stasys explain the focus of the team was never about winning; it was about spending time together and supporting each other through shared experience. The tournament was to prove life-changing for Giedrius, Stasys and all the players.
On returning home Giedrius continued to train twice a week and competed in a local league. Playing street soccer was how he found the discipline and motivation to stay sober and this provided him with the foundation to set up his own logistics business, which he’s still running successfully today.
The enduring legacy of Lithuania’s inaugural participation in Cape Town isn’t limited to Giedrius. Stasys now also has a similar business back in their home city of Kaunas.
What is overwhelmingly apparent, however, is that Stasys’s real passion is helping recovering addicts reintegrate with society and the power of sport to inspire and facilitate this.
Giedrius and Stasys have made a point of attending every subsequent Homeless World Cup tournament to support the Lithuanian team, through self-funding where required. This is no small feat given that, since 2006, the tournament has been held in destinations from Copenhagen to Mexico City.
For Giedrius, this has been a privilege he would never have thought possible. “I couldn’t imagine before [the Cape Town Homeless World Cup] when I was drinking every day, that I would get to travel around the world. In the last seventeen years, I have been to Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile…all over the world. It’s fantastic!”
Despite his own participation happening 17 years ago, he admits he will never forget how important the tournament was to him so understands how today’s players feel. He also empathises with their personal demons - every day Giedrius continues to fight the battle against his past with alcohol.
“What is important is not results; it is to not start drinking again. If I am not drinking today, maybe I will try to drink the next day, tomorrow; and the next day after tomorrow.”
It’s not easy but, he explains, he draws strength from each tournament which gives him perspective.
“It’s like charging up the batteries. It gives me energy.”
If legacy can be personified, it’s what’s visible in the bond between the two men standing before me in Sacramento. It’s reflected in the fact that Lithuania have participated in every Homeless World Cup tournament since. But, perhaps most importantly, is the fact that the original team are all still alive and sober today.
Stasys proudly shows me a picture on his phone of the 2006 team and explains, “All of these men were alcoholics and everybody is alive today and not drinking. Eight people … they have new families, jobs, houses, new lives.”
Additionally, every member of that 2006 team are still playing a form of street soccer today. With the original members now into their 50s - and some into their 60s - Giedrius and Stasys proudly tell me they now play in the senior league and are champions of the 50-plus 6-a-side league.
“Maybe after five years we will [win] the 60-plus.”
Without a doubt, this dynamic duo have all the qualities to succeed in anything they put their minds to.
Words: Alix Gunn