More Than a Film: Team Afghanistan - Mohsen Zahedi
|Mohsen Zahedi with USA player Shauntel Payton during filming for The Beautiful Game in Rome.
Image: Rebecca Corbett
More than a Film: This series explores the real players and management teams at the heart of The Homeless World Cup, the tournament is the inspiration for the feature film, The Beautiful Game.
Mohsen Zahedi played for Austria at the Homeless World Cup in Cardiff in 2019. Two years later he’s playing football for Afghanistan in Netflix film, ‘The Beautiful Game’. We caught up with him during a break in filming in Rome.
“I couldn’t believe it at first, because I just heard it was a film shooting and I thought, ‘oh, maybe it’s a small thing’, but when I came here and saw what it really was, I was mind blown.”
“I’m very excited because it’s a whole different world for me, I have never seen something like that before. Just seeing that I’m in it, it’s crazy, it’s a huge thing for me. I am really sure that other people are excited about it, but I can say I’m really excited about it. I can’t wait to see how it comes out.”
It’s not the first time Mohsen has played football with an audience, he played for his adopted country Austria at the Homeless World Cup in Cardiff in 2019. But it’s the first time he will be playing for his birth country.
Mohsen and his family fled Afghanistan when he was three. It was 2002, war was ongoing, and they found peace in neighbouring Iran. But life in Iran wasn’t easy for Mohsen and his family.
“Even though Iran is a Muslim country and is more secure than Afghanistan, it’s not a country where you can have a future. You can have a future in it, but you have to have to be lucky, you have to have connections but if you don’t have connections, especially for people from Afghanistan, it’s very hard to have a good future. So that was the main reason why I left Iran and came to Austria.”
“I’m pleased that the people who came with us, they made it”
Aged sixteen, he was alone and on a dangerous journey to Europe.
“From Iran to Greece it was illegal because we had to go through borders, and it was a really dangerous way to go.”
“[Crossing the borders] was mainly walking because we had to go through the mountains in the night. We had to pass through a river. It was very hard. I was a young boy and I saw a lot of people who were older and less physically able, but I’m pleased that the people who came with us, they made it.”
“It was a very hard time. I went from Iran to Turkey and then we left for Greece. At the time we arrived, Europe decided to let people come in so after that it wasn’t that hard because we got into trains and buses and went through different countries like Slovakia and Croatia. The last one was Austria.”
It wasn’t guaranteed for Mohsen when he arrived, he had to wait for his permits to come through and he wasn’t sure if he’d even be allowed to stay.
“I’m really happy that I’m in Austria and I’m allowed to be in Austria.”
“After a few months it got better, we got a new place to stay, and it kept going better. Now I’m really happy, I learnt the language, I work, and I go to school and I’m really happy that I’m in Austria and I’m allowed to be in Austria.”
One of the things that Mohsen and his friends did in their spare time was play football, at one tournament he met a coach who would give him an opportunity that would change his life.
“There was an indoor tournament in Austria, and I was just playing with my friends in the tournament and I was lucky that Homeless World Cup Austria team trainer was watching us and he thought I could be useful for his team.”
He was originally selected to play in Mexico in 2018, but after some complications he made his Austrian debut in Cardiff at the Homeless World Cup in 2019.
“I did feel very proud because a lot of people don’t have the chance to represent, it doesn’t matter which country, generally represent in this big tournament and I was very happy that I had the opportunity to join this team and play with them a lot.”
“The whole thing was my best moment.”
“It was great to see how different people can get together and understand each other even if they can’t understand the language. It was just the feeling between the players was just great. I love playing football, I could play football, talk to the other people and get to know their stories.”
“In Cardiff, when I talked to people from other countries, I learned a lot; that people can have difficult problems and that people can judge people without even seeing them or knowing them or what is happening in their life. In Cardiff you could see people laughing everyday but when you went and spoke to people you could hear about their stories and their lives, they had a really tough time.”
“That was when I realised that you can’t just judge people by seeing them happy, that was a big lesson that I learned. I wasn’t judging anybody, but I learnt how to treat people as they are.”
Our partner in Austria is Homeless World Cup Austria, find out more about their work and how they’re supporting people like Mohsen.
Austria have been a Homeless World Cup member country since the inaugural Homeless World Cup in
Graz in 2003.
Mohsen’s teammates Zaker and Hussain also represented Afghanistan in the film, read their journeys to the Homeless World Cup.
Words: Rebecca Corbett