‘Every one of these boys has a story,” says Fethi Ahmed as he looks across the parched playing surface of a recreation ground in Harlow. “But for two hours on a Thursday they can forget everything, whatever their difficulties.
They count down the days to this. Everyone here knows they have football to keep them going.” Ahmed knows better than anyone how Changing Lives FC, the first team in the UK to comprise entirely of refugees and migrants, has helped to do what its name promises.
It has been there for him since he arrived on these shores after a terrifying journey from Egypt six years ago, when he was just 16; it has been a crutch through even darker times, which led to a suicide attempt in 2019.
He is the team’s captain: a well-known and respected figure in the community who others now turn to. “I’m very famous in Harlow,” he says with a self-deprecating smile. “I try my best to help everyone.