You are a little boy and your country is at war. There are no schools and the people, including your own, are struggling to make ends meet. What exactly can you do to salvage the situation? Ask Afghanistan captain and FC Goa recruit Zohib Islam Amiri and this is what he has to say: "We used to make a 'football' from rags and play in the open field. All of a sudden, we would hear a loud, deafening noise. Of course, it's a bomb. We would run helter-skelter. But once the dust settled, we would come back and play with another ball. After all, we had nothing else to do."
For Amiri, football was the only pastime. "We were very bored during the war. People didn't have jobs. Playing football was the only way we could forget our problems for some time."
The left-back has come a long way. This, he says, is happiest period of his life. By representing FC Goa in the Indian Super League, he gets to share the dressing room with legends. "I can't tell you how privileged I am to share the dressing room with people like Robert Pires and Andre dos Santos. It's a dream come true. I feel really proud because I am the only Afghan in the tournament."
Amiri is no stranger to India. From 2011 to 2013, he played for Mumbai FC in the I-League. Last season, he represented Dempo SC. In fact, he calls India his second home. "Indians are very welcoming. I'm never bored in this country. It feels like home."
He may be good friends with every other Indian international, but his heart truly beats for his motherland. In the SAFF Championship last year, Amiri guided Afghanistan to a 2-0 win over India. That win was celebrated in some style in Kabul. "That day, I felt that all my struggles had paid off. It was the best day of my life. I think for all Afghani football lovers, there was never a day when they were that happy. They celebrated it like a World Cup triumph."
Amiri says the greatest part about that victory wasn't the victory, per se. "I'd never seen Afghan people agree about something. All the different communities used to fight each other. But when we won, they all celebrated together. People stay put at the airport for more than 12 hours. And when we finally arrived, we saw men, women and children singing and dancing. Such scenes were never witnessed in the country before."
Amiri felt even prouder when his dad gave him a tight hug and said, "In 50-100 years, nobody in our country has smiled like this. I've never seen people more happy. Thank you for making this happen."
It was after that win that people started people taking Amiri and his teammates seriously. "People would come up and ask us to pose for photos. Once, when I was at the US embassy, a high-ranking officer told me: 'We've spent billions of dollars and so many years to unite the people of Afghanistan. You guys did it in 90 minutes.'"
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