- Title: From poverty in Congo to Greece's basketball league: a migrant boy's journey
- Date: 20th September 2018
- Summary: THESSALONIKI, GREECE (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CHRIST WAMBA DOING LAY-UPS IN THE COURT DURING A TRAINING SESSION WITH ARIS BASKETBALL CLUB, WEARING AN ARIS JERSEY WAMBA BEING PHOTOGRAPHED FOR THE TEAM (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) CHRIST WAMBA SAYING: "I don't have shoes to play basket, I play with flip-flops. Sometimes with nothing without shoes, with only my legs, and all my
- Embargoed: 4th October 2018 17:10
- Keywords: Migrants Greece basketball Lesbos Congo Republic Wamba
- Location: THESSALONIKI AND LESBOS, GREECE
- City: THESSALONIKI AND LESBOS, GREECE
- Country: Greece
- Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,Government/Politics,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA0018YFMVK7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Sweat pours off the brow of 17-year-old Christ Wamba as he prepares for a lay-up on the basketball court during a training session with Greece's Aris basketball club.
In his new yellow Aris jersey, he is a long way from the Congo Republic, where on an empty stomach, the youth taught himself basketball, shoeless, until his feet bled.
"I don't have shoes to play basket, I play with flip-flops. Sometimes with nothing without shoes, with only my legs, and all my legs they were like, with blood sometimes," he says.
"In Congo, you don't have food, we don't have money...But me, I don't care about. When I don't have food I prefer to lose my time in the court," he adds.
He fled hardship and unrest with nothing but his clothes and one of his first basketballs, taking the perilous route of many migrants trying to reach Europe, crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece in an overcrowded dinghy.
"The water it was so cold..." he says of the journey. He then spent months in Moria camp on the island of Lesbos, spending his days running around the camp until he was aloud out and found a basketball court.
"I was running all the time, nothing to do I was only running. And when they give me permission - I start to go every day, run to one court, it was close. I go practice alone, come back, run," says Wamba.
He was spotted by Thessaloniki's Aris, after creating a profile on Athlenda, a start-up that helps young sport talent from around the world get noticed by members of the sport industry. He has been training with them since June.
On his first day of practice with Aris he cried he said, worried his performance wasn't good enough.
"He's a great kid and he deserves this opportunity and we're happy to have him," said Aris coach Vangelis Angelou, who said the youth had great persistence and faith.
"He uploaded a little video, he hadn't even played any games, just a simple video where he was jumping, dunking, and his head touched the hoop," said Athlenda founder Lazaros Papadopoulos of Wamba's profile video. A former Greece national team player, Papadopoulos has become a mentor for Wamba. He said Aris was impressed by the video and contact was made.
"If there's something that stands out it's his passion for basketball, and it's his passion for basketball that drove him to take all those steps," said Papadopoulos.
Wamba fled his country in 2015, at a time of political protests and violence. He had been jailed for days and feared for his safety, he said.
He now lives in a small room in an apartment building provided by the refugee agency UNHCR as part of a housing assistance scheme. He has applied for asylum. Wamba is too big for his bed, but he has lots of shoes now. He has placed them in a neat row on a shelf. He pours over basketball plans - his homework - rubbing his forehead and exhaling.
Responding to whether he expected to be where he was today he says:
"For sure in Congo I was feel that I will play basket. When I start practice for myself I was feel that one day I will play professional basket. Not only professional, I will go far away for the basket because I was so crazy, I love so much."
He taught himself by watching NBA videos and trying to emulate his idols, Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant. His dream is to make it to the NBA someday.
"Practice, only practice, I know one day my dream it will become true," he says. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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