The North Geelong Secondary College students play soccer for the Geelong Soccer Club (GSC) and are both keen runners. Obi is currently ranked 4^th in the state in the 3000m event earning him a Junior Sportsperson of the Year award for Victoria in 2013.

The boys have natural talent. Growing up, they didn’t have the opportunity to play sport and have developed their skills only in the past couple of year, after moving to Australia from Pakistan. Their love of soccer began when Football Federation Victoria’s Foddy Kyprian attended their school and promoted a new street soccer program in the northern suburbs. The boys attended the first week, and the rest is history they say. From that point on, both Obi and Nema attended weekly street soccer sessions on a Thursday night and had the opportunity to be introduced to different clubs around the region. In 2013 they played for the Corio Soccer Club, and in 2014 moved to play in the GSC’s under 17’s team.

Obi is a keen midfielder, where he can use his running to create an advantage for the team. Nema prefers to be up front, kicking the goals. They train twice a week, and say they are a part of a very strong team, with a great coach in Tuan. Currently the team sits second on the ladder, only just recently being pipped at the post by the other GSC team.

It’s not just locally that the boys are having an impact through their sport. In 2013, Obi travelled to Sydney to compete in The Big Issue’s Street Football Festival, where he was named player of the tournament. Just recently, he was selected to go to Canberra to attend Parliament House through a youth leaders program. With ambitions to hopefully make the national cross country championships, and be a part of a representative football team one day, Obi and Nema have got success at their heels.

The last couple of years have certainly been a big change for the boys. Obi explains that schooling and everyday life in Pakistan are very different to Australia, and sport was not a priority for them. “Life situations meant focusing on studies was difficult. We started school at 7.30 in the morning and we were finished by about 12, I then did English classes in the afternoon. We didn’t do any sport”.

The boys are humble, and so focused. It was so impressive to hear them talking about the importance of schooling for them and their ambitions for the future, they are definitely not your average teenage boys! Obi would like to become a civil engineer, while Nema hopes to get into the Police Academy. Along the way they will have plenty of support to get them there, including Foddy, who contacted Leisure Networks to nominate them for a sportsaccess scholarship to assist with their soccer fees. “They come to the Big Issue soccer days and play with kids with disabilities, and they love it. They are really nice kids and Obi is going to be a leader in the community one day.”