Nigerian footballer steers poor kids away from drugs

The football clinic set up by Nigerian Prince Yunusa Alhassan (second from left) attracts children of poor families in Pandi town, Bulacan. —CARMELA REYES-ESTROPE

PANDI, Bulacan — Nigerian football player Prince Yunusa Alhassan had no clue his Filipino wife had decided to take part in the forcible takeover of several low-cost houses in Bulacan province in March.

Alhassan, 40, coach of the Highlanders Football Club in the City of Meycauayan, was training in Singapore at that time.

When he flew back to the country in June, Alhassan realized what had happened and followed his wife, Concepcion, and his children, Ali, 10, and Beruel, 6, to their newly occupied house at the Villa Lois housing project here.

Occupation

Nearly 8,000 families, mostly members of the Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay), took over 6,000 houses being developed by the National Housing Authority for soldiers, policemen, firemen and jail personnel, as well as for informal settlers from Metro Manila.

Kadamay said the families occupied the houses even though some of these were not complete because they could no longer wait for government to address their housing needs.

“I knew nothing about [the occupation plans for government houses] but my feelings were for the poor, too, like my wife… It was later when I learned she was with the Kadamay fighting for the poor,” Alhassan said.

President Rodrigo Duterte allowed Kadamay to work out the papers for its members’ new houses, but life for them has not been any easier.

For example, the families had to work together without the help of the local government to have regular water and power supply, said Noelle Gutierrez, a Kadamay official in Bulacan.

Some of them built wells, some acquired generators, Gutierrez said.

These difficulties were nothing new for Alhassan, who had been living with his wife as an informal settler in Malabon City since 2010. He met Concepcion in 2006 in Lebanon where she worked for a hotel there.

But on the move to Bulacan, Alhassan said that he realized he could contribute by designing a free football clinic for children of families of Kadamay members.

Helping poor

“These boys were just roaming around on their free time after school. I told myself I know what I can do for them—being a Christian. Helping the poor is a mission,” he said.

Alhassan used to coach for the Union Football Club, the Pachanga Diliman Football Club and the Mendiola Football Club, as well as for footballers of Xavier School.

He was the coach of the football team of Marist School in Marikina that bagged second place at the 2015 Asian Youth Cup held in Singapore.

Alhassan said Kadamay children who train for football had brighter prospects in life. “They can become scholars of top universities as football players. They will not only have good education but certainly their future and that of their families will be better…especially if they will become professional football players,” he said.

Football is also a good way of steering children away from the lure of drugs and other vices, he added.

The football clinic remains a modest undertaking. Jeremy Seron, Alhassan’s 8-year-old trainee who is enrolled at the Cacarong Matanda Elementary School here, said they practiced without uniforms, socks and huge playing fields. But Seron said he learned to love the game.

A Chinese businessman recently donated shoes and balls. —Carmel Reyes-Estrope