I was in the 1st grade in school when we lived in Syria. Me and my family came to Denmark in 2015 because of the war in Syria. I had a beautiful life in Syria.
In Denmark, first we lived in the camp Sandholm, and then we moved to Aarhus. I began in a school in something called multi class to learn the Danish language. I was one year in this class and then I came to a normal class. I am now in the 4th grade. I love to play football. When I came to Denmark, I didn’t know how to play it well. Three years ago a neighbor helped me to arrange starting in a football team. After some time I changed team to be on the same team as my classmates in school. Now I became good at playing.
In the summer we play outside two days a week, and in the winter we play inside one day a week, and we also have matches against other teams.
My dream is to become an actor.
Sometimes in the weekends, it can be a little boring, but sometimes we arrange something fun, and for example go on a trip. Sometimes in the weekends, I help my father in the sweet shop, and I like to learn from him in the shop. I also help him with learning Danish.
In the weekdays I go to school and I made a schedule, so that for example each day between 3 and 4 o clock I do my homework. Then I have one hour break and then I can continue. I like doing homework most of the time, but sometimes I get tired of it.
My favorite subject in school is swimming, eventhough I’m not as good as my classmates at it. They have been swimming since they were small kids.
I’m happy. Denmark is a good country, and I think it is nice that the people who needs help in Denmark they are welcome to get it.

I arrived in Denmark in 2015 with my parents and my siblings. We arrived on the train from Germany and we had tickets for the central train station in Copenhagen, but close to the border the police entered the train and took us out and asked where we wanted to seek for residence permit and we all said: “Denmark”. After that we were brought to the police station and on the same day we were taken by bus to Sandholmlejren, where we stayed for half a day, and after that we spent more than 1 year in different refugee centres.We spent 4 months in one centre, where I got new friends, one of which I still have contact with, and I also started in a language class and played some football in the afternoon but only for fun. After that we were sent to a centre in Gilleleje located in an old hospital; it was surrounded by a beautiful landscape with an amassing beach, where I would go with a towel and sit and speak with my friends in the spring and summertime. It was here that I began to get into football more seriously and would train 3 times a week as a goal keeper with a team of seniors, and after that I played as a midfielder on Gilleleje’s football team for 1 year.

After that we lived in a centre in Kalundborg, which was a very different experience: I still played football, but the experience I had while I was on a team in the city of Kalundborg was not particularly good, so I got the idea to put together a team inside the centre: I had a dialogue with the administration and they helped me make a team with 11 players, where I was the youngest one and our coach was an Arab in his 40s who would step in when one of the players had injuries.

Everybody on the team were friends and once a week we played against teams from other centres from Slagelse, Arnstrup, Roskilde and others. And our centre at Kalundborg actually arranged that we had a bus for 20 persons at our disposal, so that we could drive ourselves to our games. Once, after I had moved to Copenhagen I went back for 1 day and played with them, because they needed a player.

After Kalundborg I moved with my family to Copenhagen to a temporary housing in October 2017. I have my own room and I have my own Playstations and a television, so that I can watch football. And I also have a bicycle, but a few months ago a crashed on it and could not train with my new football team for more than 8 months.

At the temporary housing where I live now we have our own team of refugees and we play every Wednesday: I am the youngest one on the team and we play in the 4. division, and sometimes we have to play against teams that do not have especially nice attitudes towards refugees and foreigners. And our team just had a really bad experience with such a team.

However, I also play on an ordinary team outside the refugee centre: For several months I played on one team, but there were just many things that did not work and that I did not feel good about. And so my two sisters, who are equally as interested in football as I am and who both play on the same female football team, asked their coach if he could help me find another team, and so he did, And I am now playing as midfielder on a new team, where I started yesterday.

Around new year I started at a youth school, which is an ordinary language school that is placed at the centre of Copenhagen, and I like being a student there and I also have a group of friends there. I do my homework after school in the afternoon. I also work at a supermarket. I have a good relationship with my boss and I make some good money, so I can buy things for myself.

Within a couple of weeks my parents, my siblings and I will move to our own apartment and we are really looking forward to it.

I arrived in Denmark in late 2015 with my family, and before we ended up in Copenhagen, in the temporary housing where we are living now, we spent almost a year on several asylum centres. However, it was in Copenhagen that I started playing football and it was in November last year, and for me my team is just the best team in the world. Football is about teamwork: I have a lot of fun when I play, I get to improve my language, I have made a lot of friends with different backgrounds and it is a good way to become an integrated part of the Danish society.I watch football with my brother every or every second day in his room and sometimes in my father’s room. In Iran I watched a lot of football on television and my favourite team is a team from Teheran that is called Perspolis and it is really good. Sometimes I play Playstation with my brother and my father and it is always fun to play with them.

My coach is really nice. She herself has played on the Danish national team and she has trained one of the girls who is now on the national team: She always speaks highly about my talent and has said that I probably could be a professional player one day.

I like school and my favourite subjects are math, physics, biology and geography, and my grades in math are some of the best in my class, and I am a bit proud of that. It is really a subject that I like, and I would like to use it for something if it is not possible for me to be a professional player.

I am an optimist when it comes to my future, because I am happy to be in Denmark and I think that there are many exciting possibilities for me here regarding career and jobs. But I do not think much about finding a man and get married and have children.

I have been in Denmark since late 2015. First I was sent together with my parents and siblings to an asylum centre in the southern part of the country, and after that to the northern part of the country to Gilleleje, which was a really good place; there was a great beach, where I would go in the summer. At that point I was not getting interested in football yet, so I spent a lot of my time looking at my ipad and bicycling with my sister, brother and father. During this period I got a lot of friends at the language school.Later I was sent with my family to Kalundborg, and compared to my earlier experiences with asylum centres, it was not the best place to be. However, my father met one of his old friends from Iran, who really enjoyed singing patriotic songs from Kurdistan, so he sang and sang and particularly my youngest brother, who was not even a year old back then, would always sit and listen attentively to all the different songs.

After Kalundborg we went to live in Copenhagen in a temporary housing after we had gotten our permanent residence permit. It was also here in the capital that I began to attend a normal school, and in my class there are quite a few of the students who are immigrants. I am a follower of the Kurdish religion yarsan, where everybody has to fast for 3 days each year.

In November last year I started together with my sister to play football on a female football team, and we train twice a week; on Mondays and Wednesdays. One of our friends from the school is also playing on the same team and everybody on the team knows each other and get along well. I play the position as forward, and what I do is actually passing the ball to the striker who scores the goal. When I am not playing football, I like to dance and to do gymnastics. My sister tells me that I sleep all the time, but I think that it is just because I am growing a lot right now.

I was in school up until highs school and then started working with embroidery machines. I had to come to Denmark because of problems I had due to my political views. I travelled via Turkey, Greece, Italy, Germany and came to Denmark by train.I still work with embroidery machines. There’s not so much work in that branch in Denmark. There is more of it in Turkey  and Asia.

I am happy living in Denmark and Copenhagen. A lot of Syrians have come in the last years and I have a larger network and know more people. 3 years ago I started a football club in Copenhagen called FC Berati. We play in Serie 5 in Copenhagen. We have players from many different countries like Syria, Lebanon, Mauritania and Denmark. I am coach but also play in defence.

I love football. It’s the best thing about Denmark.
Alland drew his local football clubs uniform for us.

I only studied until the 3rd grade. My life in Syria was not very good. My school was destroyed and during the siege I went to live to my grandfather’s house that was a bit safer. I learned to grow potatoes there with him and how to grow other plants and vegetables.

I came here to Denmark with my family after we were reunited with my father.
Now here I go to the integration house but also 8th grade. I hope to continue my studies and get a degree in something. But I would also like to play football.

I have been in Denmark since early 2016, and until my family and I got our own apartment in Copenhagen we lived in several refugee centres, where I made good friends with whom I would play games like tag and hide-and-seek. It would be just like the games we played in Syria.

A lot of people have told me that I am good at speaking Danish. I like the language and I had a teacher, who always was very helpful. And so every time I would hear someone say something in Danish that I did not understand, I would ask him: What does it mean? What does it mean? And      he would always take his time to explain the meaning of the words to me and that was how I learned to speak myself: So now I speak Danish and Kurdish.

It was when my family got our apartment that I began to get interested in playing football. I had a friend at school who played football, and I asked my friend’s father if I could join my friend when he was practising with his team and he said it was ok. I started on a team with 11 players, but now I have shifted to another one that is better and I am one of the youngest one on the team: We practice      twice a week and 2 hours each time, Tuesday and Thursday.

One of my biggest dreams it to be really good at football.