Little Amin’s big dreams | Sport for All

"I want to become a famous footballer and open free football schools in my neighbourhood".

“Move over, they’re interviewing me, like Cristiano Ronaldo!”. That’s how Amin, 9 years old, amusingly shooed away the friends who were with him at the Fondazione Milans Sport for All outreach centre at Spazio 47 – the Èbbene Foundation‘s Outreach Hub – in San Cristoforo. Like all children his age, Amin dreams of becoming a rich and famous footballer, like Maradona or Pelé.

That is why every day he finishes all his homework and rushes to the Centre, where his friends, the staff and the coach are waiting for him. “I wake up, wash my face, have breakfast, brush my teeth and go to school,” he says as he recounts his day. Amin is in the fourth grade and he confesses that he enjoys school very much. “I got an A today,” he says proudly. He gets along well with all his classmates, and there are two in particular with whom he is particularly close. “We do PE together in the playground, we play football and I also spend time with them outside school. Not only for homework, but also for recreation. Amin has a 6-month-old brother and a 12-year-old sister. His mother does not work and takes care of his siblings and the house.

For him, the Spazio 47 Neighbourhood Centre is a place where he can live out his childhood, share his passions with his peers and learn new things. “I like coming here because we are all together, I have fun, I get on well with the operators and with the others”.

He wanted to go to football school, but when his mother suggested he join, he had second thoughts. He preferred to continue attending the Proximity Centre. My best friends come here, I told my mum I wanted to come here,” says Amin, who adds: “My favourite footballer is Pele. If I were to become famous like him, one day, I would go back to my neighbourhood and first of all say hello to all my friends. Then I would make free football schools for the children to play in, I would become a good coach and I would have my own football teams, one for the youngsters and one for the grown-ups.

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