February 2020
PlayOnside goes to Bangkok.
In February 2020, PlayOnside went to Bangkok with a team consisting of 14 children from Mae Sot.
A great experience for both players and coaches!
Since the very beginning of PlayOnside, Premier Football Academy Bangkok (PFA- Bangkok) has been an important partner for PlayOnside. They have been supporting us with donations, funding, coaching trainings, and coaching exchanges. And of course the annual Esperança football camp.
Since they first visited Mae Sot in 2015, PFA Bangkok has grown to become one of the most influential football academies in the Thai Capital. In February 2020, PFA arranged an international tournament with teams from all over Asia. TAR International Qualifier tournament for boys under 11 years old were held in the outskirts of Bangkok, and PlayOnside was invited to participate with one team.
PlayOnside gathered around 50 children in our regular program from all the different schools we regularly work with and invited all of them to try to become one of the fourteen selected players to go. Through a selection process we ended up with fourteen players who showed the enthusiasm and dedication and willingness to learn and improve. PlayOnside is not an academy, so the criteria’s for being selected was not solely on the basis of football skills. The players selected where from nine different learning centers, and every Sunday we held a special training for them in the weeks up to the tournament.
PlayOnside played seven games in the TAR Qualifiers, and even though we did not manage to win any game, we returned to Mae Sot with smiles on our faces. It was an extraordinary experience, giving the children memories for their life. They had the opportunity to meet children from different countries and backgrounds, and making friends along the way.
Building a team of children from different communities was a great way to promote social integration. Team building is a gradual process, but the regularity of the trainings working towards a common goal creating new friendships along the way, has been an important way of bringing the migrant communities together.
