Growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, Comfort Etim “ate and breathed football”. So at 16, she was thrilled when a scout snapped her up for a US team. She could never have imagined the ordeal awaiting her.
“At the airport, the scout said we had to go via London, that I should go ahead and someone would meet me. That was the last time I saw him,” recalls Comfort, now 38.
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1583506613/1657599545/articles/wZevfstHt1657869318799/6619191353.jpg]
“In England, I was taken to the home of two strangers – a woman and an older man. For months I was locked in with no means of contacting anyone.”
When she realised one day the man was spying on her in the bathroom, Comfort threw water at him, and soon after they told her to leave. “I was abandoned, with no money or passport,” she says. “I ended up living under a bridge at Brixton station, too ashamed to call my mother.”
Eventually, Comfort managed to contact the brother of a Nigerian friend who was in London playing professional football. He took her to live at his house share, where his friends encouraged Comfort to play football again, getting her a trial at Tottenham Hotspur.
“I didn’t even have boots, but I was selected,” says Comfort. “I finally felt like myself again and applied for asylum here.”
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1583506613/1657599545/articles/wZevfstHt1657869318799/6116865153.jpg]
When she fell pregnant with her son Ezekiel, now 17, and moved to Liverpool, Comfort thought her footballing days were done. “By 2...
“At the airport, the scout said we had to go via London, that I should go ahead and someone would meet me. That was the last time I saw him,” recalls Comfort, now 38.
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1583506613/1657599545/articles/wZevfstHt1657869318799/6619191353.jpg]
“In England, I was taken to the home of two strangers – a woman and an older man. For months I was locked in with no means of contacting anyone.”
When she realised one day the man was spying on her in the bathroom, Comfort threw water at him, and soon after they told her to leave. “I was abandoned, with no money or passport,” she says. “I ended up living under a bridge at Brixton station, too ashamed to call my mother.”
Eventually, Comfort managed to contact the brother of a Nigerian friend who was in London playing professional football. He took her to live at his house share, where his friends encouraged Comfort to play football again, getting her a trial at Tottenham Hotspur.
“I didn’t even have boots, but I was selected,” says Comfort. “I finally felt like myself again and applied for asylum here.”
[https://cdn.magzter.com/1583506613/1657599545/articles/wZevfstHt1657869318799/6116865153.jpg]
When she fell pregnant with her son Ezekiel, now 17, and moved to Liverpool, Comfort thought her footballing days were done. “By 2...
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New UK (Digital) - 1 Issue, July 18, 2022