BBC
Since being granted asylum in the UK, Yousuf has built a life in Northern Ireland
Yousuf Mohammad’s journey from playing for Somalia’s national team to coaching boys and girls at south Belfast’s Rosario FC is one of violence, extortion and the human will to survive.
The hope of a better life free from suicide bombs, random killings and the targeting of football games by Muslim extremists led to him fleeing his homeland.
Since being granted asylum in the UK, he has built a life in Northern Ireland.
“Now that I have a home, I am making my dreams come true, I can follow my coaching career,” he told BBC News NI.
He said this is something he could never have done in Somalia.
In the years before Yousuf left Somalia in 2013, the al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group al-Shabab took over his home city of Kismayo.
“You cannot go to a coffee shop and just sit and relax… someone will just come in and make a suicide bomb.”
Yousuf said football was a target for al-Shabab as it was seen as Western culture.
“The people you used to play football with…were carrying guns and doing bad things.
“Seeing people I know get killed, young guys like me who used to play football, seeing them get killed for nothing.”
Yousuf Mohammad
Yousuf said it was always his dream to play football
Yousuf was a teenager when he made the decision to leave Somalia.
He believed he had no other choice, it was either join the terrorists, join the military or “die in the middle”.
“For me, I always had a dream of playing football and that is what kept me away from joining,” he added.
But he did not know once he handed over money to the criminal smuggling gangs he became their property.
What followed was a three month journey through Ethiopia, Sudan and Libya, before eventually arriving in Italy on an overcrowded dinghy.
In Sudan, Yousuf said smugglers left his group for a month in the desert enduring searing hot days and bitter cold nights surviving on meagre rations of rice and contaminated water.
Yousuf said half of his group died, including a good friend.
“No one had the energy to bury them because everybody was just getting weaker and weaker. The only thing we could do is just drag them a bit far from where we were staying.
“They would just get buried by the dust.”
Yousuf said the smugglers demanded more money, forcing those in the group to call relatives asking for funds to be wired.
However, when the group’s numbers dwindled they gave up on demanding money.
From there, Yousuf’s group were taken to the outskirts of the Libyan city of Sabha.
He described the city as being entirely run by smugglers, with gangs fighting among each other and trading in people.
He says that rape and violence were rife and he witnessed people being tortured.
Yousuf said more demands for money came, but this time to be taken to the coast for an opportunity to get on a boat to Europe.
He said 95 people were jammed on the 12-metre dinghy, with constant fear the boat would capsize.
Those on the boat drifted at sea for five days due to an engine fault and went without for food or water for two more days before being picked up by an Italian naval vessel, according to Yousuf.
‘The winners are the traffickers’
Yousuf spent time in Italy and Germany before travelling to Ireland and then on to Northern Ireland. He was granted asylum in the UK.
Although he now has settled status, Yousuf warned others to think twice before using smuggling gangs.
“The winners are the human traffickers,” he said.
“They don’t care who dies in the middle of the ocean, who’s going to get killed, little boys, little girls, they are going to get paid.”
Yousuf said writing a book about his ordeal helped with deal with the trauma.
Since coming to Northern Ireland, he has found work, a home and completed his UEFA B coaching licence.
Yousuf is a volunteer at Rosario FC alongside coaches Ashleigh Kennedy and Chris Lavery
Yousuf is a volunteer at Rosario FC, where he is highly thought of.
On a rainy Sunday morning at Rosario’s ground on the Ormeau Road in Belfast his colleagues speak of his dedication and talent.
Chris Lavery, who coaches the under 14 girls’ team, said Yousuf’s training sessions are “absolutely superb”.
He added that Yousuf has a different dynamic from any of the other coaches and “pushes all the girls onto another level”.
Coach Ashleigh Kennedy praised Yousuf’s commitment and his ability to explain each move to the girls.
Those he coaches know nothing of his earlier professional career and journey to Northern Ireland, to them he is just Yousuf.
Content in Belfast, Yousuf said that the community at Rosario had made him feel at home, something which he really grateful for.
