Sam, the rising football player – By Sam Ann

19 year old Sam lives in Phsatouch village. Before he joined Riverkids’ football team, he was an Aitchai collector who earns money to support his family and he was involved with gangsters.

In early 2008, Riverkids started a football team by collaborating with HFCA (Happy Football Cambodia Australia). Sam joined the team and soon we saw a drastic change in his behaviour. He withdrew from the previous gang he belonged to, stopped taking drugs and began to show growing interest in football.

By the middle of 2008, he was selected by HFCA to play football in Homeless Football World Cup at Australia. He was one of the 2 Riverkids selected for the team.

Recently, he was selected to be a Football Trainer Assistant to train players every Saturday morning. He will join the Cambodia League on 17 January 2010 and will start drawing a salary of USD2.50 per day.

Sam aspires to be a football trainer and hopes to join the football trainer course conducted by HFCA one day. He is working towards his goal and we are happy to see that he is moving on to become a better person.