{"id":342408,"date":"2025-12-12T04:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T04:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/342408\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T04:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T04:56:10","slug":"football-tournament-for-african-diaspora-in-victoria-to-play-finals-at-keilor-downs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/342408\/","title":{"rendered":"Football tournament for African diaspora in Victoria to play finals at Keilor Downs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s just about coming together as a community and enjoying the beautiful game,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"Madagascar<\/p>\n

Madagascar captain Jonny Tewoderos (centre) only got his VCE results this week.Credit: Eddie Jim<\/p>\n

During the past two weekends, the likes of Kenya, Eritrea, Guinea, Sudan, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Cameroon have played matches in Keilor Park.<\/p>\n

While many players have refugee backgrounds and play for their country of origin, others decide to team up with friends under a different African nation\u2019s flag, particularly if the national team with which they have family ties is already full.<\/p>\n

For instance, the Comoros team is largely made up of South Sudanese players who grew up in Melbourne\u2019s west together.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just to keep playing together as mates, to keep it fun and keep everyone close,\u201d says captain Okilo Dimo.<\/p>\n

Comoros will play Zambia in the first semi-final on Saturday at 2pm.<\/p>\n

Forward Gonekai, the team manager and goalkeeper for Zambia, says his troops had a tougher assignment than most: they travel from Albury-Wodonga to play.<\/p>\n

Gonekai was born in Zimbabwe and came to Australia as a student, but his team features refugees from Congo and Burundi too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve just been looking for a way of fostering community participation for people from migrant backgrounds,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially for the new arrivals, it helps them settle in and establish social connections. The tournament is a motivation thing \u2013 it gives people something to look forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Forward<\/p>\n

Forward Gonekai (far left) is the manager and goalkeeper for team Zambia, which hails from Albury-Wodonga and will play in the finals of the African Nations Cup.<\/p>\n

Cape Verde will play Madagascar in the second semi-final on Saturday at 4pm.<\/p>\n

Jonny Tewoderos, Madagascar\u2019s 18-year-old captain, played his first nations tournament last year, and says his younger team wanted to prove themselves against older players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m actually from Ethiopia, but the big Ethiopian team was taken in the tournament, so I thought Madagascar represents a good country of diversity, and I brought a team of young boys together to play as them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year showed us there is a lot of different people and cultures. It\u2019s always a good idea for everyone to combine and share that together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jonny<\/p>\n

Jonny Tewoderos (left) and Yosief Kassa (right) have Ethiopian roots, while Okilo Dimo (centre) has a South Sudanese background.Credit: Eddie Jim<\/p>\n

The grand final is on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s just about coming together as a community and enjoying the beautiful game,\u201d he says. Madagascar captain Jonny…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-342408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}