As a child, Antonio R\u00fcdiger would look out of his bedroom window to see whether anyone was playing on the field it overlooked. It was not a big pitch, but it had two goals, enough room for six-a-side and was where a young R\u00fcdiger honed the skills that would take him to the top.<\/p>\n
He grew up in Neuk\u00f6lln, Berlin, in a community largely made up of refugees, where his parents settled after fleeing civil war in Sierra Leone. It was, by his own account, a tough area, and football kept him out of trouble.<\/p>\n
R\u00fcdiger, preparing to represent Germany at the World Cup<\/a>, says: \u201cWe didn\u2019t have phones to call each other: \u2018Hey, let\u2019s link up.\u2019 No. We just looked out of the window, we saw there are guys playing football, so let\u2019s go. That was the call. This is the nice thing about Germany; you have everywhere those types of fields. Just these days they\u2019re not much used any more because we\u2019re human beings and we changed to a digital life.\u201d<\/p>\n The Real Madrid<\/a> defender has opened up about his upbringing after joining the \u201cGamechanging Team\u201d of the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) \u2013 a group of footballers with displacement backgrounds standing with refugees and challenging stereotypes. R\u00fcdiger does not want you to feel sorry for him for enduring hardships. Far from it. He remembers a vibrant, close community with \u201ca lot of togetherness\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIf someone didn\u2019t have enough food or milk, they visited a neighbour and asked,\u201d he says. \u201cWe would share everything. It was this type of feeling. It was one of the best experiences in my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n Rudiger<\/a><\/p>\n Football was central to that community. It was, the 33-year-old explains, a place for the boys to release energy in a positive way. \u201cIf you look even today: football unites. This is what united us back in those days. We don\u2019t need to speak the same language to understand football. We need a ball, we need some players \u2013 like this we connected, more and more.<\/p>\n \u201cIf someone couldn\u2019t speak the language, the football language we all understood. It was great and this follows until today. Today you play with so many people from different backgrounds: black, white, whatever \u2013 it doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n R\u00fcdiger is the youngest of six siblings. Only he and one of his sisters were born in Germany<\/a>. The rest escaped Sierra Leone soon after civil war broke out in 1991 and the Revolutionary United Front attempted to overthrow the government. The conflict lasted 11 years and displaced about 2.5 million people \u2013 approximately half the population. Villages were destroyed and relatives scattered across different countries.<\/p>\n Government forces on patrol during the Sierra Leone civil war. Photograph: Christophe Simon\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n When R\u00fcdiger was older, he asked his parents \u2013 his German father, Matthias, and Sierra Leonean mother, Lily \u2013 about their journey and how Sierra Leone compared with Germany. \u201cIt was for them simple to come here for us young ones to have a better life,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have the utmost respect for them. It\u2019s not easy to leave somewhere behind and start somewhere new. Especially as it\u2019s not that people are seeking refuge because they want to \u2013 no, because they have to. They have no other choice. Because this happened to my family I can understand those people and feel with them. It\u2019s important that they be listened to.\u201d<\/p>\n R\u00fcdiger believes negative stereotypes about refugees are unfair. \u201cIn everything we have good and bad,\u201d he says. \u201cIt goes hand in hand, unfortunately. But this is life. Some people had terrible experiences with refugees. We have to be honest as well, there are good ones coming here who really want to turn over their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n He calls for perspective and understanding. \u201cIf someone commits a crime, if the person is black, for example, does that mean every black person is a criminal? No, you have to deal with that specific person \u2026 people have to think a bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n Antonio R\u00fcdiger says he has \u2018a lot of energy to help those who are in need\u2019. Photograph: UNHCR\/Rafael Greilberger<\/p>\n Everything R\u00fcdiger and his family have been through has shaped a compassionate outlook. In 2022, he set up the Antonio R\u00fcdiger Foundation, raising funds for primary and secondary schools in Sierra Leone to invest in education, wellness and sport. He has, he says, \u201ca lot of energy to help those who are in need\u201d.<\/p>\n R\u00fcdiger heads to his third World Cup after Madrid failed to win a major trophy for a second successive season. Reports in Spain paint a picture of a troubled institution<\/a>, and Jos\u00e9 Mourinho is due to return to the club<\/a> where he won La Liga 14 years ago. \u201cThese things can happen that you go two years without winning a trophy,\u201d R\u00fcdiger says. \u201cOf course, there\u2019s a lot of noise and everything. There\u2019s a lot of things \u2026 I wouldn\u2019t say more important \u2026 but this is football, it can happen. You just need to do the right measures and be honest with yourself, make the right conclusions and go for another year. Very simple.\u201d He adds: \u201cWhat do you want us to do? At the end of the day we should cry still over the last seasons? No. Find the right conclusions and move forward, because what is lost now you cannot win back.\u201d<\/p>\n R\u00fcdiger has little time to dwell on disappointment with Germany\u2019s opening World Cup game, against Cura\u00e7ao, approaching. Germany are four-time World Cup winners, second only to Brazil. But since lifting the trophy in 2014, they have not made it past the group stage and they have not progressed beyond the European Championship quarter-finals since 2016.<\/p>\n Antonio R\u00fcdiger has urged Real Madrid to \u2018find the right conclusions and move forward\u2019 after another lacklustre campaign. Photograph: Europa Press Sports\/Europa Press\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cAs a huge country like Germany with huge football history, you don\u2019t go to the World Cup just to say: \u2018Hi, we are here,\u2019\u201d R\u00fcdiger says. \u201cYou try to do the best you can. Of course, there are teams these days who are ahead of us. But it\u2019s not bad sometimes maybe to be in the underdog position.\u201d<\/p>\n Which is, of course, something R\u00fcdiger knows all about. Making it from that small pitch in Neuk\u00f6lln to the World Cup and winning trophies at Chelsea and Real Madrid is a great underdog story.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I came from this situation and I came out of it,\u201d he says, \u201canyone can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n