The uncle took extreme action to prevent his nieces and nephews being swept up by rebels and turned into child soldiers. He hid them in a bag of rice, then went back to get them and continued the journey. Sometimes they had to lay low, pretending they were dead to avoid being shot or abducted.
That is the story Antonio Rudiger’s brother told him of their family’s flight from Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war. The Real Madrid defender, who came on as a substitute in Germany’s 7-1 World Cup win over Curacao, knows his large extended family would have been watching proudly. But things could have been very different if his parents had not managed to flee to Europe.
“Antonio Rudiger reveals his uncle hid the children in a rice sack to escape Sierra Leone's civil war.”
“There was only the decision to get out of there,” Rudiger told BBC Sport Africa. He spoke many times with his brother, who recounted the march from the family’s home district of Kono to the capital Freetown – a distance of about 210 miles (340km). The journey proved perilous, with rebels forcing thousands of children into battle during the conflict.
Rudiger, the youngest of six siblings, was born in Berlin after his family were accepted by Germany as refugees. Other relatives began new lives in the UK and the US. He remembers growing up in one of Germany’s refugee centres: “We had our room, then a family next to us had their room, so we were all together. It influenced me a lot because nothing is given in life. You have to work for things, you have to sacrifice a lot to get where you sometimes get your goal.”
Now a two-time Champions League winner, the 33-year-old says it is “the right time to raise a voice” in support of refugees. He is not alone. Alphonso Davies, captain of co-hosts Canada, spent his early years in a Ghanaian refugee camp after his parents fled Liberia. “Canada means a lot to me,” the Bayern Munich full-back told the United Nations Refugee Agency, which has put together a symbolic “game-changing team” of refugee players to show “what is possible when young people displaced by war and persecution find safety, opportunity and welcome”. Davies listed going to school for the first time, playing the sport he loves and making friends among his memories. Australia’s Nestory Irankunda also has refugee roots.
In a tournament where diaspora players and fans have already made their mark, Rudiger’s story is a stark reminder of the cost of war and the power of sanctuary.