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Posted: 2024-07-12 20:43:42

They call them "The Rascals".

A rambunctious group of boys, madly dashing around on a Saturday morning playing soccer — the game they love more than anything.

They play like their life depends on it: with passion, untold energy and joy.

In this sense, they're no different to any other kids their own age.

And yet these boys couldn't be any more different to the boys on the other side of the pitch.

Because the other young boys they're playing aren't refugees. Those other boys didn't have to endure a terrifying escape from Afghanistan after the Taliban regained power. And they didn't have to set up a new life in a new country all the while dealing with the trauma of losing one — or both — of their parents while fleeing their country and starting a new life in a strange and foreign land.

But The Rascals of the Melrose Park Football Club under-13s in north-west Sydney are lucky. Because in Australia they found a group of people who cared deeply about giving them the gift of playing soccer with each other.

And they're lucky because they have a leader. He's another young Afghan who had lost a parent and was himself little more than a boy when he fled his country.

His name is Zarar Mujahid, and he's just 21.

When Zarar was three, his father – a soldier in the Afghan army — was killed when the convoy he was leading was blown up by a Taliban roadside bomb.

His death left behind a widowed mother with six young children.

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