‘Voy! I’m coming!’: The blind footballers of South Sudan

Juba, South Sudan – Sprinting to the far end of the pitch, 22-year-old Yona Sabri Ellon shouts to a teammate to pass the ball. The ball is intercepted by an opponent, and a scramble ensues. At the sound of the whistle, the players pause – it’s a foul. It is Ellon’s turn to throw in, resuming the game.

But this is no ordinary game of football: the players all bear heavy visual impairments to the point of blindness. They are members of the Premier Blind Football League in Juba, South Sudan.

It’s a bright day, and the manicured astroturf at Dr Biar Sports Complex, where blind football practice is held, seems to reflect more heat than anywhere else. After warming up – some jumping jacks, push-ups, and leg lifts – most of the players’ jerseys are already soaked with sweat.

Twenty-seven-year-old Simon Madol is the coach and technical director of the Blind Football League. This is just one part of his role as a disability inclusion facilitator for Light for the World, a global nonprofit advocating for disability rights.

Accompanied by two colleagues from Light for the World, they help the 15 players through their exercises. There’s a lot of touch to replace the lack of vision and a heightened sense of comradeship among the players as a result. Not only do they belong to the same team, they understand the challenges that come with being blind.

“I know we haven’t played in a while, but you’re all looking very good today,” Madol tells his team after a few drills – problems with funding had halted regular blind football practices for a few months in 2024. “It’s like no time has passed!”

Before the blind league, ‘I had totally lost hope’

Participants in the game play with a ball that jingles while coaches and siblings of players bang on goalposts to help them aim their shots. Players shout “voy” (“I’m coming” in Spanish) to warn opponents of their approach and minimise injuries.

All players wear blindfolds to ensure an equal level of vision.

It’s a way for players to regain confidence in their bodies, learn how to move without fear and bond with other players facing similar situations, says Madol.

After practice, Ellon enjoys drinks and biscuits with his teammates off the pitch. He explains that he was born with sight but started having vision issues about age three. “Many people said I was bewitched,” he recalls.

The lack of healthcare specialists in South Sudan and money to pay for them meant that Ellon never received proper care; by age 12, he had become blind.

As a child, he had been an avid footballer but for the first two years of his blindness, he was stuck at home. “I was frustrated and disappointed. I could not go to school. I totally lost hope, and not playing football was the worst part of it all.”

Ellon’s mother, a nurse and government official, eventually heard of the Rajap Center for the Blind in Juba. “I remember asking my mother, how was such a school possible? I didn’t believe I would meet more people like me,” Ellon says. At that point, learning to navigate without sight was his biggest challenge so his mother picked him up and dropped him off at Rajap each day until he got his bearings and learned to use a cane.

Soon, he had learned braille, was doing well in exams and transitioned to an ordinary school in 2019. “There, I was also changing teachers’ and students’ mindsets, after learning for myself that a disability is not an inability,” he tells Al Jazeera.

Alleviating trauma

But resources for people like Ellon are scarce. After splitting from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan became the world’s youngest country. Yet independence immediately propelled the nation to the bottom rung of nearly every developmental indicator set by the United Nations, from education to maternal mortality.

Furthermore, the developing nation has been ravaged by intensifying weather events, socio-political strife, hunger and ethnic divisions.

Amid the myriad challenges South Sudan faces, it has been making inroads in the realm of disability rights. In February 2023, it signed the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – the first comprehensive human rights treaty of the 21st century.

In 2013, a unique football experiment sponsored by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and facilitated by Light for the World changed Madol’s trajectory from one of trauma to that of hope. Madol hails from Bor in central South Sudan’s Jonglei State – one of the epicentres of the civil war – and says he has seen too many acts of violence which tear communities apart.

The idea behind the initiative was to cut across tribal divisions in order to focus on social integration and the alleviation of trauma.

‘A dream come true’

The first match Madol ever played was in Mahad refugee camp in the capital city of Juba, where he was living – just one of the more than 2.2 million people who have been internally displaced in South Sudan.

He recalls the intense joy he felt after playing his first match, in which teams were divided by colour – blue and red – rather than by tribe. “We lost, but everyone was so happy. That’s how we knew this was going to work.”

Madol realised that football could be used as a tool to not only bring people together despite the ongoing violence but also to challenge the stigma and discrimination that disabled people face.

South Sudan lacks official data on this front, as it does with many other social health data.

However, Light for the World estimates that there are 1.2 million South Sudanese with disabilities out of a population of 12 million.

Amid all the difficulties, the blind football initiative was launched in 2020 during the COVID-19 outbreak with just two players who had dreams of forming a league. Madol has been scoping out potential players at the Rajap school for the blind, drawing in individuals like Ellon. These days, four players make up each team in the league.

“The Blind Football Premier League is a dream come true for both me and the teams,” says Madol. They hope to participate in future international competitions, including the Paralympics.

Ellon hopes he might get to play in other countries such as Uganda and Egypt, making it a truly pan-African sport. It’s all down to the support of the coaches, he is eager to point out.

“They are very cool and humble, and know how to support us.”