When football coach Thomas ‘Eichi’ Eichstätt and his team from Torgelow in Northern Germany turn up at tournaments, they immediately stand out. The tall, burly man with his bald head, tattoos, and voice that echoes across the pitch mainly trains refugees. On the pitch, the young adults completely lose themselves in the moment. But off the pitch, their pasts and their longing to feel at home catch up with them. Job hunting, xenophobia, and the search for belonging are hard realities. For many of the players, ‘Eichi’ is a friend. But he also looks back on his dark past life as a right-wing extremist. This feature-length documentary is sometimes humorous and light-hearted, sometimes profound and raw as it follows its protagonists on their life paths, which could not be more different.

Impact goals

• Put on 50 film screenings throughout rural Germany, starting in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
• Help Thomas Eichstädt to safeguard his job so that he can continue training the refugee team.
• Organize regional workshops on racism and how to address it for youth club staff and football trainers in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
• Draw attention to the importance of volunteer football trainers and help to establish (financial) structures to enable their work.

To achieve this, we would like to...

• secure partners who can organize film screenings in youth clubs, schools, football clubs, and other local venues in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and beyond;
• establish a working group in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (comprising government officials, NGOs, youth club associations, and sport clubs) to tackle racism and address refugee integration through youth clubs and sport club programmes; and
• organize racism sensibility training for youth-club employees and football coaches in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (including film screenings and one- or two-day workshops).