Founder and Chief Coach
My name is Loai Ahmed and I am the Founder and Director of Gaza Plays Peace.
Soccer
As a young kid growing up amidst war and constant siege, soccer was my outlet, my dream of escape, my therapy and my obsession, one that allowed me to play and learn and to grow. I was fortunate enough to have great coaches and as a teenager, I started to play in the local competitive league and got so skilled that I was selected to play for Palestine. Talent scouts from Europe even offered me a scholarship to train with a top German club. But like most kids in Gaza, no matter how talented, we live under Israeli siege from outside and Hamas suppression inside. Getting out of Gaza is like breaking out of prison, so I lost my opportunity to turn my passion into my career.
War
During the 2014 war, Israeli bombs seem to target soccer in a weird and tragic way. It was during the World Cup and 9 young people watching a semi-final were killed by a direct hit, following a few days later by the 4 Bakr kids playing soccer on the beach in front of international journalists. Israeli gunboats fired again and again till four kids were incinerated. And finally, our beloved coach was bombed and killed.
To this day, Israel has neither apologized nor explained how soccer became such a threat. In the wake of this terror, I visited the grieving Bakr family and the kids who survived, and was so inspired by them that I decided to gather a team together to retake the beach and make it safe again for football. On the first anniversary and every year after, we assemble on that same beach and we play soccer, making a statement to Israel and to the world that unless we make the world safe again for kids to play, we are doomed as a species. That is what Gaza Plays Peace is all about. It is not about politics. It is not even about the conflict. It is only about the needs of kids.
Since 2015, Gaza Plays Peace has grown. With another World Cup, we know how inspired the kids of Gaza will be. We know that more and more kids will want to play, and so we want to find the funds and the resources to meet the demand.
Coach and Supervisor: Mohammed Ahmed
Mohammed plays for Al-Hilal club and currently coaches the players of Gaza Plays Peace. He is a hardworking talented coach who aspires to take the team to another level. Mohammed says, “These kids give us the incentive to keep working towards our goals, and my goal is to see these kids playing their game very big and ambitious.”
