Passionate football fan, Medard Koya believes in the power of sport to transform lives and now devotes his time 100% to managing All Black FC.
In an exclusive interview, Koya shares what motivates him to manage six ABFC sides, along with his dedicated coaches, despite limited resources.
Why did you decide to devote all your time to All Black FC?
“When you see a need in the community and when you see youths lacking opportunities in society then it’s a mission for me. It’s something that I’m carrying on my life.
I want to respond to the need in HK and I want to contribute something to the community and I want to meet the needs of the young people in the society so that those young people can continue to dream and eventually give back to society.
I want to see the community come together. I want to see people gather together. I want to see all of us come together to serve our community and to serve and bless mankind. This is a mission for me and is something in my heart. I believe unity is something very important and important for societal development.
Via All Black FC, seeing different young people from different backgrounds and religions, coming together to be united and then to give back, is a joy. It makes me happy to see that all of us, from different backgrounds, can contribute something very positive.”
Did you ever imagine All Black FC to grow so rapidly and expand to so many teams?
“I could not imagine that we would have six teams when we started All Black FC. You can trace from our past when we started, our players were mostly from the African community, then step by step, you can see that we have players from all backgrounds with the vision of better social and community integration in Hong Kong.
More and more people start joining our teams, and for us, that is a good response for the community. That’s what we are doing, to meet the needs of the people and that’s why they keep coming!
Last season, we had three teams, and then, as you mentioned, in the coming season, we may find ourselves with six teams! I will keep working hard to try to meet the needs of the community.”
What other life skills can players learn via All Black FC?
“You help people to work together! Through sports, you know, people can forget about their differences, and they come together and be united! This is something that we hope to see through sports and through football; to bring the best out of young people, to let them learn how important unity is needed in our society, how important we have to be supportive in the community, how grateful we are to be supporting each other.
At the same time, players come for football, but they have to know that as community ambassadors, they have to work together and serve the community.
Yes, the players can play football but by the end, we want to see them as leaders and community leaders. We like to see our young people take a leadership initiative and initiate different community projects that can bless the wider community in Hong Kong and beyond.”
For more information on All Black FC and how to assist, please check out their Facebook and Instagram pages: https://www.facebook.com/allblackfchongkong/ + https://www.instagram.com/allblackfchk/?hl=af
