Salim Kohestani has lost four fingers in the war, and Haschmatullah Barekzai can stretch your arm no longer correct, since a mine exploded near him. Both of them are football player - in spite of their handicaps. They play for Afghanistan. And when the two compete with their comrades in March from Bhutan, again millions of football fans sitting in front of the Afghan radio and cheer.
Even if your heroes have long since ceased to play at home. The match of the number 195 in the world ranking against the number 197 will take place in India. In Bhutan, there are no stadiums, and in Afghanistan it is too dangerous. For over seven years the team has not played on home soil.
But Sahebdel Naim, 44, will once again be there. When he was 20 years ago as a young man to Germany, he had seen a lot: soldiers, wars, deaths, many borders, many countries, many forms. His father died in the war, and when the Soviets left Afghanistan in 1988 and came back the Taliban, Sahebdel began to learn German.
Later he made his training as a physiotherapist in Kassel. After five years in Germany, he was referee and moved to Bavaria. His free time is dedicated Naim Sahebdel 1 FC Passau - and the Afghan football. As a physiotherapist of the national team, youth coaches, trainers: Sahebdel helped wherever they could.
"A sports shop in Passau has sponsored the team with an equipment piece, pants, jerseys, balls and net. And our goalkeeper Mathias Burgstaller 1 FC Passau, pharmacists, has provided medicines and treatment material. I am very grateful to them, "says Sahebdel. The national players are happy when donations arrive from Germany.
Luxury is for even the best players in the country is a foreign word. "The shoes, which will be played there to be thrown away here," says Sahebdel, adding: "We have three arbitrators in Afghanistan. Two are old, and the third party knows the latest rules do not. "The German football coach Klaus Stärk knows the circumstances under which is in war-torn country to play football.
Stärk, who played in the youth of the VfB Stuttgart and later coached amateur teams in Germany, went to Afghanistan in 2004 as a coach. "He stayed out until after the South Asian Cup 2008," Sahebdel says wistfully. The two men worked well together. "John has estimated that I speak both languages.
With the players I have made the bus mental training, she massages after the game? they knew not at all ", says Sahebdel. The national team has enjoyed no success. At the World Cup in Germany 2006, the Afghan Football Association was founded in 1933 announced its first national team in qualifying matches for.
Nonetheless, soccer for many of the almost 29? Million people of Afghanistan, the most popular sport. "People are crazy about football. They pray to forget even if a game is transmitted. And travel thousands of miles to see their team live, "says Sahebdel. Up to nine years of any sport was banned under the Taliban.
"Even music was strictly forbidden. And who shaved his beard, was given 70 lashes, "says Sahebdel. His friend Ali Askar Lali is in Afghanistan a "Franz Beckenbauer," was in the 70's, one of the central figures of the national team. The fact that the 53-year-old to the sport has so much prescribed, is not only the passion alone.
"Football saved my life," he says, "When the Russians invaded Afghanistan, I've been arrested twice. It had to be lucky that it was not immediately killed. Just because I was a national player, I have come again free. "After the invasion of Soviet troops in the early 80s, fled Lali 1981 on Iran to Germany and lived for many years in Paderborn.
There, he made all the key licenses to own trainers can train. In 2003 he started together with Klaus Stärk, build up the football in his destroyed homeland. Many resources are available to the Afghan association for not available. It is financed almost exclusively from the "Financial Wizard Program" of the world governing body FIFA.
From 1999 to 2006, a total of 396 million dollars (290 million €) Funding distributed, Afghanistan receives annually from $ 250,000. "Together with donations and sponsorships, we come in at just under 350? $ 000," said Ali Askar Lali. "Considering, however, that the national team play abroad swallows $ 40,000, is not that much.
Then there are the youth and women's teams. For the smaller clubs in the end nothing left. "One problem is the state of football fields, if any exist any. In the capital Kabul, there are three: the National Stadium Ghazi, one of the Fifa-funded artificial pitch for youth teams and a spot in the west of the city.
The Ghazi Stadium holds 25? 000 spectators. In times of the Taliban regime were carried out here, particularly public executions and mutilations. In March 2002, a stadium built in 1927 and was renovated, but the word takes Naim Sahebdel up his dark eyebrows. Internationals in the Ghazi stadium still unthinkable.
Like all other sports facilities in the country also meets this arena does not meet the requirements for international games. But it's not just the lack of emergency exits, broken toilets and rotting bleachers, making a play for the national team in Afghanistan is impossible. It is mainly the lack of security.
"We can not guarantee a visiting team that the hotel where they stayed, is not the aim of an attack. It was just this week in Kabul again attempted to attack a hotel, "says Lali. The terror also has the football firmly in hand. Ali Askar Lali got the self-perceived. Death threats he received in the period 2003 to 2008 via SMS on his phone, he has not taken seriously.
He was then returned as a single former national player in his native country in order to establish also the women's game. But that is for so many Afghans still a challenge. "Since 2005 the situation deteriorated in Afghanistan. The Taliban were stronger again, and when I wanted to help in 2008 Dutch journalist to report on the women's game, I got a threat that they would kill my family.
Since I quit, "he says. Since then, Lali lives with his wife and two children in food. Three to four times a year, he traveled to Afghanistan. "I would have often become almost mad at the situation in my country. As it stands at the place and trained with the national team, and suddenly wants to land a helicopter on the field.
"Involuntary breaks in training as this he has often experienced. Not to mention the countless moments in life danger: "I sat with people from Fifa at the hotel before a game of our team, when it crashed and struck a rocket." Whether sports is a solution to alleviate the misery? "Very determined," said Ali Askar Lali, "one can achieve through sport very many people.
Unfortunately, our politicians have no interest in football because you can not already make as much money as drug "Even Naim Sahebdel is certain. If the issues can be resolved, then use the sport. Therefore, he is committed to looking for sponsors, plan projects. Above all, he hopes that the Afghan national team one day, finally can play again at home. 
Even if your heroes have long since ceased to play at home. The match of the number 195 in the world ranking against the number 197 will take place in India. In Bhutan, there are no stadiums, and in Afghanistan it is too dangerous. For over seven years the team has not played on home soil.
But Sahebdel Naim, 44, will once again be there. When he was 20 years ago as a young man to Germany, he had seen a lot: soldiers, wars, deaths, many borders, many countries, many forms. His father died in the war, and when the Soviets left Afghanistan in 1988 and came back the Taliban, Sahebdel began to learn German.
Later he made his training as a physiotherapist in Kassel. After five years in Germany, he was referee and moved to Bavaria. His free time is dedicated Naim Sahebdel 1 FC Passau - and the Afghan football. As a physiotherapist of the national team, youth coaches, trainers: Sahebdel helped wherever they could.
"A sports shop in Passau has sponsored the team with an equipment piece, pants, jerseys, balls and net. And our goalkeeper Mathias Burgstaller 1 FC Passau, pharmacists, has provided medicines and treatment material. I am very grateful to them, "says Sahebdel. The national players are happy when donations arrive from Germany.
Luxury is for even the best players in the country is a foreign word. "The shoes, which will be played there to be thrown away here," says Sahebdel, adding: "We have three arbitrators in Afghanistan. Two are old, and the third party knows the latest rules do not. "The German football coach Klaus Stärk knows the circumstances under which is in war-torn country to play football.
Stärk, who played in the youth of the VfB Stuttgart and later coached amateur teams in Germany, went to Afghanistan in 2004 as a coach. "He stayed out until after the South Asian Cup 2008," Sahebdel says wistfully. The two men worked well together. "John has estimated that I speak both languages.
With the players I have made the bus mental training, she massages after the game? they knew not at all ", says Sahebdel. The national team has enjoyed no success. At the World Cup in Germany 2006, the Afghan Football Association was founded in 1933 announced its first national team in qualifying matches for.
Nonetheless, soccer for many of the almost 29? Million people of Afghanistan, the most popular sport. "People are crazy about football. They pray to forget even if a game is transmitted. And travel thousands of miles to see their team live, "says Sahebdel. Up to nine years of any sport was banned under the Taliban.
"Even music was strictly forbidden. And who shaved his beard, was given 70 lashes, "says Sahebdel. His friend Ali Askar Lali is in Afghanistan a "Franz Beckenbauer," was in the 70's, one of the central figures of the national team. The fact that the 53-year-old to the sport has so much prescribed, is not only the passion alone.
"Football saved my life," he says, "When the Russians invaded Afghanistan, I've been arrested twice. It had to be lucky that it was not immediately killed. Just because I was a national player, I have come again free. "After the invasion of Soviet troops in the early 80s, fled Lali 1981 on Iran to Germany and lived for many years in Paderborn.
There, he made all the key licenses to own trainers can train. In 2003 he started together with Klaus Stärk, build up the football in his destroyed homeland. Many resources are available to the Afghan association for not available. It is financed almost exclusively from the "Financial Wizard Program" of the world governing body FIFA.
From 1999 to 2006, a total of 396 million dollars (290 million €) Funding distributed, Afghanistan receives annually from $ 250,000. "Together with donations and sponsorships, we come in at just under 350? $ 000," said Ali Askar Lali. "Considering, however, that the national team play abroad swallows $ 40,000, is not that much.
Then there are the youth and women's teams. For the smaller clubs in the end nothing left. "One problem is the state of football fields, if any exist any. In the capital Kabul, there are three: the National Stadium Ghazi, one of the Fifa-funded artificial pitch for youth teams and a spot in the west of the city.
The Ghazi Stadium holds 25? 000 spectators. In times of the Taliban regime were carried out here, particularly public executions and mutilations. In March 2002, a stadium built in 1927 and was renovated, but the word takes Naim Sahebdel up his dark eyebrows. Internationals in the Ghazi stadium still unthinkable.
Like all other sports facilities in the country also meets this arena does not meet the requirements for international games. But it's not just the lack of emergency exits, broken toilets and rotting bleachers, making a play for the national team in Afghanistan is impossible. It is mainly the lack of security.
"We can not guarantee a visiting team that the hotel where they stayed, is not the aim of an attack. It was just this week in Kabul again attempted to attack a hotel, "says Lali. The terror also has the football firmly in hand. Ali Askar Lali got the self-perceived. Death threats he received in the period 2003 to 2008 via SMS on his phone, he has not taken seriously.
He was then returned as a single former national player in his native country in order to establish also the women's game. But that is for so many Afghans still a challenge. "Since 2005 the situation deteriorated in Afghanistan. The Taliban were stronger again, and when I wanted to help in 2008 Dutch journalist to report on the women's game, I got a threat that they would kill my family.
Since I quit, "he says. Since then, Lali lives with his wife and two children in food. Three to four times a year, he traveled to Afghanistan. "I would have often become almost mad at the situation in my country. As it stands at the place and trained with the national team, and suddenly wants to land a helicopter on the field.
"Involuntary breaks in training as this he has often experienced. Not to mention the countless moments in life danger: "I sat with people from Fifa at the hotel before a game of our team, when it crashed and struck a rocket." Whether sports is a solution to alleviate the misery? "Very determined," said Ali Askar Lali, "one can achieve through sport very many people.
Unfortunately, our politicians have no interest in football because you can not already make as much money as drug "Even Naim Sahebdel is certain. If the issues can be resolved, then use the sport. Therefore, he is committed to looking for sponsors, plan projects. Above all, he hopes that the Afghan national team one day, finally can play again at home.
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