Life is better with football
That legend is not only writ large across Reghina Dragoi’s bright red Team Romania jersey - it’s also imprinted on her heart.
Abandoned at birth by her mother, with no idea who her father was, Reghina spent the first nine months of her life in a tiny cot, in an overcrowded ward at the hospital where she was born.
“The rules said I had to stay at the hospital for nine months,” she explains, “as my mental state, and my health had to be checked, to make sure that I had no disabilities, as this influences which orphanage you are sent to. If you’re handicapped you have to go to a certain orphanage, if you have mental health problems you go to another, and so on.”
Aged nine months, she was transferred to a government orphanage where she remained until she was 16.
“If you are a senior student, going on to further studies, you are allowed to stay until you’re eighteen but I didn’t go to these classes so I had to leave when I was sixteen,” says Reghina.
“Living in the orphanage was not a good place to grow up - I suffered abuse from the bigger boys, they stole food and clothes, and they were always fighting. I had to work, to wash other people’s clothes, too.”
She sought solace with some of the other girls there and they stuck together, to protect themselves. And then there was football. Reghina played with the boys and they improvised to make a pitch. The boys had many teams but there were few girls so she was in a mixed team.
“There were other girls who played football but not in the orphanage I lived in, so we had competitions between the orphanages,” she explains. “But it wasn’t fair competition as the other girls were much bigger.”
As soon as she turned sixteen, she had to leave the orphanage and still, over twenty years later, the pain is raw.
“It was very hard to leave because I was so young and there was no support,” she whispers. “The government will not support us after that age and life is very dangerous - there are many bad people around; those trying to traffic young people, extort money, involve them in prostitution and in gangs.
“I had no help from the orphanage - the government say a child’s dad and mother are the people with an obligation to help, and if you don’t have those people in your life, you have nothing.”
Reghina eventually found a job in a factory sewing jeans and, through friends of people she knew from the orphanage, rented a space with some fellow workers; currently seven people are living across three rooms.
After a few years in one factory she found work in another, still sewing jeans, and has now worked there for 17 years. She also became involved with Club Sportive Football De Strada Metanoia.
“I enjoy playing so much - it makes me feel happy being part of a team,” she says. “The training, the practices, the matches - I love it all. Every day I go to work, I worry about my problems, money, but my refuge is football. It makes me forget all the sad things.
“Nico [manager, Adam Nicoleta] asked me to join the team for this tournament. He said it would change my life and I’m very glad I was able to join - I’ve been practising with the team since then.
“It’s a blessing and an honour to be here to represent my country. In Romania, we are not valued but here we are respected for representing our country.”
Reghina has loved getting to know the other nations, despite the fact they can’t speak each other’s language, “but we understand each other through football. I have new friends from Brazil, Hungary and Austria, and the girls from Tanzania have given me a new look, they braided my hair,” she adds proudly displaying the intricate patterns.
Would the little girl hiding behind the closed doors of the orphanage ever have believed she could shine on the international football stage? Reghina shakes her head, smiling - but she has a message for that little girl.
“Believe in hope, believe it’s possible to change your life. Everything is possible if you try.”
Written By Isobel Irvine, Photos By Donnie Nicholson & Anita Milas