AMAZING STORY OF FULHAM STAR - JOHN'S TORMENTED PAST -
FAMILY HAD TO FLEE AFTER DAD'S MURDER
 

 

 

 

Paul Smith
Feb 9 2004

FULHAM'S new striker Collins John has revealed the agony he has had to endure on his road to the Premiership.

      The 18-year-old Liberian star has had to overcome terrible heartache and hardship.
John, who signed for Fulham last weekend, has told how: His father was murdered by Liberian guerrilla fighters when Collins was just six years old; Collins, his mother Esther and his younger brothers lived in constant fear that they would be murdered too; His family was so poor he had to play in the streets wearing only a pair of underpants; He escaped the bloody civil war in his homeland aged eight by boarding a ship bound for Holland.

     Now John wants to be a big star in the Premiership and the Champions League to emulate his hero, compatriot George Weah. John and his family spent two years in a centre for asylum seekers after the ship they escaped on docked in Rotterdam. They moved to the small town of Nijverdal, where John joined the local club.

      Former Ipswich star Romeo Zondervan, a youth coach at Twente Enschede, could not believe how skilful and powerful the young striker was. Zondervan guided John all the way to the first team and, acting as his agent, used his contacts with the Premiership to secure the youngster's move to West London.

     Now John, who scored nine goals in 18 games for Twente this season, is dreaming of celebrating his first strike in England. He told Dutch journalists: "I think I will run all around the pitch. I will then reveal the words I will have written in black letters on a white vest underneath my shirt. It will read, 'For my past'. I'll do it for everything I have gone through, for all the suffering. But most of all I will do it for my dad."

      John remembers his father - who was killed in 1991 - as a good footballer who played for a club in Liberia despite the civil war that was raging when John was born on October 17, 1985. He spent his days on the street playing football and he added: "Where I lived every kid was more or less bare, we had no clothes at all. I had nothing more than a pair of underpants.

"We did not have food every day. It was a real struggle because of the civil war."

      John vividly remembers the night he and his family escaped. "My mum woke me up and told me we were leaving our house and we wouldn't be coming back. She was doing what thousands of others were doing. We were on the run. I remember how she grabbed the kids in the middle of the night. We had to do it all quick and very secretly.

     "We walked and walked for miles until we reached a place in the middle of the night where there were boats in a port. Every boat, I was told, would be going to a different country.
"I can't remember much of the rest of the trip. We were exhausted. All I know is that our boat finally arrived in Rotterdam, where we asked for asylum.

     "It was a real hard thing to do for my mum and for me. We were nothing more than refugees. We had no possessions, no place to live, no future."
His mum explained that they would never be able to go back to Liberia. They had lost the few things they had.

     But his mum, he says, made it clear the family would never had to hide from rebels in their new country. "Life was a lot better in Holland," said John. "We were offered a lot of help. People made us feel welcome."

     John began playing football as a midfielder but Twente turned him into a striker and at the age of 17 he was called up to Holland's Under-18 side.

     "I have a Dutch passport and really I feel like a Dutchman," said John. "But at the end of the day I am still an African player, with roots in Liberia. I'd like to go back one day and look at the place."

     Zondervan, who says he looks after John "like a father", pays a moving tribute to his mother Esther. "It is all down to her," said the former Ipswich man. "If you have the courage to escape from a country in war with four kids and raise them in a totally strange place, you are a very strong person."

     John, whose brothers Paddy and Ola are top-class talents in Twente's youth academy, said: "Now I have to make sure I build my life up in England. I dedicate a lot to my mum and will make sure she is all right. I want to make her proud.

     "My heart is set on playing for Holland, where we were able to start a new life."
Collins was always a fan of Arsenal, but is proud to have joined Fulham. "It was Edwin van der Sar, the goalkeeper, who told me all about the club and the team.

     "He told me about Chris Coleman and explained that he is the kind of manager who gives young players a real chance. That is very important for me.
"It will be impossible to wipe out the past. The pain will never go. I don't even know what has happened to the rest of our family back in Liberia. We know nothing, we have no contact.

    "I can't tell you how much I think about my dad. A lot of people ask me how good he was as a player. I tell them that I thought he was very good.

     "He must have been all right as a player, because he has passed on the genes to me and my brothers."