Ghanaian winger Shadrach Eghan has opened up on playing in Iraq despite the fact that he did not want to play there.
The 24-year-old made a shock move to Iraq last year as a free agent to join Al-Zawraa after parting ways with Dutch side Go Ahead Eagles and he reveals that it has been an experience.
"After half a season without a club, I was suddenly called by an agent. He told me he could take me to Al-Zawraa. I didn’t know that club, but he told me it was the biggest club in Iraq. I thought: what? Playing football in Iraq? This can not be true."
"About Iraq I always only heard news stories about quarrels and wars. When I told my family about the interest, their response was exactly the same: Playing football in Iraq! They would pray for me that everything would be fine," Eghan told vice.com
"I immediately started researching on the internet. I found out that the club is from Baghdad and is located in a safe zone of the city. It seemed to be one of the safest areas of Iraq. That agent and the director of Al-Zawraa told me that I didn’t have to worry.
"They sent me the contract in advance and the money was very good. I love seeing a lot of the world anyway, so I accepted the offer. Why not? Shortly thereafter I was on the plane to Baghdad."
"After I landed, I went to the hotel by car. Along the way I saw many veiled women and completely different buildings than I was used to in the Netherlands and Africa. I could also clearly see that there had been war. I saw collapsed buildings, but I expected that it would be a bigger mess. Every once in a while we had to stop for a security check.
"There were guards with weapons, often small hand guns, but sometimes they also carried an AK-47 with them. I was not trembling in the car of fear, but it was of course strange to see. At the same time, it also made me feel safe.
He added, "The club had arranged a luxury hotel for me in a safe zone of the city. In that section everything was quite normal. There were nice hotels, shops, greengrocers, supermarkets and restaurants. For every training I was picked up by a car. To get out of the area of my hotel, I always had to pass such a security check."
"Around the training complex I passed a security check again, to enter a safe area again. Sometimes I had to get out of the car and I was checked, but most of the time they just looked inside to see if we had any dangerous things with us. The driver showed his papers to the guards, after which we were allowed to continue driving. They exchanged some words in Arabic, but I didn’t understand much.
"The language barrier was also my biggest problem in Iraq. Before the training, the trainer always entered the dressing room to have a chat."