Extraordinary freestyle:
Iraqi ex-basketball player is the kicker of the century
The current fifth division club once produced later LASK idols such as Kurt and Wolfgang Nagl - yet SK Admira Linz has now named an Iraqi ex-basketball player (38) as the player of the century. Which underlines the integrative power of soccer ahead of the Upper Austrian amateur season starting on Friday.
The adjective "extraordinary" is probably quite an understatement in this case. After all, we are talking about SK Admira, a traditional Linz club that has even produced later LASK idols such as Wolfgang and Kurt Nagl. However, when the question of the footballer of the century arose at the fifth division club recently ahead of the club's big anniversary, the choice fell on a 38-year-old former basketball team player from Iraq
Admittedly, not everyone at Bachlbergweg in Linz was in agreement. But ahead of the lower league season starting on Friday, it shows the power of (amateur) soccer when it comes to integration far, far beyond the borders of the regional league club and even beyond those of sport.
A lot of people have helped me here - but you also have to help yourself, first and foremost by learning the language.
Leon Sokrat
"A lot of people have helped me here - but you also have to help yourself, first and foremost by learning the language," says Leon Sokrat when the "Krone" meets him at the SK Admira Linz pitch. The player of the century. The Iraqi. The ex-basketball player. The refugee.
"You have to stay"
"As a Christian, my life in Baghdad was not safe," says the former economics student, who came to Austria 17 years ago via Holland with refugee status and ended up in Nettingsdorf. After that, he couldn't find a good basketball club in Linz, but was tipped off that he might be able to keep fit at the SK Admira soccer club.
As a Christian, my life in Baghdad was not safe.
Leon Sokrat
The father of two soon traveled 80 minutes by bike, train and streetcar three or four times a week from Nettingsdorf to Urfahr for training. Where former LASK hero Wolfgang Nagl soon told him as coach: "You have to stay with us - now you're an Admiran!"
Which Sokrat underlined not only on the pitch with 135 goals in 278 games. Even more so by the fact that he later turned down good offers, started working as an electrician and took on various maintenance jobs at the facility.
"You can always rely on him"
"You can always rely on him. Even when we lent him 5,000 euros twice, he paid us back," says Admira's club vice-president Alexander Paulischin about Sokrat as he watches him train the U7s. And what does the prime example of integration have to say about his selection as the player of the century? "It's like a gift!"
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