On 13 September 2000, Collin Benjamin sat in the sold-out Volkspark Stadium and made a decision. One day he would stand on this field himself, as a professional with the diamond on his chest. "The 4:4 against Juventus Turin in the Champions League was simply magical," Collin remembers. Blue seat cushions flew through the air, coach Frank Pagelsdorf cried, the atmosphere in the stadium was like a witch's cauldron. Collin was 22 years old at the time, a business student from Namibia who had come to Germany with big dreams and only one contact in his pocket. He had often felt lost after his arrival. The game against Juventus showed him where he wanted to go. "That night I fell in love with Hamburg," he says.

Collin Benjamin has achieved what many in his home country Namibia dream of: a career as a footballer, 243 professional games played, 191 of them for HSV. "It was a fairytale story," says Collin Benjamin today. He lived in Hamburg for twelve years, his children were born on the Elbe. Nevertheless, it was always clear to him that he wanted to return to his homeland in southwest Africa one day. "Are you crazy?" some of his boyfriends and acquaintances have asked him. "In Germany you have everything, a good life." Collin left in 2016 anyway. Ask him why, and the man who can effortlessly entertain entire stadiums suddenly becomes thoughtful and quiet. "It sounds like a cliché," he says, "but I think I've had all my experiences so I can pass them on now in Namibia."

June 2022. On a cold Saturday morning, Collin sits on the edge of a football pitch in the Namibian capital Windhoek. He is wearing an orange and red tracksuit, his eyes hidden behind sunglasses. The Champions League anthem is blaring across the pitch, just like on that magical evening 22 years ago. The players of the Namibian Youth League are getting ready for the next match. They know only too well that Col-lin Benjamin is watching them. The teenagers want to follow in his footsteps one day. Big stadiums, the Bundesliga, maybe even Hamburger SV - this dream drives them. So far, their fathers are their biggest fans. With beer cans in their hands, they lean against the pitch perimeter and cheer them on; not far from them, meat sizzles on a grill.

Collin Benjamin founded the youth league five years ago. In the meantime, 2000 players belong to it. For the project, he teamed up with Bavarian-born Robert Hopperdiet-zel. The head of the solar company Hopsol has the necessary capital, Colin the experience. Together they want to bring the next young Namibian talents to international level. "He is the Namibian Franz Beckenbauer," says Hopper-dietzel about Collin: "If you want to make it to the top as a footballer in Namibia, you have to get past him.

Football is one of the most popular sports in Namibia. However, there are hardly any structures. Children and young people often teach themselves to play on the street, barefoot, like Collin Benjamin once did. Fifa supports the country financially. But the money does not end up on Namibian football fields, but mostly in the pockets of politicians. The country's two big stadiums have been lying idle for a long time. The Namibian national team therefore has to travel to neighbouring South Africa for its matches. Even the field on which the youth league now plays was nothing more than a stunted field six months ago. Collin and Hopperdietzel have had grass laid, goals erected and stands put up. They want to give Namibian youth football a home, finally.

Read more: The feature has been published in the German magazine supporters news and is only available in print. Click here to read an interview with Collin Benjamin, published in the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (German).

Pictures: Caroline de Meersseman