RTS225ZJ
20 Sep. 2018
Thessaloniki, Greece
He fled hardship and unrest in Congo Republic with nothing but his ball and a change of clothes. Now, not yet 18, Christ Wamba is training with a professional basketball club in Europe. Taking a well-trodden route north out of sub-Saharan Africa, Wamba clung on to his treasured ball until he had to jettison it on the sea crossing from Turkey to Greece. He is now under the wing of one the country's biggest clubs, Aris, as he waits for his asylum application to be processed. "I didn't have shoes to play basket," Wamba, a towering figure with boyish looks and bleached hair, said of life in Congo, a nation rife with poverty despite its oil wealth. "I played with flip-flops. Sometimes with nothing, without shoes, with only my legs, with blood sometimes," he said. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis SEARCH "KONSTANTINIDIS WAMBA" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY. Matching text: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/GREECE-WAMBA
