Living in a foreign country can be for pleasure, for work, for love or for any other avatar of the vital transit of a person. In Vigo there are officially 18,734 foreigners, a figure that changes continuously due to the globalized world in which we live. Some of them, undoubtedly a small group, are in the city thanks to sports and others practice some activity after landing on the shores of the Atlantic for any other reason.
Records state there is a Tongan in town, the former Vigo Rugby player Mark TatafuNow married with a daughter. There are also 26 Japanese, two of them cyclists and almost newcomers, they are the components of the Java Kiwi Atlántico Yuki Ishahara y Tomoya Koyama. The second explains that “the team has a house here in Vigo and we decided to come to face the season. I did not know Vigo, but my friends told me: it is a very beautiful city. So I saw a lot of photos on Instagram before I came.”
Precisely, the beauty of the city, the surroundings and the sea are the aspects that foreign athletes highlight. One of the lovers is the Russian center of Celta Zorka Recalvi Marita Davydova, a true fan of the sandbanks and sunsets. “I love Vigo. It’s not a small city, but it’s not big either. Everything is close and I like it, especially when the weather is good, like all this week. With the sun it is very good, ”she relates.
It is her second campaign in the city and, in the current one, with company because she shares a flat and life with one of those friends who does sports and crossroads, the Canadian with a Haitian passport, Jessica Fequiere. “The first year I arrived in Spain I met Marita in the Basque Country. Later, I was in Barcelona and now it is my fourth season in Spain and I am in Vigo. The club is very competitive and I also came because Marita is here, who gave me good references, both from the club and from the city”, expresses the North American.
Canada has only 16 people in Vigo and the figure in its neighboring United States rises to 223. Among them, Maggie Mulliganfrom Celtic Zorka and Fabian Romo, from Amfiv. However, the numbers skyrocket going south on the map. Venezuela (2,260), Brazil (1,618) and Colombia (1,620) are some of the states with the most citizens in Vigo. From the coffee country came Marlon Mendoza, who plays for the Vigo Volleyball Club. “First I went to San Sadurniño and there I met Pablo Parga, who has now started his coaching career in Vigo and called me. We are good friends”, he explains. The Colombian is one of the main players of the Vigo club and lives in his coach’s house. “I have no family here, but I have friends”, he adds. In the comparison with his origin, he indicates that “They are two completely different countries. I like Vigo a lot. Especially these sunny days, which are incredible. And it is a city that you can find what you need. Besides, it is very pretty, with beautiful places, and welcoming. I like it a lot and I feel very comfortable.”
Gaston Cellerino lives its second stage in the Ría de Vigo. On the first occasion, he came for work, nothing more and nothing less, than to join Celta. However, he is now in the Bouzas Rapid. “I came because my partner is from here and we want to establish ourselves definitively and that the children can grow up here”, expresses the Argentine, and concludes with a clear “the truth is that in Vigo it is calm and you live very well”.
Also found on the banks of the Ría de Vigo is the footballer Youssef Al-Watani. Born in Rabat, his arrival in the city had a stopover in Abu Dhabi: “I played as a child in two Moroccan clubs, but at the age of 14 I went to the Emirates to try to be a footballer because I had a family”. Later he passed through Dubai and, through Míchel Salgado, arrived at Celta’s youth academy. He did not succeed, in part because “the adaptation was very complicated. He didn’t speak any Spanish and didn’t understand the coach. It got complicated.” At that time he was a young player with adaptation problems. However, he ended up in the Rapid de Bouzas, learned the language and now, “I have a partner here and everything. I can leave, but I always come back”, admits the North African. In Vigo, 405 citizens of Morocco are registered, the second largest country in Africa, surpassed by 705 from Senegal. The Nigerian International Murjanatu Musa puts the representation of his country in Celta Zorka Recalvi, which has the Malian in the quarry Fatoumata Dembele.
Amfiv, by tradition and due to the great potential of the Spanish league, one of the most powerful in the world, is always a pole of attraction for international players. In the current squad, in addition to the aforementioned Romo, is the Argentine Maria Chirinos and the Danish duo formed by Nagwa Brown Y Christian Seidel. “For me everything is new. I like the area because everything is mountain and sea, very beautiful. Now that I’ve been in the city for five months, I can tell for sure. It’s a small city and a good place to relax,” says Brown. A similar opinion is held by his compatriot Seidel. “I didn’t know anything else about Vigo except Celta, the soccer team. It’s been a month and I can already see how beautiful it is. I love having the beach and the coast close by. And I also like this warmer weather because I don’t like snow, I come from Sweden”, he confirms. In fact, he was surprised in recent days because “it’s 18 degrees and there are people on the street with coats. What madness is that? If I go out in the street with that temperature in a T-shirt”.
Far from the high level of wheelchair players, there are many other athletes who use their activity to keep fit. This is the case of the French taekwondo Daniel Gautier. He has been in Vigo since 1998 and, many years later, he started on the tatamis. “On the recommendation of some friends. I go in the morning, I like it a lot”, he describes. He settled in Vigo because “it’s pretty, small and the food is very good”. Of course, he clarifies that “people from Vigo are a bit closed with foreigners”. A totally different opinion to the rest of the athletes consulted, who highlight the good relationship with the citizens of the city and that, even, “they don’t speak English, but they always try to help. People speak to me more than in Denmark, even though I don’t know Spanish”, Explain Nagwa Brown.
However, there are not only adult foreigners in Vigo. Minors such as the Georgian can also be found Giorgi Sekhniashviliof cadet age, and the Brazilian Lucas Forlan Romano, juvenile. Both are promises of judo under the orders of Carlos Garabatos in Galicia Sur. Both have a promising sporting future and came to the shores of the Atlantic for family reasons from their parents. Here they develop in sport and also in life. There are 1,618 citizens of the South American country, while only 24 are accounted for in Caucasians.
In search of improvement at a collective and individual level
Beyond personal stories and life in the city, foreign athletes in Vigo pursue personal and collective goals in the short, medium and long term. The Japanese Tomoya Koyama and Yuki Ishihara, who will soon be joined by Sho Narumi, are trying to improve their level “to win some UCI points”, says Ishihara, while his teammate Koyama clarifies that he wants to “get used to the races in Europe and learn a lot”. . Both seek to improve enough to play an Olympic Games in the future, in Paris or Los Angeles. They will try to grow in the ranks of the Atlantic Java Kiwi, which this campaign has a clear oriental flavour.
Within basketball, Jessica Fequiere and Marita Davydova aim to enter the promotion play-off with Celta Zorka Recalvi. Once there, she adds the Russian that “anything can happen”. So far, the group led by Cristina Cantero moves in the positions that allow them to fight to reach the highest category of Spanish basketball.
Iberconsa Amfiv, which plays in the Division of Honor, signs a somewhat irregular course although it has already distanced itself from the relegation positions. “We want to reach the ‘play-offs’. It’s a great goal. I believe in the team and that we can do it if we play our best game. On an individual level, I want to show that I can compete in basketball in Spain and be a good player”, says the Danish Cristian Seidel. In fact, until now, he admits that “I knew that the Spanish league has a high level and it is not something that surprised me. What did surprise me is my own evolution, since I arrived, to the point where I am now. I advanced quickly in my game and in that of the team”. Nagwa Brown adds that “my idea is to be able to perform at a high level. We have some performance slumps during matches and I think there is potential to do good things and compete at the highest level. Once we can develop our game, we will fight against anyone”.
Individual and collective stories and, in some cases, arriving in Vigo is the door to access professionalism. This is how the Colombian Marlon Mendoza tries it in a minority discipline like volleyball. “I came directly from Colombia to Galicia. In my country there is volleyball, but not like in Europe. It’s all football there. It is played, but it is not at the level of Europe or other South American countries like Argentina or Brazil”, he acknowledges. So when he had the option to cross the Atlantic he did it. First with a campaign at San Sadurniño and now at Club Vigo. “I started playing when I was 12 years old at my school in San Marcos, a small place in the municipality of Yumbo,” he says. A small city of 95,000 inhabitants of the coffee country.
An incipient career and another that, little by little, is going towards the end. This is the case of the Argentine soccer player Gastón Cellerino. “The idea is to give it up little by little, I’m already 35 years old, but football is my life and it’s not a question of giving it up overnight. I still think I can squeeze the body a little bit more and stretch it out,” he relates. He does it in Vigo because he “lives very well”.
In search of a better and safer life is the Brazilian Lucas Forlán Romano. The judoka emphasizes that “Vigo is much safer than Brazil and calmer”. He started in the sport in his country and continues in the city. “I want to be a black belt and practice judo for many years,” he concludes.
