Avid footballer Benjamin Lee of Ashburton has spent the past year living and breathing football.
The 16-year-old striker was at the FS Sport Academy, an elite sports academy in Dusseldorf, Germany.
At age 15, he was one of just 14 players accepted for the year’s intake.
It included football and a cultural exchange of new experiences. Benjamin started playing for Lohausener SV under 17, then advanced to their under 19 side.
It was an honour to be included, but he ended up getting less game time.
So now, he has returned to Ashburton to resume school studies at Ashburton College and play on fields closer to home.
He has been trialling at Selwyn.
‘‘It was (good) going there and experiencing new things that I couldn’t do here,’’ he said.
‘‘But I just didn’t get enough game time there, so thought I might as well come back.’’
He has mixed feelings about being home. He is pleased to see family and friends, but still yearned to play professional football.
Funding from his parents, Leigh and Kyoung Woo, as well as donations from people and Rotary Club of Ashburton Charitable Trust made the trip possible, he said. And he was very grateful for the support.
At the academy, Benjamin was among a group of international students, all learning German.
He speaks English and Korean, as his first languages, but struggled learning the language.
School classes started at 7.45am and wound up by 1.30pm.
After lunch football academy training kicked in for two and half hours, then school homework.
Three times a week he then went off site for two hour club training sessions.
‘‘When I had no training, I just did my own. I’d just go out by myself and train a lot.’’
Benjamin said he made many friends while in Germany, but it took time navigating the language and their direct manner.
‘‘They were very direct. They don’t just mess around…if you do something wrong, they would directly tell you which I struggled with, but I got used to it.
‘‘I feel like I’m a little bit direct now,’’ he said with a smile.
While the weather was extreme with very hot days in summer and snow in winter, it was the language he found most difficult but helped by Google translate on his phone.
‘‘It’s really hard to understand how they pronounce words. I just couldn’t understand,’’ he said.
‘‘They did speak a little English, so we could communicate a little.’’
On the field, communication was easier amid the German players who were strong and really tall.
‘‘I had six foot six guys in my team. They were mostly defenders but you just can’t get through them.’’
His time away, although football focused, gave him other experience from being impressed by building construction in German cities to being among the noise at a UEFA Champions League game.
‘‘It was pretty amazing because the fans were just so loud.
‘‘Someone was calling me from behind and I couldn’t even hear them.’’
