In Mexico there is a separate Upper Austrian football youth league – at least if you look at the kits of the teams playing once morest each other. In the country with 126 million inhabitants it can happen that the state league teams SC Marchtrenk and Viktoria Marchtrenk face each other like last weekend. The background: Many clubs from Upper Austria – such as the lower house clubs Viktoria Marchtrenk, St. Aegidi and Buchkirchen or Bundesliga club LASK – have already donated older jerseys that are no longer in use to the “Deportivo Don Bosco aid project” in Mexico – to be more precise to Chimalhuacan, a slum of Mexico City.
Leopoldine Ganser from Linz, a retired high school teacher, has been supporting various Don Bosco aid projects in this region since 1994 in order to help young people. A separate football league was founded in March 1997. “It’s particularly important for young people in Mexico that they get social support. Instead of looking for false friends in drug-addicted criminal gangs, football often serves as a catch-all,” explains Ganser.
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Ganser traveled to Mexico once more just last Friday. Dressen from SC Marchtrenk and Oftering were in the luggage this time. “It’s something very special for the children and young people when they get jerseys from Austria. They don’t have a lot here and are all the more happy when I take something with them.” This aid project is also supported by the Mexican first division club Universidad Pumas, which regularly provides trained trainers.
Reference point Hugo Sanchez
A special point of reference to Upper Austria: Universidad Pumas was the youth club of Mexico’s national hero, Hugo Sanchez, who once played well at Real Madrid and also played for FC Linz in the late autumn of his career.
A good friend of Ganser is Jürgen Seiler, youth manager at SC Marchtrenk. This time he organized the “jersey swap” together with his son Pascal Seiler, who works as a junior manager in Oftering. “Together we immediately looked at what we might give. It is important for us to be able to help. Prosperity cannot be taken for granted – and that’s why we want to give something back,” says Jürgen Seiler.
Separated in club colors but united in spirit: “It’s always exciting for me when I watch matches in Mexico between teams with jerseys from Upper Austria. Of course, the youngsters know whether it’s a derby in terms of kits or not Not. But that doesn’t matter at all, because it’s regarding having fun playing football together,” says Ganser.
