By Andrew Graber
Imagine playing soccer at a small college, and then playing professional soccer in Cambodia. Well, this is the life of Cambodian Striker Tony Janzen. Janzen worked with the Mennonite Central Committee, so soccer teams could not pay him. Janzen said “working for the Mennonite Central Committee, any money made anywhere else go’s to them.”
Tony Janzen was born on November Fourteenth 1985, he graduated from high school in 2004 and choose to go to Goshen college. In Cambodia he joined an amateur team and after one game a man walked up to him and asked him if he would like to help him.
Because Janzen was thirty years old when he first started playing soccer again, two games a week was hard for him balancing between a full time job and trying to recover for the next game. “Some days I only had one day to rest between games,” Janzen said.
Moving from college to professional soccer was hard. Janzen moved to Cambodia with his wife after college, he took an eight year break between college and professional soccer. In the Cambodian league Janzen said that “it was more physical, the players were faster and more skilled.”
Andrew Graber
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