Still showing the same desire, determination and cheerfulness that we got to know nine years goals, Kevin now trains the youngest players. “The start was difficult,” he says laughing. “I was a disaster! There were technical meetings, complex theoretical parts. Slowly, I improved. To be a coach brings a great sense of responsibility. Today in Paraguay, there are children with very low self-confidence and they’re disadvantaged. By getting in touch with them, it makes me understand that this is my calling, to help these children like others did with me, always through play.” If he wasn’t an Inter Campus staff member, perhaps he’d be a double decker bus driver considering that was one of his dreams. But, we’re happy that he helps our kids to become greats instead.
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We’re in Paraguay in the outskirts of the capital where Inter Campus has been operating since 2008 to help orphans and disadvantaged children from Aldeas Infantiles SOS in the landfill area of Cateura. Together with former Paraguayan footballer Julio González who was in the Vicenza squad in 2005 until a tragic accident ended his career as a footballer before he started on this new one. In 2006, he won the first edition of the ‘Bello del calcio’ [beauty of football] Facchetti Prize. That was where he got to know Inter Campus before returning to Paraguay to dedicate himself to helping children in his homeland. Kevin was among these. He started to play with the project as an 11-year-old and he was chosen to take part in the Inter Campus World Cup that brought together 300 children in Italy from 19 countries involved in the project. For him, it was a dream that came true and he still gets emotional when looking back on it.
“I’ve learnt that mistakes aren’t obstacles that you should give up over but that with sacrifice, you can achieve results.” That was how Kevin Britez responded to the question “What has Inter Campus taught you?” Born in the San Francisco area of Asunción, he’s been training in the area since he was small and he now trains the children involved in the Nerazzurri’s social project himself. Kevin was a difficult child but he’s grown up to become responsible and a lot more altruistic as we’re told by his first coach and mentor Julio González.
