Antonio Rüdiger: ‘Refugees have no other choice – it’s important they be listened to’

Drawing on his own family’s experience, the Real Madrid and Germany defender is advocating for refugees and challenging stereotypes As a child, Antonio Rüdiger would look out of his bedroom window to see whether anyone was playing on the field it overlooked. It was not a big pitch, but it had two goals, enough room for six-a-side and was where a young Rüdiger honed the skills that would take him to the top. He grew up in Neukölln, Berlin, in a community largely made up of refugees, where his parents settled after fleeing civil war in Sierra Leone. It was, by his own account, a tough area, and

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