The Smallest Team With The Biggest Fight

Sudan’s short-stature football team is training for a World Cup while their country is at war.

In Khartoum, a group of footballers gather to train for a tournament that could mark a first for Sudan. Some have been displaced by the war. Others travel from different parts of the country to attend training sessions. Their facilities are limited, their resources stretched and the journey ahead uncertain.

For a few hours, they play football anyway.

This is Sudan’s national short-stature football team. In November, the players hope to travel to Rabat, Morocco, for the second Short Stature Football World Cup. Twenty-four teams are expected to take part, including defending champions Argentina.

For Sudan, reaching the tournament would mean more than a sporting achievement. It would mean representing a country enduring one of the world’s most devastating conflicts.

A Team Built From Nothing

Sudan’s short-stature football team was formed in 2020 by volunteers and sports journalists, with little money and limited institutional support.

The players came from different parts of Sudan and different backgrounds. What united them was their love of football and their determination to keep playing despite the barriers faced by people of short stature.

Sudan missed the first World Cup because of funding and travel difficulties. This time, the players and their federation are determined not to miss another opportunity.

But the war has made preparation even harder.

The conflict, which began in April 2023, has displaced millions and disrupted everyday life across Sudan. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) has tracked more than 58,000 direct conflict-related fatalities since the war began.

For the team, the consequences are personal. Players are travelling from different regions to train together, while displacement and insecurity make assembling the squad increasingly difficult.

Still, they keep showing up.

“They Underestimated Me”

For Ibrahim Abdallah, the struggle to be taken seriously as a footballer began long before the war. Abdallah grew up passionate about the sport, but his short stature once kept him from participating in school tournaments.

“Soccer is both a big culture and a physical sport for the body, and I love it very much,” Abdallah says. “What encouraged me was that when there were football tournaments at school, they refused to let me participate, saying I was short, and they underestimated me.”

The experience did not stop him from playing. Instead, it became part of what pushed him forward.

Now, Abdallah is preparing to represent Sudan on an international stage alongside teammates who have faced many of the same assumptions about what people of short stature can do.

Playing for Sudan

The team’s challenge extends beyond the football pitch. Financial and security hurdles remain, while limited resources make preparation difficult.

Mohammed Nour Kasha, president of Sudan’s federation for people of short stature, says the players’ determination has been strengthened by the circumstances surrounding them.

“The challenges the country has endured, as you well know, with this war, the determination and resolve of these young men has motivated them to participate,” Kasha says.

For Kasha, the team’s ambition is also about giving Sudanese people something to hold onto.

“God willing, we promise the Sudanese people that despite all the difficulties we have faced, we will bring smiles and joy to their hearts.”

The 2026 Short Stature Football World Cup is scheduled for November 20 to 30 in Rabat. Whether Sudan reaches the tournament will depend on overcoming the financial, logistical and security barriers still standing in its way.

For now, the players keep training in Khartoum.

They come from different parts of a country at war. They have been displaced, underestimated and forced to navigate obstacles that extend far beyond football. But when training begins, the focus returns to the ball, the pitch and the possibility of what comes next.

For Abdallah, who was once told he was too short to play at school, the journey is already a kind of answer.

They may not yet know whether they will reach Morocco in November.

But they keep showing up.

The post The Smallest Team With The Biggest Fight appeared first on Time Africa.