When I last played football in intermediate school, not once did I envisage my return to the beautiful game coming in a prison alongside 16 inmates.
However, for the next hour or so, these prisoners – most of whom are around my age – are my teammates.
Sweat glistens on our foreheads and seeps through our green T-shirts, creating a pungent odour as we’re pulled into the half-time huddle.
The score is 1-1, and with 30 minutes to play, no one is taking it easy.
For the past six weeks, my teammates have undergone a football coaching course – run by Auckland FC – designed to aid their reintegration into society.
I’ve joined as a ring-in for the match, along with a couple of extras on loan from the staff of Auckland FC.
The Twinning Project launched in the United Kingdom in 2018, but this is the first of its kind in New Zealand.
It has worked with nearly every professional club in Britain, from Manchester United to Wrexham.
Six hours of weekly learning in classrooms and on the pitch have seen the near-end-of-term prisoners receive a recognised coaching qualification.
Like me, most played rugby growing up; football represented a new challenge.
The match comes with a bizarre element of pressure. In attendance for Friday’s game are Corrections and Sports Minister Mark Mitchell, Sport New Zealand CEO Raelene Castle and Auckland FC CEO Nick Becker.
They’ve come along because the match marks graduation day for the prisoners in the programme
We switch into a 5-3-2 formation. I jog out to my post at left back.
Our black-clad opposition – a team of reintegration officers working at Kohuora prison (known by its proper name as Auckland South Corrections Facility) – is playing to win.
One of the officers has a handy boot, and butterflies swirl in my stomach as I realise his clearance is curling toward me.
I meet the ball on the bounce, but when oncoming attackers arrive, I’m forced to pivot left. I promptly lose my footing and hit the turf. Nice start.
Moments later, crisis strikes. Our goal kick is fired low, directly down the middle of the field, and is picked off by their striker. My defensive line is caught off guard, and the ball is lasered into the top right corner. 2-1.
Substitutions are made, but somehow I’m still on the park.
In the final minutes, the officers attack down our flank. They get around our sturdy left wing, and I track them down toward the box.
I stick my right leg out and manage to pinch a lousy pass, deflecting it to our centre-midfielder, Auckland FC coach Mike Howard.
With feet like fireworks, Howard sparks a counter-attack. Charging up the middle, our team suddenly senses an opportunity.
Howard lobs a pass down the right wing, collected by one of the prisoners, who was definitely, potentially, maybe – but probably not – onside.
The opposition is back-pedalling, and our winger crosses it perfectly to our striker, who bludgeons it past the 6′3″ (1.9m) goalkeeper. Final score: 2-2.
The team is rapt. The sound of high-fives, handshakes and encouragement splashes out around the field.
I link arms with my teammates and join them in the final huddle of the Twinning Project. For the prisoners, it’s the end of an educational journey, but also the potential seed of a new life once their sentence is served.
We savour juice, sandwiches and muffins in a gymnasium, the walls of which are emblazoned with depictions of Kiwi sporting greats such as Dame Lisa Carrington, Richie McCaw, Dame Valerie Adams, Steven Adams and Israel Adesanya.
Genuine enjoyment and fulfilment are etched on the faces of the prisoners, many of whom possess leadership ability evident in a team environment.
One of those clear leaders is an immigrant from Ethiopia who arrived in New Zealand around the age of 10. Now in his mid-30s, he describes the Twinning Project as a second chance.
“Part of the reason I ended up in prison was because I was trying to fit into a new culture, and I was lost in the middle. The people that showed me love were the street boys.
“I studied civil engineering, I played soccer for Central United, but I never had a father figure. They showed me that father figure, so I leaned towards that, and I ended up here.”
Once his sentence is served, he plans to start a programme aiding troubled youth immigrants.
“I want to start my own foundation where I can use what I’ve learned here and my experience to prevent other kids from coming into this place and harming society.
”Time is very valuable, hey? We only live on Earth for a specific time. One of the things that prison has taught me is about time.
“When immigrants come from another country, we should not be wasting that opportunity by committing crime, hurting the society that actually gave you a chance to better your life.”
He said the Twinning Project has brought the prisoners together.
“A lot of inmates feel defeated when they come in here. They’ve never had any father figures or family that were proactive, so they feel defeated already.
“Projects like this inspire inmates to never give up. And I guess that’s the spirit that all humans should have, no matter the circumstances, because God has his signature on all of us.”
Auckland FC chief executive Becker admitted doubting whether the programme would work in a facility with men who have had minimal exposure to football.
“I was happily proven wrong, and there’s an incredible uptake. The guys who have been doing this have really worked incredibly hard. It’s brought them together, it’s made them closer as a group of teammates effectively, and it’s been a huge success.”
Becker said there is potential to expand the programme.
“There’s a huge number of opportunities not just in men’s correctional facilities, but also with women and youth as well. For us, the foundation of the club we set up was to better ourselves and the community, but also to use football as a power of good.
“I think this can be replicated across all of Auckland, the North Island, and why not the rest of New Zealand as well?”
Nathan Limm has been a journalist with Newstalk ZB and the NZ Herald since 2020. He covered the Netball World Cup in Cape Town in 2023, hosts The Big League Podcast and commentates rugby and netball for Gold Sport.