Refugees tripped by Hungarian camerawoman meet Real Madrid stars

From being tripped up by a camerawoman in a field by the Hungary-Serbia border, to kicking a ball around with Real Madrid stars on the Bernabeu pitch — it’s been a rollercoaster ten days for the Mohsen family.

On Friday , the Syrian refugee family were guests at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium, two days after arriving in Spain.

They met the Spanish club’s stars Cristiano Ronaldo, Tony Kroos, Luka Modric, and others, posed with coach Rafa Benitez and were given a personal tour by club President Florentino Perez.

Just ten days earlier on September 8, they were seen in footage being tripped up by a Hungarian camerawoman as they were chased by police.

The photojournalist was later fired. 

Osama Abdul Mohsen, and his sons Zaid, 7, and Mohammed Al Ghadabe, 18, were brought to Spain from Munich by Miguel Angel Galan, the president of the Official School of Football Coaches (CENAFE) in Madrid.

Galan had learned from reading an interview in the Spanish daily El Mundo that Mohsen had been a first division football coach in Syria before he had fled the violence in his country over a year ago.

Mohsen and his two boys arrived by train in Barcelona on September 16 and then continued their journey to Madrid where they were met by Galan who through CENAFE has arranged accommodation for the family and a job at the school for Mohsen.

CENAFE is making arrangements for Mohsen’s wife and the remainder of his children to be transferred from Turkey to Madrid.