On the night of April 25, 2013, Bjoern Werner sat in front of the media dawning a deep blue colored hat stitched with the white logo of Indianapolis Colts, the team that had just made him the 24th overall selection in the NFL Draft. Exuberance spread across his face and glinted in his eyes as he answered the media questions with a noticeable accent.
Werner had finally reached his dream of playing in the NFL, a dream that began in Berlin, Germany. Growing up in Germany’s capital, Werner played the national game, soccer. It wasn’t until the age of 15 that he discovered the game of football. All it took was one moment, when his friend invited him to play a game of flag football, that got Werner hooked.
This weekend Werner and his Colts play host to the New England Patriots on Sunday night. Despite superstars Tom Brady and Andrew Luck, Reggie Wayne and Rob Gronkowski, the real highlight of night will be Werner’s match up against Patriots’ tackle Sebastian Vollmer.
Vollmer, a second-round selection by the Patriots in 2009, shares a similar path to Werner. The 6’8″ tackle began his road to the NFL from Dusseldorf, Germany. Vollmer, first discovered the game at the age 14 and quickly showed a knack for the game. After the 2004 Global Junior Championships in San Diego, Vollmer began to be recruited by the University of Houston, Western Michigan, Louisiana Tech, and Indiana; ultimately attending Houston.
As Werner began to prepare for the draft process, he reached out to Vollmer and Giants defensive tackle Markus Kuhn. Kuhn, a native son of Mannheim, Germany, began playing around the same age and even played in the German Football League, before attending North Carolina State.
The successful London games this season have proven the league has international support and three more games for next season have already been announced. Yet, it is not just England and Germany that have ties to the game of football.
Tennessee Titans tackle Michael Roos, was born in Estonia and lived there until his family moved to the US when he was 10. Roos, a three-time Pro Bowler, did not even play football until he was in high school.
Roos’ fellow countryman Margus Hunt, a third-round selection by the Bengals in 2013, was a former world junior record holder in the discus and competed internationally in the shot and hammer throw. As if that wasn’t impressive already, Hunt was even in the Estonian military before coming stateside to join SMU’s track team. Ultimately, he was swayed by coach June Jones to play football for the Mustangs.
Of course, it’s not just Europe that has football ties. Defensive stars Tamba Hali of the Kansas City Chiefs and Ziggy Ansah of the Detroit Lions both hail from Africa.
Hali, joined the league as a first-round pick in 2006. But Hali’s story began in Monrovia, Liberia where he grew up playing street soccer, oblivious to the sport of football. At the age of 10, Hali and his three siblings fled Liberia amidst civil war, and joined their father, Henry, who taught chemistry at Fairleigh Dickinson University and at Teaneck High School in New Jersey.
The high school basketball all-American, received a football scholarship from Penn State and ascended to become a unanimous all-American defensive end. In 2006, he reached the NFL as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs, even better he was granted full citizenship, and even better than that he was finally able to bring his mother to the US. She had not been able to join her family initially because she was never married to Hali’s father.
Ansah, from Accra, Ghana, shares a sentiment to his fellow foreign born players in that he grew up playing other sports and in fact never saw the game of American football. Ansah grew up playing soccer and was an avid basketball fan.
In school, Ansah met missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and joined the Mormon Church. Keeping in touch with the missionaries after they returned to America, Ansah was encouraged to apply to BYU and try his hand at basketball.
He was awarded an academic scholarship and attempted to walk on to the basketball team. After two unsuccessful attempts, Ansah joined the track team, then decided to try his hand at football. His first time ever attempting to play the sport. In three short years, Ansah developed into a first-round talent where the Detroit Lions selected him fifth overall in 2013.
Whether it’s Germany, England, Estonia, Liberia, or Ghana one thing is clear about the game of football: it is spreading. And there will be no better display of that when two countrymen go head-to-head on Sunday night in Indianapolis.
