As a part of the european championship project with Fussball mit Vision I was able to record the stories of several professional footballers.
One of those players was Felix Nmecha. Nmecha played for Manchester City in his youth and then moved to VFL Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga, from where he moved to his current club, Borussia Dortmund.
Nmecha has already made several appearances for the German national team and scored his first goal for the DFB this year.
Table of Contents
Open Table of Contents
Felix Nmecha: Joy & Peace
If my joy and peace and even my identity, who I am, if it’s only in football then it’s going to be like up and down, it’s going to be always changing.
Felix Nmecha
Very soon in his career Felix experienced how fragile his football career can be. When he was just 18 years old he suffered from a long-term injury - whilst all the players he knew advanced in their career, he experienced a great setback. In spite of that he calls this time the best thing that could have happened in my life. Because it made him realise what truly counts in life:
And a big part was realising that football is a huge blessing but football it will never give you the fulfilment that you think it does. You always want more. It’s a constant cycle where you’re not being fulfilled.
Felix Nmecha
He realised that even if his greatest dreams, like winning a world championship or the champions league, would come true - those achievements would still not come with a lasting fulfilment. What he longed for, was a constant in his life, something that would carry him through all stages.
I realised that in my life I don’t want to be a slave to my circumstance, I don’t want to be a slave to my career, how it’s going, that if I’m playing well then I’m happy, if I’m not playing well then I’m sad and depressed.
Felix Nmecha
Throughout this time he took the time to ask the deeper questions of life and he discovered the constant, the firm foundation he was searching for in Jesus Christ:
Realising that only Jesus could fulfil me has helped me so much, because it’s made me realise that when my joy and my peace can be in him - then my life can be constant.
Felix Nmecha
Even tough the hard times are not going to vanish when being a Christian, he realized how much of a difference it makes to know that everything is in control of a sovereign, loving God that promises that everything works out for the good of those who love him (Romans 8.28).
When you know that there’s a purpose behind what you’re doing, and someone is actually with you to help you fulfil that purpose, and you have also the peace of where you will be going after this life, you can go through life with such peace.
And it doesn’t mean that when someone comes to Christ that all the hardship is going to stop. But it means that you know that God is with you through it.
Felix Nmecha
Felix life and his reflection of his darkest days is a powerful testimony of a peace you shouldn’t have by the world standard, which is almost inexplicable / beyond human comprehension, but exactly what God promises us in Philippians 4 verse 7: And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
He encourages us to have the courage to ask the deeper questions of life:
I would advise young people in difficult times to really ask the deeper questions of life. A lot of the time we can be so caught up in the now, caught up in our current situation that we don’t actually ask questions like,
how am I here? Why am I here? And where am I going?
And for me, this is why Jesus is the key. For me, he answers every question.
Felix Nmecha
The Project
What excites me about filmmaking is being able to capture and share real stories.
So I wanted to use the upcoming European Championships in Germany to share stories of professional footballers who have experienced that, for all the joy of football and all the riches it brings, true fulfilment is not to be found in football, but in faith in Jesus.
In the end, I was able to realise this idea with the association Fussball mit Vision, who were inspired by the vision and brought professional footballers from their network in front of the camera.
Read more about the workflow and technology that led to the success of the project: Workflow Revolution: Textbased Editing
More information about the project: EM24