10 July 2023 at 05:08
It held the world in its grip for weeks in 2018: the rescue operation with which twelve young football players and their coach were taken from a Thai cave. So it is with the boys five years later.
In advance, June 23, 2018 did not seem to be a special date. That day, the boys crawled into the Tham Luang Nang Non cave with their coach in the north of Thailand. They often did. That day they were overtaken by a sudden downpour. As a result, the cave filled with water and the team got stuck.
A massive rescue operation was rigged to rescue the boys. There was a heroic role for British divers John Volanthen and Rick Stanton, who managed to find the team after days of searching in the cave. In the end, they managed to rescue the boys from the cave one by one with an hour-long dive. On July 10, the twelve boys and their coach were back on safe ground.
Adul Sam-on was the boy who greeted the divers when they found him and the other soccer players in the cave. Journalists from The New York Times spoke to his guardian Go Shin Maung at the end of last year about how everyone is doing. For example, Adul moved to New York for an education.
“The boys go their separate ways,” Go told the American newspaper. “Some continue to study and others focus on football.” According to him, the boys send messages to each other to keep in touch and share their experiences.
Media attention had a major impact
The rescue itself was already an unprecedented experience, but the enormous attention from the press was added to that. Media from all over the world wanted to interview the young footballers. Then film producers also tumbled over each other to film their story together with the football players.
The latter is probably the reason that the boys have received little publicity in recent years. So writes The New York Times that the footballers’ families have sold the rights to their stories to Netflix. The contracts would state that they are no longer allowed to tell their story publicly.
Nevertheless, it succeeded BBC to speak to Chanin ‘Titan’ Wibunrungrueang last year. Titan is the youngest player of football team called Wild Boars. In the interview, Titan said he was struggling with all the international attention and had to adapt. “A lot of people knew me. I didn’t know how to behave. I felt tense when I was in front of the camera or being interviewed.”
Titan now plays at a soccer school set up after the rescue by Ekkapol Chantawong, the coach who was also trapped in the cave. “I’m really proud because some kids reach their goals,” he told the BBC. “Some want to become a professional football player and play at the highest level.”
In the center is the captain of the football team, Duangpetch Promthep, after the rescue from the cave in 2018. Photo: Getty Images
The captain of the team is suddenly killed
A successful football career was also the big goal for Duangpetch ‘Dom’ Promthep. The 12-year-old captain of the football team continued to train hard after the rescue operation to make his football dream come true. He was therefore very lucky when he was admitted to a football academy in England at the end of 2022.
All the greater was the shock for his old teammates when they suddenly received bad news about Promthep last February. The football talent, then aged seventeen, was found unconscious in his student room in Leicestershire. He was admitted to hospital, but that help was to no avail.
The cause of death was a head injury, according to British and Thai media. Friends and family in Thailand can hardly believe the news. “You said you would play for the national team. I knew you could do this”, responded one of the boys rescued from the cave along with Promthep. “Sleep well my dear friend. There will always be thirteen of us together.”
Couple of soccer players went back into the cave
The cave that made the boys world famous is now open to the public again. Despite narrowly surviving the adventure in 2018, a few football players and their coach have recently gone back into the cave. They did this together with Vern Unsworth, one of the divers who assisted in the rescue attempt.
Unsworth saw they enjoyed it. “They no longer have a problem with what happened,” he told of the visit The New York Times. “They don’t have nightmares either.”
According to Unsworth, the boys don’t act like they’re very special. “They’re just trying to get on with life as best they can.”
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2023-07-10 03:08:00
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