Myanmar’s military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi from power in a February 2021 coup, triggering a mass uprising that saw hundreds of thousands protest daily for a return to democracy.
The Myanmar team arrived in Japan for their May 2021 match missing several players who had boycotted the trip in opposition to the junta.
Around 70 protesters gathered outside the stadium before kick-off, carrying pictures of Aung San Suu Kyi and waving flags from the country’s 1988 uprising.
Pyae Lyan Aung was a substitute and TV cameras captured him making the Hunger Games-inspired salute on the sidelines.
He says his teammates had decided before leaving Myanmar that they would all take a stand together.
But when team officials warned them not to in the days leading up to the game, they began to have second thoughts.
“That day when we were eating lunch, I asked my teammates who was going to do it but they had all started to go their own way,” he said.
“They were saying that things could be bad for them and their families when they got back home, so they had decided not to do it.”
“But even if no one else was going to do it, I had decided to do it myself.”
LIFE IN JAPAN
Japan granted Pyae Lyan Aung refugee status three months after the game and he was offered a one-year professional contract to play futsal – an indoor version of football – by local team Yokohama SCC.
But he struggled to adapt to life in Japan and found it difficult to deal with news of the worsening situation back home.
He played just one game for Yokohama, terminating his contract after three months and quitting professional football.