At 17, he left the Argentine Chaco region and his family to cross the ocean to Sardinia. A suitcase and a football for a new life. After high school, he didn't want to continue his studies; he saw a destiny already written in his hometown, but it wasn't enough. He sought new challenges, he wanted to grow, so he seized the opportunity offered by his coach and left. After a few stops around the island, he decided to settle in Ogliastra and arrived in Baunei in 2025, with a dream he'd nurtured since he was a child: to make football his life.
Benjamin Bondar, known to everyone as Benja, was born in Barranqueras in 2007. His mother sent him to his first training sessions to help him socialize with other children. "I spent most of my childhood with my mom and sister. I was always with women," he recalls, "and I got into soccer to make friends with my teammates. I never imagined it would become such a huge passion."
His grandfather, a former footballer and coach, accompanies him to all his training sessions and sometimes acts as his personal trainer. Since then, Benja has never stopped pursuing that dream. His idol, of course, is Messi. "I left because in Argentina I would have had fewer opportunities to develop," he continues. "I have faith in time, in the fact that little by little I will grow and my dream of a career will take shape. I'm here, and that's already something. I think positively, I know I'm doing what I can with what I have and I'm making it on my own."
Meanwhile, he's had the courage to try. And in the meantime, he's truly grown up, because today he's no longer the boy he turned 17. After sleepless nights disturbed by thoughts and homesickness, he's found a job as a waiter, learned the language, works out, learned to be alone, to overcome loneliness, and to manage the distance from his family.
"Ogliastra has become the place that changed my mind, my way of being in the world," he explains, "and soon, once the bureaucracy is done, my parents will join me to try and start a new life here together." Benja comes from a chaotic city, where crime is part of everyday life, which is why he appreciates our peaceful area. There's a beautiful paradox: he came here to find an opportunity, while those who live here think they don't have enough. "Just shift your perspective," he says, "and everything changes. You see a small town, a peripheral reality, while I see safety, tranquility, a possibility." He doesn't yet know where football will take him in the future. Maybe one day he'll live in another city, maybe in another country. Today he's starting over here, training with Baunese and his base is Ogliastra. The dream is still far away, but Benja has already done the hardest thing: he had the courage to go and look for it, without settling for a path already mapped out.
