The little Ludogorets Eagles peered into the Ancient Abritus

The little Eagles of Ludogorets had an exciting walk on one of the days set aside for school recreation. But this is not the case when it comes to the training process. It was after an exercise on the field to maintain physical fitness that the players from the Ludogorets under-13 team embarked on an adventurous journey to the ruins of ancient Abritus, accompanied by the club's sports psychologist Boryana Razsolkova.

The assembly point for the start of the "Indiana Jones" expedition was the boys' second home - the High School Dormitory. As they say, they are gathered from all over the country, fascinated by the idea of playing football at the highest professional level. The team includes players from Razgrad, Ruse, Sevlievo, Petrich, Sofia, Gabrovo, Botevgrad, Plovdiv. They study in 5th, 6th, 7th grade and despite the beautiful sunny weather, they are engaged in training and school projects. Although they are on vacation, they are once again away from home. They rarely go home - only during longer breaks, such as at Christmas, Easter or during part of the summer championship break.

Their walk to Abritus was the time for physical respite from the workload before the championship match against the Varna team Cherno More. The upcoming meeting was also one of the topics discussed during the half-hour journey to the ancient Roman city. As, of course, the excitement surrounding the remarkable win of the main team of Ludogorets over Levski with 5:1. For the Eagles, football is a vast universe of possibilities, they follow and discuss what is happening with their teammates. Because the phenomenon called football goes far beyond the definition of a game.

The extra-curricular and far from the field cultural-educational activity in the late afternoon was an occasion for the close-knit group of boys to get even closer. And so, in jokes and banter, 30 minutes flew by under the bright April sun.

Before stepping into the world of the ancient Romans, some of the talented footballers excitedly recounted visiting the museum exhibit at the Abritus Archaeological Reserve and even minting commemorative coins. For others, it was an incomprehensible place, shrouded in the mystery of the golden mask of the Thracian king Teres and the expectation of fortress gates. But they did not guess about the secrets that the halls of the Interactive Museum revealed to them.

There, tour guide Svetlana James helped them "immerse" themselves in the times when the inhabitants of the Roman Empire walked these lands. The boys, aged 11, 12 and 13, curiously looked at the exhibited gold coins from the Late Roman Antiquity in the 5th century and with an inquisitive flair asked what was the name of the skeleton of a man discovered in Kamenovo from 7 thousand years ago. Through a screening of an educational film, they learned about the battle around the walls of the ancient city of Abritus, which took place 1770 years ago, in which the first Roman emperor, Decius Trajan, died. They themselves "cut" clay coins with the face of the leader from the time of the Roman Empire, which they took as a souvenir of their walk back in time. And the museum had also prepared gifts for them in the form of informational scrolls.

"After this journey, we want to be Romans!", the inquisitive Eagles wrote in the museum's review book, leaving their nearly 20 signatures for history.