This archive report was first published on 11 June 2020.
On March 21, Ghanaian footballer Randy Juan Muller, 23, arrived in Mumbai, India, with plans to return home on March 30. However, the country's lockdown, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24, left him stranded at the airport.
According to reports, Muller had been in India since November 7, playing for a professional seven-a-side club in Kerala, southern India, under a six-month contract. With air travel shut down, he had nowhere to go and was low on funds.
"I heard about the possibility of a lockdown in India... so I came to Mumbai to stay in a dormitory so I wouldn't miss my flight," Muller said in an interview with CNN.
Despite his efforts to find help, Muller was left to sleep in the departures hall of the airport for 74 days. He called the Ghanaian Consulate in Mumbai, but they offered little assistance.
However, his luck changed when a local journalist saw his pleas for help and tagged the state's tourism and environment minister, Aaditya Thackeray. Minister Thackeray intervened, and within hours, offered to put Muller in a hotel until he could sort a flight home.
On May 3, Muller was finally rescued from the airport and met at the gate by a representative of Minister Thackeray. He broke down in tears, grateful for the help he received during his ordeal.
"People in the airport were very helpful. They gave me food and helped me a lot," Muller said. "I tried to stay strong and motivated... There are things in life you can never change."
Despite his 74-day ordeal, Muller says he would happily return to India if the opportunity arose. "I left home to feed home," he says. "If I got another contract, I would love to come back."
