FAMILY HISTORY: Defender Ben Sigmund has family history with Slovakia, the All Whites' first opponent at the World Cup. His grandfather Jerry escaped from Czechoslovakia, Slovakia's predecessor, in 1948 and ended up starting a new life in New Zealand.

If Ben Sigmund takes the field for the All Whites against Slovakia tomorrow no-one will be prouder than his former French Foreign Legionnaire grandfather down in Dunedin.

Jerry Sigmund escaped the communist regime in the former Czechoslovakia, skiing over a mountain range to begin an odyssey which led to New Zealand.

When you hear Jaroslav Sigmund's story you are left in no doubt where Ben, the no-nonsense Wellington Phoenix defender, gets his steely determination from.

ALL IN THE FAMILY: Ben Sigmund's grandfather Jerry (born Jaroslav) originally came from Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic, over the border from modern Slovakia.

His family says Jerry, now in his 80s, is immensely proud his grandson is on the brink of playing a World Cup match against Slovakia.

Jerry hails from Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic just over the border from Vienna.

Ben's mother, Ngaire Sigmund, has closely followed her father-in-law's story.

WILMA McCORKINDALE/D Scene GREAT ESCAPE: Jerry Sigmund escaped the communist regime in the former Czechoslovakia, skiing over a mountain range to begin an odyssey which led to New Zealand.

She says he was "caught by the Germans trying to join the resistance'' in August/September 1944.

He was sent to three different German prisons, because he was only 15 and 16 at the time.

"If he was over 17, he would have been shot by a firing squad.''

Jerry was still imprisoned on May 8, 1945, when "they just woke up to discover there were no guards. That's how they knew they were free.''

Sigmund senior returned to his family in Brno and worked there for several years. "But he didn't like the communist rule,'' Ngaire said.

In 1948, Jerry hatched a plan to escape. His family all intended leaving and reuniting in Argentina.

Jerry went to work, as usual, and his mother came down with his lunch. "She knew he was going to leave, but she couldn't let on. She gave him his lunch but they couldn't show any emotion.''

Jerry fled from his workplace and took a train from Brno to Passau.

He skied over a mountain range to Regensburg in Germany. But he was captured there and slapped in a refugee camp. "But he escaped,'' Ngaire said, "and joined the French Foreign Legion. But that wasn't what he wanted so he escaped from that too.''

Jerry "pinched several bikes'' and rode into Italy but he was caught again and sent to a refugee camp in Naples.

"He worked for the International Refugees Organisation because he knew so many languages,'' Ngaire said. ''But he was advised to leave Italy because the organisation was going to be taken over by the Italian Government.

"He couldn't get a boat to Argentina and someone said 'New Zealand's a good place to go' so he got the first boat he could here.'' The 'Goya' left Naples July, 1951, with Jerry on board.

Jerry started life as a Kiwi at a Pahiatua refugees camp but he soon got a job on the Roxburgh Hydro Dam in Otago. He had a spell as a rabbiter in Queenstown before settling in Dunedin, working as a mechanic at the Roslyn Woollen Mills.

He brought his love of football to New Zealand and played for Roslyn Wakari. Son Tony - Ben's father - also took up the game and had a long career in Otago, Canterbury and Marlborough.

Jerry never saw his parents again after leaving Brno. His sister did get to go to Argentina and he later visited her and her family there.

Tony, Ngaire, Tony's sister Marie and her husband took Jerry back to the Czech Republic for an emotional return in 1996 - almost 50 years after he fled.

He has cousins still living there and a nephew, who returned from Argentina, in Prague as a university professor.

But the family is firmly behind Ben and the All Whites against their Slovak neighbours in Rustenburg tomorrow.

"Jerry's nephew says he will support both teams but his cousin in Brno will be supporting the All Whites because of Ben,'' Ngaire explained.

Tony and Ngaire will be in Rustenburg to back the team but Ben says "it's a little too far for granddad''.

"But he'll be watching on TV, for sure. He's pretty buzzed out that the All Whites are playing Slovakia.

"For granddad to be so far away, and to have to go through what he went through, I think it's pretty special for him to see his grandson play almost his home country and, for me, one day I want to get over there and see the history and where he came from.



"That's something I really want to do before I get too old and have too many more kids.''

But there's a World Cup campaign to savour first. All Jerry Sigmund needs now is for Ricki Herbert to give Ben a run in Rustenburg.