Due to illness, Kenji Yoshida had all but given up on his dream of participating in professional sports. Yet, by becoming the general manager of a local soccer team in Cambodia, he found a way to realize it at last.

Yoshida, 32, moved to the Southeast Asian country in June 2014 to work for TriAsia Phnom Penh Football Club. The soccer team, currently called Cambodian Tiger FC, was then owned by a Japanese trading house.

But just six months later, the company decided to dissolve the team, citing financial difficulties. Yoshida left the company, and acquired the team for free, using his own savings of around ¥5 million ($42,000) to pay its players' salaries.