An Icelandic and an Estonian's Semi-Pro Adventure

[Finn]

My name is Natnif Yraelo, I am a 30 year old Icelandic ex-Sunday League footballer forced to retire due to injury. In the months after having to leave football I also lost my job, my friends, my car and my house. I now live in tiny apartment in my hometown Hafnarfjorour, also home to my favourite club FH the Icelandic champions. I used to go to see them play a lot but now I can't afford it with only enough to pay my rent and eat one and a half meals a day with my Social Allowance.

I had a lot of time to think these days with nothing better to do and recently I've been thinking about what I would've loved to do with my life. Football Management. It had always been my dream but I'd never done anything about it. Ah..what the ****, I have nothing to lose. Literally.

I called my old coach at my Sunday League club and was extremely surprised at his response. He said they'd book me into a coaching course for next week, paid fully by the club as I'd been such a service to the club over the last few years! Wow! I was in shock but I couldn't wait, football coaching. The first step to reaching my dream of football management.

3 Weeks Later​

I sat nervously by computer all day long on the 20th of June 2009. Waiting and waiting for the email. Either a certificate or a hard luck sir would be in the email that I was to receive today and I just couldn't wait. I started tapping the desk nervously with my fingers and felt a wave of exhaustion coming over me from staying up all night. I ran into the kitchen and fixed up a cup of coffee. Just as I was pooring the milk in my email tone went off on the computer. I swung around sending coffee spraying around the small kitchen and sprinted into the main room knocking two chairs and a table out of my way. I stared at my inbox and the new email titles 'Icelandic Football Association : Coaching Course Results'. I couldn't bare it any longer, I clicked into the email...

Dear Sir,
You have passed the Icelandic Football Associations Coaching Course with flying colours. A certificate will be mailed to your stated address and probably arrive less than an hour after this email.

Yours Sincerely,
Anonymous.

Normally I would have probably found it strange that Anonymous was the signature at the end of the email but right now strange didn't matter. I had passed the course and that was all that mattered. I cleared up the broken cup and coffee with a new found energy. I waited eagerly until the post arrived and I didn't even open the letter when it did. I just carried it into my room, placed it under the pillow and slapped down onto the bed and instantly fell asleep.

21st June 2009​

I woke up the morning of the 21st June 2009 and immediately leaped out of bed. I sprinted to the computer and searched for a site where I could find available jobs in football. At first I was searching for coaching jobs but then I saw it...a small advertisement. 'Available Worldwide Jobs in Football Management'. I double clicked and a page presented me with all the jobs available worldwide and there was a section where you could click down to lower level jobs as I didn't think I had much hope of an English Premier job to be honest.

Available Jobs : Semi-Professional :

Floriana (Premier League Malta)
Msida SJ (Premier League Malta
Kevlavik (Premier Division Iceland)
Mika (Armenian High League)

Page 1 of 8 Next - Last

I flicked through the teams and decided to right up my application that I would email to every club that interested me. Meaning every single one of them. Two hours later I had sent my shabby application to a lot of clubs all of whom would probably reject me but I was prepared to sit here for the rest of my life until I got a response.

I know it looks nice for where I live as an office area but I didn't lose 'everything' when I got fired.

 

[Formia]

Nice start, I look forward to seeing who you manage.

 

[Finn]

Nice start, I look forward to seeing who you manage.

Thanks all will be revealed soon!

Just to let everyone know this is a joint story with me and iamauser! He is the Estonian He'll be posting soon!

 

[iamauser]

We are the champions, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting, till the end
We are the champions
We are the cham.... Oh hi there, please ignore my singing,

Ahem...

My name is Nardroj Nosnillor and as you can guess, me and my Sunday league team just won the league. We just had an incredible game. Both teams play absolutely amazing. It was the final game of the season, and it was first against second, the winner of the match, would win the title. It was a fast, tough fought contest. No one wanted to loose. Some how, the game remained 0-0. I asked the ref how long was left, and he said 3 minutes. Just 3. We won a corner, and I stood on the edge of the box. I saw my mate start his run up. I sprinted into the box, the ball came in my direction. I jumped. Did I make good contact? Did I hit the target? Then I heard the deafening scream of my team mates cheering, I had scored! And it looked like I had won the game. Thankfully, we held on to the goal and won the championship! What a way to end my playing career. Not only did my team win the league, It was my goal that had won it.

This may have been the last game of my playing career, but I don't want it to be the last of my footballing career. I want to become a manager. So to do this, I applied to go on a coaching course with the Estonian FA. About a week after applying, I received a letter back saying that my application had been accepted and that the course will start in a few weeks time.

During my course, I was taught lots of different things. It was a lot harder than I expected but I stuck with it. I did enjoy my time there. I spent lots of time doing practical work, like taking actual training sessions. There was also theory work to do, learning about different body part and muscles and how they work. After about a week, my training was complete. My tutor told me that he was glad that I came along, and said that I would recieve my results in the post in a few weeks time.

After what felt like an eternity, the letter finally came. I knew it was my results because it had the Estonian FA stamp on it. The letter read

Dear Mr Nosnillor

Thanks you very much for your hard work at the recent coaching course. We we're very pleased with your progress and we believe you have excellent management credentials. Your theory knowledge was exceptional, and was backed up with great performances in the practical exercises. Enclosed in this envelope, you will find the certificates you gained on the course.

Yours Sincerely

Estonia FA

So this was it. Stage two of my footballing career. Now I will have to search for a job. I have searched all though the internet, and found a few different job in different countries. I have applied for job in New Zealand, Malta, Canada and a few more places. Unfortunately, There weren't any jobs in my homeland of Estonia, But it is my new dream to one day mange not only the national team, but my home town team FC Levadia Tallinn

 

[lfcepic]

Looks interesting, will follow to see how this progresses.

Good luck to both of you!

 

[LUK3]

love the picture hanging up xD. Will be following.

 

[iamauser]

After about a week of waiting, I had heard nothing from any of the clubs I had applied for. I wasnt expecting many replies when I send out my application, but I was expecting some responses. As I was searching for more avaliable management job on the internet, I recieved an email from Youngheart Manawatu, one of the clubs I had applied for. The email read:

Dear Mr Nosnillor

Thank you very much for you application for the vacant position of manager at Youngheart Manawatu. After carefully considering many application, we have chosen to hire you as our new manager. We were very impressed by your application and we believe that you have great potential as a manager. We have arranged a flight to New Zealand for you, scheduled for saturday morning. We will enclose all the flight details in a following email.

Kind Regards​

...​

Wow. Im going to New Zealand. I did some more research about the country and local traditions and I cant wait until I get there. New Zealand looks absolutly beautiful and I believe that I am going to have a great time managing there. I will need to search for a place to stay in Manawatu, the city where the club it situated. So now its time to pack my bags and head off to New Zealand as start the next stage of my managing career!​