View attachment 240378The Backstory...
I was born on the 21st of May 1982, about half and hour out of Gelsenkirchen, Germany. I was named Richart Meir, son of Andre and Josephine Meir. My earliest memory's were of playing football on our farm with my parents and younger twin sisters.
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Although we owned our own land and employed many workers I was still expected to help out on the farm from a young age but I didn't mind, as afterwords me and my dad and sometimes the other workers would play a game of football. It was like that every day for until I started school. It wasn't until I started playing with other kids my own age that it became apparent that I was a gifted footballer.
It seemed after being used to playing against people much larger than me I had developed my dribbling skills and technique to a level well beyond my years, so after absolutely dominating in the age group levels in the local club scene, I was starting to be noticed by talent scouts for numerous youth academy's across the country.
I was over the moon when I was invited to trial for many clubs youth academy's, most notably Borussia Dortmund and Schalke04, but fate had other plans for me............
It was a windy evening and the sky was clear but and I was relaxing at home ahead of my trials for the academy's when I notice a noticed an orange glow coming from the south. I walked outside and to my horror I saw the barn was on fire! I ran over there as fast as I could to try and do something, but the fire was spreading fast and the barn was falling apart. In hindsight I should of stayed away but I was only 12, I wasn't thinking just reacting. I ran up to the barn and looked in horror as the whole barn started to collapse, I heard a snapping sound then..................Nothing...........
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I awoke later in hospital, with my parents by my bedside, it turned out that one of the beams had fallen on my head and knocked me out and that I was lucky to be alive but it wasn't the only beam to fall on me. Another beam had fallen on my leg but this one was on fire and while it was only on my leg for a few minutes, that was long enough for the damage to be done. -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
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I had permanent tissue damage done to my right leg and while when it was healed I would be able to walk on it my footballing days were over.....For good.
The next couple of months in hospital were tough but in that time I learnt something about myself and the beautiful game, there is more to football than playing it. So while I was recovering I watched it on TV, I read books, I soaked up every bit of footballing knowledge I could like a sponge.
So when I was able to return to school I started helping out the schools 1st XI coach and eventually took charge when he retired. So after finishing school with good academic grades and a wealth of footballing knowledge and coaching experience, I decided to travel the world and watch all sorts of football and how it was played by different countries.
My first ever football related job was a scout for Fortuna Dussedorf, a team in the 3.Liga and after spending time working for them I then had job's all over Germany for different teams but something wasn't right, the managers were the ones who had the ultimate say in which players were brought and despite how much I would recommend the player, most of the time they wouldn't even look at my report. I just wasn't happy being a scout, I needed more.
So I started working on my management licenses whilst applying for pretty much any job I could find, but things didn't go well, so after two years and only three interviews from over thirty applications I was pretty much ready to give all hope, I decided that that the next job I applied for would be my last.
The only advertised vacancy was for a club in England's League One called Barnsley.
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I had never heard of the club yet it was the only available job that I hadn't already applied for and been declined an interview, so I sent in an application and two days later the unexpected happened, I was offered an interview and in the letter the chairman even offered to pay for my flight over, he must have really wanted an interview with me. So I packed my bags and got on the flight and away I went to England to interview for the position of manger of Barnsley.
As I sat there on the flight something occurred to me, it was a barn that ruined my footballing career and it was a different barn that was giving it a small flicker of hope. So as I flew over the channel I remembered something my father always used to say......
"Red at night, the barn's alight!"
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