Cometh The Hour...Cometh The Man.

                               Lamartine in white with the future stars including his son, third from left.

I know I have been in-active for  a long time and please forgive me, I know what you guys are thinking...you think I am going to talk about Wayne Rooney,or the Champions League, don't worry there will be lots of time for that. I don't know if you can call spoiled brats like Rooney a "Great footballer", but we will leave that for another day. In my previous blog I talked about one of the coaches leaving the Brazil Football Centre here in Malaysia, coach Romao. He left  Malaysia first, followed by our chief coach Lamartine Silva and now I will talk about him, as he left  Malaysia a month now.



I have worked with him for 6 years and I have had a wonderful working relationship  with him and the rest of the coaches at BFC, but what was interesting about him is he almost never seemed flustered in any situation. He was the first person to give me a break in football, when others refused.

What I found interesting about him was that he put the game in perspective, when I joined him at BFC 6 years ago I did not have any football coaching certificates, he told me don't worry about that as he said many people have many certificates, but could not coach at all. Over time  slowly I gained confidence and he made me see that I have something valuable in me.

He also set himself on a high standard, he never told me this, but somehow I knew and he expected this from the rest of the Brazilian contigent. It actually rubbed off on me and eventually when we started the veterans team, that standard spread like a virus. We had guys who could not play football transform themselves in the veterans or masters team. Most of our matches were against teams much younger (sometimes even fixed I might add when the opponent of the team was also the referee!!!) than us, but  we were so good in our teamwork and our positional sense that it was difficult for other teams to beat us.

Over time my position was shifted in the veterans' team from midfield to defence and I did not like this at first, but over time I was happy with this as I learned the skills of defending. Sometimes he could just take the team by the scruff of the neck when we were down and score that vital goal. He always brought that confidence to the team on and off the field. He is a fantastic development coach and often the grassroots coaches are neglected, but in-reality these are the coaches who really love the game and one of the best in that field is Lamartine. He had the patience with the players and he was a father figure to most of the players. Often at the age of 6 to 15 it  is the most important stage for a player and the coach not only makes or breaks the player, but the coach can also break the "man".

Maybe many people might not see this, Marcello Lippi told at a coaching conference that he gave up grassroots or junior coching because he could not take it. it required extreme patience and he knew the importance of coaching at that level. He said for him Lippi, it was easier at the pro level, it was more tactical.

But when you are coaching players from 6 and above (I am talking about the whole spectrum; teen to adult) you got to have the technical and tactical know how, and in this academy Lamartine was doing that. A Grassroots coach has to be a good demonstrator and also promote fair play and be an example to the players, almost a god like status to the junior players:)! Having almost 400 over players at one academy was no joke and Lamartine did it ever so well.

I like to think that I played my part there and I left BFC after 6 years too, the same time with Lamartine and now as I write this, the BFC veteran team is playing a  match and I have missed now 4 matches of the veteran team. I am now back in a suit and a tie job. To say I miss football, BFC, Lamartine, Romao and the rest of the coaches at BFC is a true understatement. When the weekends came I used to put on my jersey and grab my kit and whistle and head for the field and play my role as a coach, I don't do that any more. I feel like I lost my Spider-Man suit, but heroes don't stay down long, they always bounce back and I know Lamartine will too and where ever he goes that academy or club will benefit, as for me I signed up for a certified fitnes trainer course, I will start this course on October 30th and it will go on until February next year. I will learn more about exercise science, it will be on the weekends so together with my work from Monday to Friday I will have my hands full with the course on the weekends until February. The exams are set by the American Council of Exercise...so guys I will be back stronger, no way I will be away from football for a long time and I will be back for BFC Veterans...soon...so who needs Rooney when I have already worked with one of the best !