WORDS BY LAURIE BELL
Stop what you are doing. It's time to move abroad.
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Of course, I would say that. I'm a football-playing travel junkie with itchy feet, an eye for a goal and a desire to see the world. I am also a hype man for every British footballer brave enough to venture overseas and continue playing the beautiful game. So if you don't want to take my word for it, fair enough. But how about the word of the new England manager?
In one of his first official press conferences, musing over how England could improve as a footballing nation, and sounding a little bit like a headteacher arranging an ambitious school trip, Gareth Southgate said:
"We're an island. We've got to get off the island and learn elsewhere."
New England manager Southgate has urged his countrymen to ditch their 'Island mentality'. Image: PA
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Get off the island and learn. There's a message I can get behind. And believe me, Mr Southgate, I'm trying! For the best part of the last seven years, my football career has taken me far away from British shores, across North America and now over to Scandinavia.
Here's the key lesson my travels taught me: whether you're Gareth Bale or you play at my level, by moving abroad and sticking it out every footballer will learn a valuable new set of skills. Skills that help you grow as a sportsman but also, most importantly, as a person too. And on top of all that, just by deciding to get off the island you'll be treated to incredible life experiences that will loop through your memory forever.
Southgate's comments prove he is a progressive football thinker. And to be clear, he isn't actually organising a school trip. Cramming classes of rucksack-wearing footballers onto a ferry bound for Bilbao to take notes on Spanish kick-a-bouts might make for a fun week in the sun, but it won't fix our fifty years of hurt.
Instead, Southgate's challenge to our island-nation's football community is this: look at the game with fresh eyes, embrace new ideas, and learn from how other countries approach our sacred sport.
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Here's a new idea: go one step further and take the England manager at his word. Encourage more British players to literally "get off the island" and spend a portion of their football careers in a totally foreign league. Players may benefit from a more varied education. Our island's national sides may prosper as a result. And aside from the potential sporting benefits, an exciting season abroad might turn out to be the best year in a player's life.
If Southgate's comments sound like they are addressed only to the upper ranks of the English game, let me officially extend the invitation to every footballer in Britain - from full-time professionals to non-league players, males and females, seasoned pros whose careers are on the wane to spotty teenagers eager for their break.
The opportunities are out there. Playing abroad is possible. The rewards could be enormous. Equally they could be minimal. But taking on the challenge guarantees a new learning experience and the memories made are sure to last a lifetime. Remember: if it all goes tits up, you can always fly home. British football will still be there, I promise.
So what are you waiting for? You heard the man. Get off the island and learn.
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Currently, I suspect that footballers who do wish to get off the island suffer from a lack of role models. British athletes can be accused of lacking ambitions to go overseas, but I don't buy that. And reactions to my last article confirm my stance. My Twitter, Instagram and email inboxes are full of footballers - professionals, part-timers, youth teamers and amateurs - revealing desires to venture abroad and hunger for more information. Hopefully, then, Southgate's recent comments can act as a catalyst and launch a thousand nomadic careers.
Gareth Bale, Britain's most successful recent football export, is our shining example. And although most of us won't get close to his level, his story does demonstrate some of the challenges of moving abroad and the benefits of sticking it out through the tough times.
Bale's spell with Real has gone through some turbulent times, despite the two Champions Leagues that the Welshman has helped 'Los Blancos' win. Image: PA
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From the outside, Bale's Real Madrid career looked like hard work to begin with. Understandably so, really. Adapting to a new league, totally new surroundings, and teammates who might not speak your language is challenging. Rumours swirled of a return to the island, which would have been the easy option. Instead, Bale stuck it out and powered through the challenges, adapted and elevated his game to the next level. I'll admit, he was a pretty tasty footballer before he left these shores, but his experiences on the continent undoubtedly turned him into a more rounded player.
"I'm happy," Bale told Spanish radio last year. "Coming to another country is difficult, especially for the British people. I feel like it has taken time to settle in and learn the language. But my family is happy, I am happy and ultimately that is making my football better."
By the sound of it, Bale's travels have turned him into a more well-rounded character off the pitch, too. A great role model, he's clearly learned plenty. Just a pity for Southgate he's Welsh.
Leaving the Island has worked out pretty well for Bale, so far. Image: PA
Currently playing in the Swedish Second Division, I operate a few rungs below Gareth Bale on the global football ladder (an understatement of criminal proportions). But there is an argument that the location or the standard is somewhat irrelevant. In order to stick it out and succeed abroad, the same skillset is required.
Aged 18, after being released as an apprentice at Rochdale, I wasn't ready to give up on a future in football. But I found myself stuck for a new club in England. A bit mentally wobbly from my rejection, I blindly accepted a scholarship offer to play college soccer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I didn't do much research, hadn't stepped foot on American soil before and didn't know a soul out there. But I was care-free and desperate to get off the island. My new coach told me there was a beach near campus so I packed my bags and went.
"If you don't like it, just come home," said Mum.
I had my doubts. I might not like it. Returning to full-time education might be a disaster. The football standard might be crap. Americans might all be nut jobs. And there might not really be a beach.
On arrival, those doubts multiplied. My school schedule showed algebra classes. Instead of training, my new teammates spent summer afternoons slamming down Coke-can sized light beers and Zach, the first American I properly spoke to, introduced himself as "just another Indiana redneck."
But I was determined to stick it out. It was all a bit bewildering but it was new and exciting too. I suppressed my nerves with a glug of light beer and began opening up. Rolling Rock has magic properties and soon everything got better. When preseason started, the day-drinking stopped. College soccer proved a professional environment and the standard was surprisingly high. Teammates became close friends. I moved into the dorms with 5,000 other new students. Everyone was fascinated by my accent and almost everyone I met was not a nut job. Almost, I said - this was still Midwest America.
Beginnings can be uncertain, but by living abroad, particularly on a sports team, you just do learn to handle. Day after day, you muddle through bizarre events and find common ground with the weird and wonderful characters you meet along the way. You become independent, adaptable, mentally strong, and confident. You figure out tricky situations - how do I set up a foreign bank account? is my Serbian teammate nicking my food? - and, usually, you go on to have the time of your life. Just like I did in Milwaukee.
Before long, I was captain of my team, cruising through my studies and living with Zach, who I converted into a Manchester City fan and still call my best mate. I graduated and earned a long-awaited first professional contract with Tulsa Roughnecks off the back of my performances at university. And although I learned Wisconsin is more famous for white winters than sandy summers, my coach wasn't even lying about the beach.
Like any player who ventures overseas, I like to think my travels have rubbed off positively on my game too. My solid Mancunian footballing upbringing means my style of play has an unshakably English foundation. But that gets remoulded by each new football culture I experience.
One key influence on my game was a Mexican-born coach I played under during a dreamy season in Southern California. On a training pitch surrounded by palm trees and lined with American football markings, Rudy demanded me to trust in my ability to receive balls in tight spaces and to be more patient in possession.
"If the chance to play a forward pass doesn't present itself," he repeatedly told me, "don't force it, man!" Then he'd dazzle me with another story about playing alongside George Best in the original MLS.
Four years on, Rudy's words still echo in my ears, and I'm sure every athlete with experience abroad can pinpoint a trick or two picked up when sampling a new sporting culture. If I were Southgate, I'd be coaxing my squad into trying a year abroad. And whether you're an England international fancying a season in Serie A or a disillusioned semi-pro with a chance to play in Poland, it's really not the point. At any level, education comes through new experiences. I urge you to pursue one.
Every footballer should play for a team with 'Fusion' in their name, at some point in their career. Image: PA
Having said all that, though, I sometimes find my instincts haven't changed that much. Against high-pressure, my reliable English right boot still spontaneously spanks the ball over an opposition full back's head.
Laurie and his Ventura County teammates being put through their paces. Images: Venture County Fusion
"Work the channels," I yell to confused foreign strikers wondering why I just hoofed the ball towards a corner flag. So if you're worried about hard-earned habits deserting you after a season overseas, they won't. Which is, I think, probably a good thing.
For all Rudi's coaching, it was actually my surfing ability that improved most that glorious summer. Teammate Evan allowed me to live rent-free in a spare room of a beachside mansion belonging to his Great Aunt. She was in Italy for the summer and we had the pad to ourselves.
In exchange, I taught him to surf and gave him a longboard my dad left behind after a family trip to watch me play. (Tip: much easier to get friends and family to visit if your foreign club is beside a sunny beach!) Our team, Ventura County Fusion, trained in the evenings and played at weekends. So on weekdays, after sipping cappuccinos and dolphin-spotting from the balcony, Evan and I surfed the private point break in front of Aunt Barb's house all summer long.
It's not just your development as a player and your growth as a person that make a career move overseas worth considering. It's those magical bonus moments that getting off the island gifts you. It's surfing with Evan, it's sailing through the Gothenburg archipelago on my 24th birthday, it's staying awake for two days straight in the passenger seat of Zach's SUV, two more close pals passed out in the back, on a road-trip down to Spring Break in Florida.
That last trip might not have been exactly Southgate-approved, but it was a character-building experience like any other, and further validation for my leap of faith seven years ago when I decided to pursue a football career abroad.
Now it's your turn.
Get off the island and learn.
Featured Image Credit: Ventura County FusionTopics:Β Football