Luynes, France, & Dusseldorf, Germany
July 2019
As mentioned previously, I’m now involved with the Rangers FC Youth Academy, which has given me the opportunity to cover a few international tournaments. Most recently this included the Pitchoun’s Cup in Luynes, France, and the Deichmann & Duisburg Cups in Dusseldorf, Germany.
I won’t bother you with the day-to-day minutiae of handling 10 kids who also happen to be top tier athletes, but safe to say the experience was wonderful, yet stressful. My sympathies certainly go out to all you teachers and carers out there who do this on the daily. Kudos.
The first tournament was in Luynes, France. Flying via Amsterdam to Marseille, and then catching a bus to Aix-en-Provence, we settled in to our accommodation late Friday evening. We stayed in villas just outside of town with the Everton and SS Lazio squads. It was controlled chaos, but our boys were well-behaved, which made our jobs easy.
Going from the grey skies and ever-present rain in Scotland, to the blue skies and scorching heat of southern France was a pleasant change – I forgot how nice it was to be warm every now and the then.
The Pitchoun's Cup began in earnest on Saturday morning. Being amongst the festivities of the tournament was a wild experience. Heaving crowds, the pressure of competition, searing heat, and the rapid succession of matches made the day race along. To add to the atmosphere, the French, Italian, and Spanish clubs brought sizeable crowds to support their teams - bull horns, vuvuzelas, drums, flares, flags added to the madness. In the few calm moments I had, it was wonderful to stand back and watch the football on show. One pitch would have Manchester City vs Malaga, another Rangers vs Monaco, another Wolverhampton vs Juventus.
Moment to moment, dawn until dusk, everything was frantic. The tournament was organised with a brazen and typically French laissez-faire attitude – things happened whenever they happened. Busses would turn up 20 minutes late, our pitch would be confirmed at the last minute, and change-rooms would be locked when we needed them – A day in the life.
It was simply a matter of going with the flow – we’d travel when we’d travel, eat when we were given food, play when we were allowed to play. You can’t fight these things. D’accord?
Sharing our meals with other teams each day created a wonderful feeling of community, as did stumbling through various Spanish, Italian, Danish, French, Portuguese, and German conversations. When in doubt, break bread and offer them a club pennant. I particularly enjoyed stunning a SS Lazio child who in broken English asked what my name was, to which I replied in Italian. My primary school Italian lessons were finally paying off.
The Rangers boys played fairly well, but unfortunately finished 3rd in their division, just missing out on a finals berth. That left us only a few friendlies on Sunday morning to play, which reduced the pressure, so that all those involved got to relax and actually enjoy being in France for a bit.
Later that afternoon, I took the chance to run around Aix-en-Provence. I couldn’t come and not see the town after all. I was met with fine cobbled streets, distinctly Mediterranean buildings, and a warm summer air. Crowds of people were enjoying alfresco drinks as I wound my way up town, around backstreets and through manicured gardens.
The whole weekend ended with some undue stress, as the first leg of our return trip was delayed. Upon arriving in Amsterdam, we were politely that we had a ‘very short transfer’, so had to race across the airport to make our connecting flight home – with carry-on and kids in tow. Great fun.
The kids were particularly amused by the fact I couldn’t line up in the EU passport control line. I couldn’t help but think that they didn’t quite understand where exactly Australia was on the map.
Returning to Glasgow on Monday afternoon, I felt the need to exercise and return to normality, so caught the subway and to Connection Jiu Jitsu, where I’ve been keeping up an interest I developed in Perth.
Shout out to Benita, Chris, and Brandon at Kaizen Labs in North Perth for getting me started!
Sitting on the subway that evening, enjoying a moment of clarity, I couldn’t help but be grateful that I was in a position where I could enjoy the Mediterranean sun in the morning and Glasgow rain in the evening.
The following weekend I headed to Germany for the second tournament in as many weeks.
Having arrived early, we made for the centre of Ratingen where we had an alfresco lunch with the whole team. Being the only one who spoke any German whatsoever, I became the de facto representative, which was a lot of fun and great practice for me.
The Pfingst Cup was organised with stereotypical German efficiency. Buses were on time, fixtures were known, people were informed. It made for an easy weekend – particularly in contrast to the one I just had in France. I particularly enjoyed the overt terseness of the announcers when games weren’t starting on the minute. The momentary tardiness seemed to be an affront to the very souls of the German organisers.
The tournament went well, with the team making it to the Championship group stage, before flopping out to superior competition. The final ended up being Bayern Munich and Inter Milan, with Bayern walking away with the trophy 3-2 - Deserving winners.
We played again in the Duisburg cup the next day, completing the group stage before needing to fly home. It was cool to play alongside the Celtic Youth Team, who stayed with us over the weekend. I was a shame we couldn’t stay considering we won our first 3 matches handily...
Exhausted, I returned home on Monday afternoon, soon to leave again for London the following week. I needed a holiday from my last two (working) holidays.
JC
"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."
Bill Shankly
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