Still A Vagabond

Game Day Police --------------------->



Sorry for the lack of updates...just wanted to wait till everything was sorted out. SO the last week or so has allowed me to probably be the most productive since I have been over seas. I have become a tourist and getting some high quality training in. Last Monday, I had my first training session with FC Ingolstadt 04 II of the BayernLiga. The club is relatively big here and the first team was in the second division of Germany before being relegated last year down the the 3rd League. A drop like this may not seem like much outside of the playing level aspect. But after talking with players that I met at training...The club basically lost 1/3 of its revenue from last year and nearly 6 million dollars from just TV rights. Terrible time to go down especially with the economic situation. The first day of training, everything was far and beyond more professional than it was at FC bad Kotzting. They had Nike training wear, a masseuse, locker rooms, press area, fully funded arena, high class coaching and facilities and all the amenities that a club with professional money would have. Training went well and Incorporated a lot of vertical movements and ball work. It was good to get this type of training in and allowed me to become a bit more confident. I felt that I showed pretty well and was glad I had the opportunity to train in an environment like this. After training, My cousin (master ball boy) talked to Coach Albesinger and wanted to just find out any potential information about staying on or whatnot. In Germany, when clubs are created, they must designate if they will follow a U-23 rule. What this means is that the second team of any club must only have a maximum of 3 players over the age of 23 on their roster at any time. Unfortunately, I turn 23 in December, so the chances of a player in my position getting taken by a team with this rule are pretty slim...especially as a GK. Anyways, he let me know of this rule, however said that there might be a slim chance near Christmas or so. Nevertheless, he said to come back the following Monday and Friday for training. It wasn't full steam ahead, but we had a small glimmer of daylight with this opportunity. Regardless, it was an opportunity to get high quality training and possibly open the door to other opportunities. Once again, everyone here was incredibly nice and very friendly...it also makes it easier when the people aren't giving you the cold shoulder and not talking to you. Everyone just seems to look out for eachother. Mondays session was another good one, regardless of the near 100 degree temperatures. My aunt and I left Konnigsbrunn to complete the just over 1 hour drive around 2 for the 3:45 session. We wanted to leave ourselves sometime for any driving mistakes or traffic we may hit. We arrived in Ingolstadt around 3:10. After waiting patiently, no one had shown by 4 in the afternoon. We wondered what was going on and doubt of training began to set in. We finally saw Jan, who is the equipment guy there and he let us know that practice didn't start until 5:30...great communication by the coaching staff. So my aunt and I drove around the actual town of Ingolstadt...which is actually really nice, even though we got to see very little due to traffic. Practice finally came around and got another good session in. Friday turned into a small "family trip" with my cousins family and turned out to be a good little voyage. The 5 of us packed into his car and headed off once again to meet the guys for training. Training went well and the coach asked me to come again the next day for a small training match. We were still trying to read this guy to figure out if he was interested or he just needed another body. Regardless, I knew I needed the match play and opportunity to get used to it a bit again and opted to head out to training. The game was alright, lower pace and seemingly some players didn't want to be there. Felt as though I got hung out to dry on too many occasions...that happens when there are 6 breakaways and a PK in 30 minutes ha. A good session nonetheless, and we headed home after seeing any opportunity of staying on thrown away due to this U-23 rule. Overall, the trip gave me more confidence and belief that this dream could become a reality given the right chance.
Saturday brought some more news. Christian let me know that within the next week, I will be headed up to the north west region of the country to train with FC Shalke 04 II. Shalke is one of the more well-known in Europe relatively speaking, especially in Germany. It will be a great opportunity to train at an even higher level. There are still talks with a team from Burghuasen as well..so we will see what the future entails. Hopefully something can get sorted out soon or at least more opportunities show themselves. My brother-in-law Marlon, who is another one of the great people in my life that are helping me out when in reality they really don't have to be...so thanks...let me know that a friend of his is on the verge of being able to get the assistance of an agent for me which would be a huge help also.
I guess the comments haven't been working on the pages. So if anyone wants to leave anything...either find me on Facebook or e-mail me at BByrne@luc.edu
Talk to you all soon.
Brian