Sierra Leone's Class of 2003: Obi Metzger
By YLE /Egan Richardson
Sam Obi Metzger Jnr. (Photo credit: www.yle.fi)
Some claimed asylum and stayed in Finland, some went back to Sierra Leone, some moved on to European clubs. The asylum claims brought worldwide headlines, and in this series we catch up with some of the players to see how they are getting on.
The decision to claim asylum was not pre-meditated. It was not a pre-planned mass defection, there were competing factors involved, and many of the players were scared that an asylum claim could — if it failed — destroy any hopes of getting a work permit to play for a European club. The team had impressed in their three games. They had drawn 3-3 with a Spain team including Cesc Fabregas and David Silva, and considered themselves unlucky to have been eliminated.
“There was a lot of talk
about a few players — Samuel Barlay, Obi Metzger and one or two others,†says
Christian Thibault, a German who has lived in Finland for decades. A landscape
gardener by profession, he spent the 2003 championships scouting for Borussia
Mönchengladbach, the nearest big club to his home village in the Rhineland.
Metzger was one of those who
went back to Sierra Leone.
Although he was always confident in his ability to play football in Europe, his route was not direct. First he went on trial
at top flight clubs in France
and the UK,
but contract difficulties ensured he could not sign a professional deal. So he
played in youth teams of clubs in France
and Sweden before injury
curtailed his time in Europe. He went back to Sierra Leone to
recuperate.
Racing to Beirut
“In Africa it is difficult to
play because there isn’t space, alright there are big fields but the structure
is not there,†said Metzger when YLE caught up with him at a pre-season
tournament in Lahti.
The temperature outside is well below freezing and the ground is frozen solid,
but there are good conditions inside for footballers to train. The
infrastructure gives Finland
an edge over Africa, despite the inhospitable
climate.
An offer came from Lebanon and off
Obi went to earn a decent wage playing for Racing Beirut. Lebanon is not
on the itinerary of many football scouts, however, and Metzger's impatience
soon told. He wanted to move to Europe, and asked his friends in Finland to help
him.
The move entailed a pay cut,
but Finland
— despite the low crowds, part-time players and low intensity league — is one
step closer to the big time. Obi's move to Atlantis, a team that yo-yo’s
between the second and third tiers in Finnish football, was a calculated risk.
Since then he has played for
several teams in the second and third tiers, and even spent a season in Slovakia,
without quite making a breakthrough. This year is his first in Veikkausliiga,
the Finnish top flight, where he plays for FC Haka. His transfer to Valkeakoski
would, in days gone by, have been a major stepping stone in a young player's
career, but for Obi it is more like one last chance.
'Haka is like a big theatre'
Haka established a dominant
position in Finnish football in the post-war years with massive funding from Finland's
powerful paper industry. The club has won nine championships and regularly
competed against the best in Europe.
Those days are gone. The pulp
mills at one end of Haka's ground are now quiet, many of the sponsorships have
dried up, and the club is fighting to avoid the fate of a factory club that
loses its factory.
“Our budget is quite small
this year,†says Olli Huttunen, the club's Chief Executive. “Haka is like a big
theatre. We can give a chance for the players to play and they show if they can
do it or not. It’s good for the players and for us.â€
Of the 2003 group of 23
players, only five are currently in the Sierra Leone national squad. Obi is
one of them, along with Umaru Bangura, Sheriff Suma, Samuel Barlay and Mohamed
‘Medo’ Kamara. Establishing a spot in the national team is of paramount
importance to Metzger, but he does not feel that he has shown his best form for
the ‘Leone Stars’ yet.
“When you go there it is so
difficult to play well. Even in the African Nations Cup, it is so difficult,
the big players often don’t perform well there.â€
After eight years of setbacks and incremental progress, Metzger no longer believes in overnight success. He has made it to Valkeakoski's 'big theatre', but Haka could be a crossroads for him. If he succeeds, a big move gets a little closer, but if he doesn't, then he is likely to find himself back in the Finnish lower divisions.
This article has been reproduced from www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/