When I felt humiliated by my football coach

How past events almost shaped me today

Michael Freer
5 min readFeb 15, 2023
Photo by Nigel Msipa on Unsplash

I hadn’t thought about this story for a long time until recently. During a discussion about teamwork and football histories, it sprung to mind. But what surprised me specifically, was how vividly I could remember it.

Ask your dad?!

I was 14 or 15 at the time, and there we were, at the end of a training session. A group of lads and a couple of coaches on the AstroTurf next to the school I went to.

I hadn’t actually started playing football properly until I was about 11 though, because in primary school I just hung around chatting to my friend who was usually the goalkeeper.

I did however always have an interest in the sport, mostly driven by my dad and my grandparents on his side. I would enjoy the Saturday afternoons watching the scores come in, throwing a ball round with my dad in the living, whilst hoping that the Arsenal would win again.

I would cherish the occasional night late up to watch us play, although that sometimes ending in tears too. It wasn’t just football they were in to, but a whole lot of other sport including rugby, cricket, F1, horseracing. However, football reigned supreme where I grew up.

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Michael Freer

Social enterprise enthusiast, avid traveller and fiction writer. www.ensoco.co.uk