KUALA LUMPUR: Being a young professional footballer in a foreign country, thousands of kilometres (km) away from home, can be very challenging and demanding.
It’s no different for country’s rising footballer Annil Vigneswaran to chase his dreams alone abroad.
Annil, who recently inked a one-year contract with German third-division club SV Waldhof Mannheim, said though Malaysian football has made significant progress, noting its participation in international-level matches and tournaments, foreign players still have a stigma.
‘’You can be as good as the players from other significant countries, but they will always prefer to choose them because they are from a country that is well-known for their football performance, so you have to work harder than them.
‘’So, if you want to secure a spot in the first eleven, you have to demonstrate that you are putting in more effort than others, for instance if a player is running 10km, than you have to run 15km to show that you want to be better, ‘’ the 20-year-old told Bernama when contacted.
Annil, who has been playing football since six, said initially it was difficult for him to cope with aggressive training, but it turned to help him to gain advantage to win duels when physical strength was involved.
Annil admitted that adapting to a new country’s culture and environment is much harder for when he went overseas at the age of 12, while at 15, he faced challenges in learning the German language as fast as he could to ease his communication with his coaches and teammates.
However, the language barrier did not stop Annil from pursuing his dream, as he began to communicate frequently with everyone around him to learn in a short time, beside enrolling in language school. In his pursuit of achieving his dream of becoming a professional footballer, Annil also took a significant risk by leaving school for over a three-year period to fully dedicate himself to football, starting at the age of 15.
‘’In order to succeed in football my parents suggested to me to leave school and provided unwavering support. They reassured me that I could continue my studies whenever I wished, but for the time being, I should put my full focus on football,“ he said.
Annil shared that, his football journey began when he joined Ajax FC in Amsterdam for six months at the age of 12. Subsequently, he returned to Malaysia and played for Kuala Lumpur Youth Soccer (KLYS) FC before taking a flight to Germany, where he spent a year playing for SGV Freiberg FC.
Following his time at SGV Freiberg FC, he continued his football career by playing for Freiburg FC for the next two years. Later he joined SV Sandhausen. -Bernama
