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Sunday, September 8, 2019


The 2019 edition of Greenland's Futsal championship was held in late April at Nuuk's Inussivik sports centre, which is becoming the traditional venue for the game in the country, but there was something of a new look to the competition, which was rebranded as the Grønlandbanken Final 6, due to the fact that only six teams took part in this year's tournament.

Two of Greenland's big four clubs - B-67 and Nagdlúnguak-48 - were involved (the others, namely G-44 and IT-79 both failed to qualify for the tournament), as were Kagssâgssuk, Kugsak-45, rank outsiders N-85, who hail from Narsaq in the extreme south of the country, and Sineriak Futsal, which could best be described as a Futsal team comprising of the best footballers from outside Nuuk who happen to study in the country's capital, including the likes of Nagdlúnguak-48's Kunuuteeraq Isaksen and Nick and Lars-Erik Reimer.

N-85 had qualified for the tournament via the southern regional tournament and were always going to find it difficult against five sides who were peppered with players who regularly take part in the national championship both indoors and outdoors, and lost the tournament's opening match against Kugsak-45 by seven goals to two. Søren Thorning Hansen scored three goals for the team from Qasigiannguit, who, along with N-48, were representing the country's northernmost clubs at the Final 6. N-48 squeaked past Kagssâgssuk, making sure of victory when the unfortunate Nikki Petersen scored an own goal with just a few minutes remaining.

In the game which concluded the first day's action, B-67 got their campaign off to a winning start with a 7:2 victory over Sineriak, but it could have all been so different for the team in black if, with the game still scoreless midway through the first half, the linesman had spotted Nukannguaq Zeeb's shot, which had smashed off the underside of the crossbar, had seemingly crossed the goal-line before bouncing back out into play. Ari Hermann put B-67 in front, before Charles Petersen levelled and Zeeb proceeded to get himself sent off before the game restarted. Right at the end of the first half, Sineriak had claims for a penalty waved away when Nick Reimer's shot hit Niklas Thorleifsen's upper arm as he was defending his near post. Christian Bohmann Knudsen put B-67 in front early in the second half, and it rapidly turned into a rout.

The first match of the tournament's second day saw four players scoring three goals or more for Kagssâgssuk as they put their opening-day blues behind them by walloping N-85 18:2. Søren Kreutzmann led the way with five goals as his team built on an 8:0 half-time lead, Jørgen Willy Eiliassen and Markus Maratse both scored four and Phillip Holmene scored a hat-trick.

N-48 and B-67 then served up another of those classic encounters for which the two teams have become renowned, this time indoors. B-67 went ahead after Nagdlúnguak-48 keeper Gabriel Petersen fumbled a low cross over his own goal-line. Christian Bohmann Knudsen extended B-67's lead from close range before a superb move was finished off by Peter Leibhardt to bring N-48 back in the game. John Ludvig Broberg crashed home a third from a seemingly impossible position to extend B-67's lead. Kaali Lund Mathæussen rampaged past, over and through opponents before lashing in a shot to reduce the arrears, which were wiped out when Markus Jensen evaded the B-67 defence with a diagonal run and shot into the top corner. It was fast and furious as both sides went for the win, before B-67 won it with four minutes to go when Karl Peter Street inadvertently diverted Patrick Frederiksen's cross into his own net.

Lars Erik Reimer scored a hat-trick as Sineriak defeated Kugsak-45 6:3 in an entertaining encounter to round off the second day of the tournament. Day three opened with B-67 struggling to overcome a game Kagssâgssuk team, but eventually won by goals to 2. Kugsak-45 also made things devilishly difficult for Nagdlúnguak-48, going two goals up through Jakob Hansen before N-48 pulled it back to 2:2 before the break. Markus Jensen put N-48 ahead at the end of a counter-attack before Søren Thorning Hansen equalised. Both teams had chances to win the match before Markus Jensen did just that for N-48 with 80 seconds remaining.

The third and final game of the day was a veritable goal-fest, but it was also as one-sided as it is as possible to get. It took Sineriak two and a half minutes to open the scoring against N-85, and they led 14:1 at half-time. They struck another ten goals in the second half as eight of the men in black got on the scoresheet. Brothers Nick and Lars Erik Reimer each scored five of Sineriak's goals, whilst Kunuuteeraq Isaksen weighed in with four.

The goals continued to flow on day four; Kagssâgssuk swept aside Kugsak-45 11:2, helped in large part by Jørgen Peter Petersen's four goals and Phillip Holmene's hat-trick. The duel between N-48 and Sineriak was a much closer affair, with Sineriak winning by four goals to two. It was perhaps ironic that the Reimer brothers, Bruno Sandgreen and Kunuuteeraq Isaksen, who were turning out - and scoring for - Sineriak are regulars for N-48 during the outdoor season; both Reimers netted for Sineriak against their parent club. Ari Hermann and John Ludvig Broberg each scored hat-tricks for B-67 as they mauled N-85 15:1, and they were joined on the scoresheet by six of their team-mates.

Sineriak had remained unbeaten since their opening-day defeat to B-67, but their three-match winning run was brought to an abrupt end against Kagssâgssuk, despite Nukannguaq Zeeb opening the scoring for them after just seven seconds. It was the start of an eventful day for the man who normally turns out for G-44, as he was later sin-binned after one of team-mate Nick Reimer's three goals. Søren Kreutzmann and Kaaleeraq Pavia Lyberth both grabbed hat-tricks for Kagssâgssuk as they marched into the semi-finals alongside Sineriak.

Nagdlúnguak-48 had already reached the semis, and were expected to round off their group stage with a comfortable win against N-85, but the team from the far south declined to study the form-book and were ahead at one stage during a fascinating first half, which saw the teams go into the break level at 3:3. Markus Jensen put N-48 in front from close range after less than a minute gone in the second half, and Karl-Louis Sandgreen doubled his team's advantage a few minutes later when he side-footed the ball past Kunuk Petersen after a long period of possession football. Petersen was perhaps slightly at fault for Jensen's second-half goal, but he had an impressive match, pulling off a superb triple save at one stage.

Meanwhile, in the final match of the group stage, B-67 kept up their unbeaten run when they took on Kugsak-45; eight different players scored as they rattled in eleven goals against their opponents, condemning them to a battle against N-85 to avoid the wooden spoon.

The first of the semi-finals saw B-67 pair off against Sineriak Futsal, and it was nip-and-tuck all the way, but B-67 prevailed by 4 goals to 2, though not without some controversy. After a see-saw first half which ended with the score level at 2:2, Ari Hermann put B-67 ahead in the 26th minute after squeezing the ball past the goalkeeper and over the line as three defenders scrambled back and farcically got in each other's way, ending up in an heap on the goal-line with the ball in the back of the net.

With a just over a minute to go on the clock and Sineriak on the attack, John Ludvig Broberg cleared the ball down towards Karsten Møller Andersen, who trapped the ball, turned and shot only for Isak Olsen to block the shot with his knees. The ball then deflected against Møller Andersen's elbow, who reacted first to the loose ball and hooked it past Olsen for B-67's fourth. Despite vehement protests from the Sineriak players, the goal stood and B-67 were on their way to the final; there was little Møller Andersen could have done to move his arm out of the ball's way as it rebounded off Olsen's knees.

In the other semi-final, Kagssâgssuk went two up in the first ten minutes through two good finishes from Markus Maratse and Gerth Skifte before N-48's Markus Jensen did what Markus Jensen does best: he picked up the ball in midfield, went on the run and struck the ball into Henning Bajare's bottom right-hand corner. It was a fine goal, and one which sent his team on to a 5:2 victory (with Peter Leibhardt scoring two of them) and a place in the final against their eternal rivals, B-67.

There were the fifth and third-place play-offs to get through first, however, as the tournament entered its final day, and Kugsak-45 took on N-45 to decide who came away with the wooden spoon. Both teams had experienced a torrid tournament up to this point, with Kugsak-45's 7:2 victory over their opponents on the opening day of Final 6 their only bright spot in the tournament. They were to beat them again, but it was a much closer affair this time around. Kuluk Davidsen put N-85 ahead after 42 seconds, and Nuka-Mark Nielsen doubled their lead after a lightning-quick counter-attack. Arkalo Zeeb pulled one back for Kugsak-45 before the break, but Nielsen struck again early in the second half to put N-85 two goals in front.

Ado Løvstrøm reduced the arrears and then equalised with seven minutes left to turn the game on its head. Nikki Nathansen missed the proverbial sitter for N-85 before Løvstrøm hammered home a strike from distance with three minutes left to put Kugsak-45 in front for the first time. Peter Frederik Samuelsen scored a fifth for Kugsak-45 with just over a minute left when goalkeeper Kuluk Petersen fumbled his shot over the line. It was a shame for the N-85 shot-stopper, who had performed well during the match and had done his level best to stem the flow of goals against his side during the tournament. Kugsak-45 endured a miserable outdoor tournament in 2018, losing every match and conceding a large number of goals, so their second victory of this tournament was a welcome consolation.

Sineriak lost a closely-fought semi-final against B-67, and were looking to bounce back against Kagssâgssuk in the third-place play-off. Phillip Hølmene gave Kagssâgssuk the lead in the fifth minute with a drive that went in off the post and crossbar, and it was the start of yet another feast of goals. Charles Petersen equalised with a shot from an acute angle which deceived two defenders and goalkeeper Henning Bajare. Hølmene put Kagssâgssuk in front before, after having three bites at the cherry seconds earlier, first hitting the post, then having a shot cleared off the line by Moses Maratse and then having a third attempt saved and cleared by Bajare, Kunuuteeraq Isaksen equalised. and then Lars Erik Reimer gave Sineriak the lead. Nikki Rosing equalised in the 17th minute, and so it went on.

Forty seconds into the second half, Phillip Hølmene's good work down the left paid off when Nikki Rosing scored again to put Kagssâgssuk in front. Lars Erik Reimer spectacularly equalised a minute later when he thrashed in a free-kick from just inside the Kagssâgssuk half. Sineriak would've scored a couple more goals only for a series of good saves from Henning Bajare, and then Nikki Petersen tapped in in the 25th minute to bring the sides level once again. Nick Reimer then capitalised on a loose ball inside the area to put Sineriak in front with eleven minutes left, and, barely a minute later, Isaksen scored again to double Sineriak's lead.

And, perhaps bizarrely, so ended the scoring, despite the best efforts of both teams to find a way through each other's defences. Sineriak took bronze, thanks to the efforts of, above all, the Reimer brothers, Isaksen, Charles Petersen and Isak Olsen, and, despite running out of steam and just failing to finish in third place it was a good performance by Kagssâgssuk to finish fourth. Markus Maratse, Phillip Hølmene and goalkeeper Henning Bajare were outstanding all the way through the tournament, whilst Søren Kreutzmann's goal-glut in the group stages was of immense importance.

Matches between B-67 and Nagdlúnguak-48 are the most eagerly awaited in the Greenlandic football calendar, be they indoor or outdoor, and the final was no exception. Inussivik was full to the rafters for the latest meeting of the two teams, although N-48 were hampered by the absence of the Reimer brothers, Bruno Sandgreen and Kunuuteeraq Isaksen (who all had a starring role in Sineriak's third-place finish); so much so, in fact, that they struggled for goals throughout the group stage and limped into the semi-finals in fourth place.

And it showed almost literally from the kick-off; in fact, it took just 19 seconds for B-67 to take the lead before a hall 90 per cent filled with their adoring fans. Ari Hermann dispossessed Markus Jensen, rampaged past another defender and rounded goalkeeper Gabriel Petersen before delivering a cross-cum-shot into the penalty-area, which was tapped in on the goal-line by Karsten Møller Andersen, who got there just ahead of defender Peter Leibhardt.

B-67 increased their lead in the sixth minute, and the goal came from perhaps the unlikeliest source: goalkeeper Malik Heimarij, and it was brutally simple. Heimarij threw the ball from his own penalty-area towards team-mate Patrick Frederiksen, who was standing in the N-48 box along with opponent Kaali Lund Mathæussen with Petersen just behind them. All three rose for the ball but appeared to miss it completely - although Petersen may have got the merest touch on the ball as he flapped at it - and it sailed behind them into the back of the net. A flurry of chances followed for both sides as both goalkeepers were kept busy, but B-67 held on to their two-goal advantage at the break.

It didn't take N-48 long to reduce the arrears, and Minik Svendsen did so in spectacular fashion. Collecting the ball on the half-way line, he went on a little diagonal run before letting fly from distance; the ball whizzed into the roof of Heimarij's net before the goalkeeper even had time to turn his head to watch the ball fly past him. The shouts of joy from the Nagdlúnguak-48 contingent in the stand barely had time to subside before Ari Hermann restored B-67's two-goal advantage by drilling a free-kick from the right low across the box and into the bottom right-hand corner of Petersen's net.

B-67 now had one hand on the title, and with six minutes to go, they scored a deceptively simple fourth goal, just to round things off; Niklas Thorleifsen tapped a free-kick in the direction of John Ludvig Broberg, and he flicked the ball past Petersen and the wall into the top corner to complete the scoring.

It was the fitting end to a tournament where B-67, as is usually the case, came good at the right time and always had a little left over in the tank to get them through when needed. Ari Hermann and John Ludvig Broberg excelled, as did Malik Hermarij between the sticks, but goals and good performances came from all sides, with Karsten Møller Andersen performing particularly well and Patrick Oteri Frederiksen a model of quiet efficiency at the back.

As mentioned earlier, Nagdlúnguak-48 were without a number of regulars who had turned out for Sineriak, but depleted or not, they were good enough to reach the final and give B-67 a decent game. Perhaps inevitably, Markus Jensen led the way, ably assisted by old hands such as Kaali Lund Mathæssen, Peter Rosbach, Peter Leibhardt and Minik Svendsen, with Gabriel Petersen in goal having a good tournament. Well beaten at the end they were, but they would be looking forward to taking part in the outdoor national championship later in the year in Sisimiut and planning their revenge..



22/04/19 N-45 2:7 Kugsak-45 (Mikaaleeraq Enoksen, Jakob Hansen OG; Søren Thorning Hansen 3, Peter Frederik Samuelsen 2, Laban Berthelsen, Arkalo Zeeb)

22/04/19 Kagssâgssuk 3:5 Nagdlúnguaq-48 (Søren Kreutzmann 2, Gerth Skifte; Markus Jensen 2, Kaali Lund Mathæussen, Peter Rosbach, Nikki Petersen OG)
22/04/19 B-67 7:2 Sineriak Futsal (Christian Bohmann Knudsen 2, Ari Hermann, Niels Svane (pen), Patrick Oteri Frederiksen, Bastian Rosing, Rene Eriksen; Charles Petersen, Kunuuteeraq Isaksen)
23/04/19 Kagssâgssuk 18:2 N-85 (Søren Kreutzmann 5, Jørgen Willy Eliassen 4, Markus Maratse 4, Phillip Holmene 3, Jørgen Peter Petersen, Robert Nathanielsen OG; Kilaasi Ludvigsen 2)
23/04/19 Nagdlúnguaq-48 3:4 B-67 (Peter Leibhardt, Kaali Lund Matthæussen, Markus Jensen; Gabriel Petersen OG, Christian Bohmann Knudsen, John Ludvig Broberg, Karl Peter Street OG)
23/04/19 Kugsak-45 3:6 Sineriak Futsal (Alaba Thorning, Laban Berthelsen, Peter Frederik Samuelsen; Lars Erik Reimer 3, Kunuuteeraq Isaksen, Bruno Sandgreen, Nick Reimer)
24/04/19 Kagssâgssuk 2:4 B-67 (Jakob Petersen, Søren Kreutzmann; Niklas Thorleifsen 2, Ari Hermann, Karsten Møller Andersen)
24/04/19 Nagdlúnguaq-48 4:3 Kugsak-45 (Klaus Jeremiassen, Ado Løvstrøm OG, Markus Jensen 2Jakob Hansen 2, Søren Thorning Hansen)

24/04/19 N-85 2:24 Sineriak Futsal (Nuka-Mark Nielsen, Kulaasi Ludvigsen; Lars Erik Reimer 5, Nick Reimer 5, Kunuuteeraq Isaksen 4 (1 pen), Brian Geisler 2, Lukas Aqqa Lings 2, Nukannguaq Zeeb 2, Bruno Sandgreen 2, Charles Petersen, Kuluk Davidsen OG)
25/04/19 Kagssâgssuk 11:2 Kugsak-45 (Jørgen Peter Petersen 4, Phillip Holmene 3, Søren Kreutzmann 2, Nikki Rosing, Markus Maratse; Karl Leander, Arkalo Zeeb)

25/04/19 Nagdlúnguaq-48 2:4 Sineriak Futsal (Kaali Lund Mathæssen, Karl Peter Street; Lars Erik Reimer 2, Lukas Aqqa Lings, Nick Reimer)
25/04/19 N-85 1:15 B-67 (Nuka-Mark Nielsen; Ari Hermann 3, John Ludvig Broberg 3, Niklas Thorleifsen 2, Niels Svane 2, Mikki Brønlund, Rene Eriksen, Kent Jermiassen, Bastian Rosing, Nuka-Mark Nielsen OG)
26/04/19 Kagssâgssuk 9:5 Sineriak Futsal (Søren Kreutzmann 3 (1 pen), Kaaleeraq Pavia Lyberth 3, Nikki Rosing 2, Nikki Petersen; Nick Reimer 3, Nukannguaq Zeeb, Miki Therkelsen)
26/04/19 Nagdlúnguaq-48 5:3 N-85 (Karl-Louis Sandgreen 2, Markus Jensen 2, Peter Rosbach; Kuluk Davidsen 2, Martin Sikemsen)
26/04/19 Kugsak-45 2:12 B-67 (Peter Frederik Samuelsen, Arkalo Zeeb; Niklas Thorleifsen 2, Rene Eriksen 2 (1 pen), Ari Hermann 2, Patrick Oteri Frederiksen 2, Bastian Rosing, Rene Eriksen, John Ludvig Broberg, Mikki Brønlund)

































































27/04/19 B-67 4:2 Sineriak Futsal (Mikki Brønlund, John Ludvig Broberg, Ari Hermann, Karsten Møller Andersen; Lars Erik Reimer, Kunuuteeraq Isaksen (pen))
27/04/19 Nagdlúnguak-48 5:2 Kagssâgssuk (Peter Leibhardt 2, Markus Jensen, Klaus Jeremiassen, Minik Svendsen; Markus Maratse, Gerth Skifte)


28/04/19 Kugsak-45 5:3 N-85 (Ado Løvstrøm 3, Arkalo Zeeb, Peter Frederik Samuelsen; Nuka-Mark Nielsen 2, Kuluk Davidsen)


28/04/19 Sineriak Futsal 7:5 Kagssâgssuk (Kunuuteeraq Isaksen 2, Lars Erik Reimer 2(lashed in ld free-kick), Nick Reimer 2, Charles Petersen; Phillip Holmene 2, Nikki Rosing 2, Nikki Petersen)


28/04/19 B-67 4:1 Nagdlúnguak-48 (Karsten Møller Andersen, Malik Heimarij, Ari Hermann, John Ludvig Broberg; Minik Svendsen)


B-67: 99 Malik HERMARIJ; 3 Niels SVANE, 6 Patrick FREDERIKSEN, 9 John Ludvig BROBERG, 10 Ari HERMANN, 11 Rene ERIKSEN, 15 Mikki BRØNLUND, 19 Karsten MØLLER ANDERSEN, 20 Kent JEREMIASSEN, 21 Niklas THORLEIFSEN, 43 Bastian ROSING, 62 Christian BOHMANN KNUDSEN

KAGSSÂGSSUK: 1 Henning BAJARE; 3 Jørgen Willy ELIASSEN, 4 Markus MARATSE, 6 Søren KREUTZMANN, 7 Phillip Heilmann HØLMENE, 9 Nikki PETERSEN, 11 Jørgen Peter PETERSEN, 12 Klaus EGEDE, 17 Nikki ROSING, 18 Kaaleeraq Pavia LYBERTH, 23 Jakob PETERSEN, 33 Gerth SKIFTE

KUGSAK-45: 16 Steven SKADE; 2 Karl LEANDER, 5 Leo SANDGREEN, 6 Alaba THORNING, 7 Ado LØVSTRØM, 8 Laban BERTHELSEN, 9 Arkalo ZEEB, 10 Jakob HANSEN, 11 Peter Frederik SAMUELSEN, 14 Angerlannguaq SANDGREEN, 17 Søren THORNING HANSEN

N-85: 4 Mikaaleeraq ENOKSEN, 22 Kunuk PETERSEN; 5 Nikki E NATHANSEN, 6 Nuka-Mark NIELSEN, 7 Martin SIMEKSEN, 8 Robert NATHANIELSEN, 10 Aqqa LYNGE, 11 Kilaasi LUDVIGSEN, 15 Gert-Villads KRISTOFFERSEN, 18 Niels FONTAIN, 19 Kuluk DAVIDSEN, 28 Kiiu POULSEN

NAGDLÚNGUAQ-48: 1 Gabriel PETERSEN; 2 Karl Peter STREET, 3 Peter LEIBHARDT, 4 Minik SVENDSEN, 5 Karl-Louis SANDGREEN, 6 Aqissiaq GABRIELSEN, 7 Nukannguaq PETERSEN, 8 Markus JENSEN, 9 Hans-Peter PARS, 10 Klaus JEREMIASSEN, 11 Peter ROSBACH, 14 Kaali LUND MATHÆUSSEN

SINERIAK FUTSAL: 1 Kali MATHIASSEN; 4 Charles PETERSEN, 6 Kunuuteeraq ISAKSEN, 7 Nick REIMER, 8 Brian GEISLER, 9 Niki THERKELSEN, 10 Lars Erik REIMER, 11 Lukas Aqqa LINGS, 12 Isak OLSEN, 23 Amos ROSBACH, 45 Bruno SANDGREEN, 95 Nukannguaq ZEEB

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Much of the above statistical information came from Sermitsiaq, KNR and Facebook. Kindly note that the squad-lists may be incomplete, and that these shall be amended as and when further information has been received.

Sunday, August 4, 2019


Stories abound of British sailors, soldiers and entrepreneurs who introduced football to colonies and countries all over the world, from Russia to Brazil to New Zealand and everywhere in between. Well, almost everywhere. One country which was left well alone to follow its own path was Luxembourg..although there was certainly a British influence.

The first mention of football being introduced to the Grand Duchy dates from 1889 when one Henri Baclesse brought a football back from England where he had been on a business trip. Baclesse was a member of the Cercle d’Escrime et Grand-Ducal de Gymnastique Luxembourg (CGDEL) sports club, an organisation which was founded in 1879 – it concentrated mainly on fencing and gymnastics, as the title suggests, and exists to this day.

Born Heinrich Peter Nicolas Baclesse in the tiny village of Wahl on 22 January 1858, Baclesse moved to Hollerich, then just outside the city of Luxembourg (it was incorporated into the city in 1922), in his twenties, and he was a veritable sporting enthousiast. He was mentioned in the CGDEL archives as holding the post of treasurer as far back as 1882. 

Returning from the aforementioned business trip to England in 1889, Baclesse brought back a football for use by CGDEL’s more youthful fencers in an attempt to encourage them to indulge in some outdoor physical exercise, and although there was a lot of initial enthusiasm among the club’s members, this didn’t translate into something more long-term, and, as the students' enthusiasm waned, his attempts ultimately came to nothing.

Baclesse was someone who passionately believed in sport, and he was also a founding member of the Union Vélocipédique Luxembourgeoise (UVL) when that organisation came into existence in June 1896 after a meeting of around 275 cyclists in the small town of Mondorf-les-Bains. The UVL later evolved into the Fédération du Sport Cycliste Luxembourgeois (FSCL).

Apart from being involved in sporting administration, Baclesse was also quite a successful businessman, and, in later life, ran a sweet-shop (now a bar) together with two of his sisters, Joséphine and Sophie, on the Grand Rue; he was also a juror at a couple of international exhibitions, and, it would appear, even briefly dabbled in politics, running for office in a local election in 1914.

Baclesse disappeared from public life sometime shortly afterwards, and died on 8 October 1931. He was 73 years old. Sisters Joséphine and Sophie both died in 1928, aged 77 and 75 respectively. All three of them died unmarried and childless.
His nephew, Francois, born in 1896 to Henri's brother Richard, earned rather more fame, not on the football pitch, but in the field of science, and, in particular, the field of clinical radiotherapy, having been a student of Marie Curie at the Radium Institute before becoming chief radiologist at the Curie Institute. So much for the theory that there are no famous Luxembourgers.

Although Henri Baclesse died alone and in obscurity, his role in attempting to get football established in football all but ignored, he deserves praise for his role in the development of sport in the Grand Duchy, thus surely earning an honourable place in the annals of the country's sporting history.

In the formative years of the twentieth century, some ten years after Baclesse’s introduction of the round ball to Luxembourg society floundered, another Luxembourger brought football to his native land, and had more, lasting, success.

A young teacher named Jean Röder, who was born in the tiny village of Roodt (situated in Redange canton) on 18 June 1873, had been studying in England since 1890, where he had developed an enthusiasm for football, and for the usefulness of sport in general as a method of improving one’s physical well-being.

Upon his return to Luxembourg at the beginning of 1902, he found work as an English teacher at the local School of Industry and Business (Lycée de l'Industrie et du Commerce d'Esch, today known as the LGE) in the town of Esch-sur-Alzette in the south-west of the country, and his educating skills were not solely employed in the classroom.  Soon after he took up his teaching post, he set about instructing his students in the finer art of football, and they took up the sport with alacrity.

At around the same time, street kickabouts were beginning to take place across Esch-sur-Alzette, which at that time was a far from prosperous mining town. Eventually, after many difficulties ranging from the inability to secure somewhere to train to finding enough people to form a team, a club, containing twenty-three members, five of whom were pupils at Röder's school, was formed in December 1906 with Röder at the helm: Fola Esch Football and Lawn Tennis Club, the first football club to be formed in Luxembourg. And, he was also one of a group of people behind the creation of the Federation of Athletic Sports Societies of Luxembourg in November 1908, which became the Luxembourg FA just under a year later.

There was to be a second club in Esch-sur-Alzette before the end of 1907, and it was founded by Hein Rizzi and another of Röder's pupil at the LGE, JP Weber: Football and Lawn Tennis Club Jeunesse de la Frontière, better known today as Jeunesse Esch. A rivalry quickly sprung up between both clubs which, apart from a long, long period in the latter part of the last century, has endured to this day.

(Jeunesse fans maintain that the club they follow is a working-class club while the team from just up the hill has always been supported by the local élite, and the Stade de la Frontière has become a popular destination for foreign groundhoppers and reporters from various foreign football publications who seek a bit of "authenticity." Yet, for decades, Jeunesse were among the country's top teams while Fola were the more impoverished of the two clubs as they languished in the second and third levels of Luxembourg's football pyramid.)

Röder had his own philosophy as to how a club could be run; sport was good for the soul as well as for the body, and, in a club, there was room for everybody: "You form a family of sportsmen. Each member, from first to last, wears a sports uniform and loves sports as such, be it football, cross-country, fencing, lawn tennis or cricket. Even disciples of the Thalia and the Terpsichore [two of the nine Muses of Ancient Greece, sister goddesses who symbolised the arts and sciences] are under your stewardship."

He stepped down from the presidency in 1913, and in time faded from public view, if not from the consciousness of those connected with the club. He died in October 1949, aged 76. Jean Röder is a revered figure at his beloved Fola, even today, and football in Luxembourg owes him, Rizzi, Weber and their contemporaries a huge debt of thanks. One can only imagine what both Röder and Baclesse, the trailblazers that they were, would think of the recent and long overdue improvement in the standard of football in their country, but they would surely have approved.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Many thanks to Eva Bange and colleagues Monique and Tai at the Hôtel de Ville in Luxembourg and Gilbert Goergen (Fola Esch chairman) for their kind assistance with the above article. The Luxemburger Wort's on-line archive was liberally delved into, and information was also found in an article celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of Jeunesse Useldange, if I remember rightly. This article actually came about thanks to an article I found via a Twitter post a number years ago; it aroused my interest, but information was extremely difficult to come by. Any errors or omissions will gladly be rectified upon receipt of information.