My time in the French capital

It was the summer of 2015 when I decided to go and experience French football in Paris for a team called Issy-Les-Moulineaux (a little town located 20 minutes away from Paris). I was impressed on how the club was structured and the facilities on which they trained on.

My first training session included a couple of U19 and Reserve players which showed that the club gave opportunities to young players to eventually play for the 1st team, that is if they can dislodge the established first team players which was the case for me too. The pre-season training was good as we trained 5 times a week in order to get ourselves prepared for the coming season.

Unfortunately I picked up a knock on my heel during pre-season which was a blow for me as I would have to play catch up. I spent 2 months away from the training ground and made a comeback in October 2015 with the Reserves to catch up with my fitness and playing time before heading back to the first team. As I was coming back to full fitness I was not getting game time therefore I was told I needed to train and play with the Reserves and work my way up to the 1st team.

The Reserves manager helped me become a better player by teaching and showing different tactics and movements to make on the pitch. He also helped me with my decision making and how to operate as a lone striker in a 4-5-1 system as I never played in this system as a striker.

As the season was going by and we were approaching the Christmas break, I was thinking about leaving the club due to the fact that I was not getting enough game time as I would have liked and it was starting to affect me as I was getting frustrated for not playing at times.

When January came I decided to come back home and get myself into a team and get back on the pitch and play week in, week out so that I can develop and progress further.

Overall I am happy to have experienced a different league and culture. I believe that it has made me a better player, person and also made me become mentally stronger.