Jack of all trades on the pitch – “It’s a way for me to reset my thoughts”

“I do a bit of everyt­hing. In trai­ning sessions, the head coach may ask me to direct a drill or serve as the refe­ree. During matc­hes, I take photos and manage the team’s Insta­gram account, among other things. I do whate­ver the head coach asks from me,” says Spanish-born Álvaro Corre­dor Ochoa.

Corre­dor Ochoa serves as the second assis­tant coach and social media mana­ger for the men’s academy team of the Tammi­saari sports club Ekenäs IF. The team plays in the men’s Kolmo­nen, which is the fifth highest tier in Finland.

Corre­dor Ochoa is a true jack of all trades for the team and club. In addi­tion to coac­hing, he serves as a photo­grap­her at matc­hes, posts match infor­ma­tion on social media and assists in media rela­tions. At the club’s request, Corre­dor Ochoa has also atten­ded refe­ree­ing courses.

Corre­dor Ochoa finds the work of a coach to be enjo­y­able and varied. He says he doesn’t have enough expe­rience and know­ledge yet to be a head coach at the senior level. He has comple­ted basic coac­hing cour­ses and is just finis­hing the UEFA C licence course, which quali­fies to coach juniors.

ÁLVARO CORREDOR OCHOA

Docto­ral Researcher
Univer­sity of Tampere
Tammi­saari

COACHING EXPERIENCE FROM SEVERAL CLUBS

Corre­dor Ochoa says that foot­ball has always been a part of his life, but was forced to retire from playing acti­vely for years after suffe­ring a knee injury at age 21. He says that coac­hing has been an effec­tive way to fill the void left by foot­ball. After a success­ful knee opera­tion, he has been able to rekindle his connec­tion with the ball.

Corre­dor Ochoa followed his wife to Finland more than a decade ago. While atten­ding a Finnish language course, he became acquain­ted with anot­her foreig­ner who worked as a profes­sio­nal foot­ball player and coach. Corre­dor Ochoa began assis­ting his friend with his coac­hing work. Toget­her, they coac­hed teams in Espoo and Kauniainen.

A few summers ago, Corre­dor Ochoa’s family moved for his wife’s job to Tammi­saari, near where she grew up. A friend in Tammi­saari knew of his background as a coach and helped Ekenäs IF convince Corre­dor Ochoa to join the club.

Coac­hing is a good way to help inte­grate into a new society.

Initially, Corre­dor Ochoa served as an assis­tant coach for the women’s team. Last year, he became the second assis­tant coach for the men’s academy team.

The academy team of Ekenäs IF serves as a sort of step­ping stone for the first team. Most players in the academy team are under 20, and the aim is to coach them to become new players for the first team’s squad. For this season, Ekenäs IF’s first team was promo­ted to Finland’s highest foot­ball tier, Veikkausliiga.

“Our first team hasn’t perfor­med very well in Veik­kaus­liiga, but our academy team has had a very good season. Right now, we’re second in our league.”

HELPS RESET THOUGHTS

Corre­dor Ochoa says that coac­hing provi­des a good coun­ter­ba­lance for his work as a docto­ral researc­her at the Univer­sity of Tampere. Previously, Corre­dor Ochoa worked at Posti Palve­lut in Olari.

“Coac­hing helps me turn my mind to other things from time to time. My research requi­res a lot of thin­king and focus. Coac­hing gives me the chance to reset my thoughts.”

Corre­dor Ochoa is still a member of the Industrial Union and active among the union’s members of foreign background. Among other things, he still main­tains an English-spea­king What­sApp group where members can discuss topics and help each other. He is also an active advocate for educa­tion, and has plan­ned a course for the union’s non-Finnish spea­king members on Finnish working life, labour rights and respon­si­bi­li­ties as part of his univer­sity studies.

Corre­dor Ochoa says that he has sett­led in Tammi­saari well. The family’s home language is Swedish, and he says that he unders­tands the language well.

A frequently level­led accusa­tion against Finland is that foreig­ners find it difficult to inte­grate into Finnish society. Accor­ding to Corre­dor Ochoa, foot­ball or any other commu­nal acti­vity helps with inte­gra­tion a great deal. Coac­hing has proved bene­ficial even when it comes to lear­ning the language.

“Coac­hing is a good way to help inte­grate into a new society. Any kind of volun­teer work works just as well.”

You can follow the Ekenäs IF academy team on Insta­gram at www.instagram.com/eif_akademi

Read the article in Finnish!