MADM: Tor des Monats!

Setonji Ogunbiyi about his experience with "Tor des Monats" September 2021

I have previously written about my experience as an amputee football player in Germany in the previous newsletter edition. This edition will highlight the remarkable experience I had with the “Tor des Monats” nominations while playing amputee football.

The first weekend in September 2021 began like every other match weekend in the German amputee football league; except the location -Trier. As usual for us when we have matches in other cities, we gathered together in Düsseldorf on Friday 1st October 2021 and drove with the team bus to Trier for the first match day of the 2021 season. The competition was held over three days - Friday, Saturday and Sunday - with each of the participating teams playing twice in the three days. After the first and second game days, we were at the top of the league with 7 points heading into the fierce Sunday showdown.

A spectacular event occurred in the match between my team, Fortuna Düsseldorf, and Anpfiff Hoffenheim. Hoffenheim is a very strong team with quick and powerful players who represented Germany in the recently concluded European amputee nations cup. We have had several simulation trainings on how to neutralize their tactics and threats and to counter their attacks.

Although things were going well and we were leading 2-1 after he first half, Hoffenheim still posed threats to the score line. In the 33rd minute, they won a corner in which they attempted the “pass and shoot” tactic, but the resulting shot was blocked by one of our players. The ball rolled a few meters in front of me in our 3-yard goalkeeper box and then I remembered the tactic that we learned during our training sessions. It was simple: goal keepers usually leave their goal lines when their team presses the opponent high. I had the idea, “shoot hard and fast”. I gathered momentum by jumping twice on my leg and shooting the ball very hard. The spectators roared in excitement as the ball went over the goal keeper and into the net. This was the beginning of my “Tor des Monats” journey.

The goal was submitted by my team’s coordinator as an entry to Sportschau’s “Tor des Monats” September edition - a competition among the best 5 football goals in Germany across all divisions. The results came back and my goal against Hoffenheim was nominated alongside the Erling Haaland and three other players.

Two days after I scored the goal, I travelled to Nigeria to proceed on my field research for my master thesis at the university. However, since the first time the goal was shown on TV, I have been receiving hearty messages from team mates, the university community, and even strangers. Messages like “your shot was fire”, “how did you do that?” and “I could not believe you did that” were some of the texts I received from people.

This made me feel special because I have never been under the spotlight in my life. The nominations were only the first step, as votes were also needed to determine the winner of the competition, and for this I had to give several interviews with television stations, radio stations, newspapers as well as blogs while concurrently conducting my field research. This posed some challenges because the mobile reception in my location of field research was poor and I had to get into town to receive calls or get internet. However, the IEE and the university were very supportive at this stage and published information about the goal and voting process on the website and personal professional pages. People’s reactions to the goal is a memory that will stay with me forever. My mother, who initially did not like me playing football when I was young because I would usually break my crutches within a week of buying new ones while playing, could not believe her eyes when she saw the goal. She kissed me several times and expressed her pride in my efforts. My teammates in Nigeria also went wild with excitement when they also saw the goal and heard about the nominations. Everyone was mobilizing for votes and indeed voted even though not everyone understood German language used by the voting website.

Upon my return to Germany after my field research, I had become a “little” celebrity in the neighborhood. In the stores and on the street, people usually want to confirm that I was the person nominated for “Tor des Monats” and gave me a constant stream of nice and encouraging messages. On 23rd October, the voting ended and the results were announced. I came second, only behind Erling Haaland who won with 33 percent of the total votes. I was closely behind with 30 percent. This shows how many people supported and voted for me as we gave Haaland a run for his win.

On a personal note, I am very excited to have even been nominated in the first place. The nomination has set my sports career on solid grounds as this seemingly small achievement is now being used as motivational talk for young athletes in Nigeria. The goal, in combination with me striving for further education, earned me an invitation by a secondary school for children with special needs to give a motivational talk to the students.

On a general note, the goal and nomination has made German amputee football more popular. Several amputated persons and others with disabilities have reached out to the teams to play football or engage in other special-needs sports. This will definitely make the German amputee football team stronger and able to compete more effectively in Europe and in the world. This also creates a community of people who understand what the other person feels just as my transition and adjustment into German culture and lifestyle was greatly eased by my football team.

Finally, I want to express my appreciation to everyone who has supported me through this short journey, to those who voted for me, as well as those who reached out to others to vote for me. I really appreciate your efforts and the time. I want to also encourage everyone to pursue their dreams and ambitions irrespective of the challenges and difficulties that may be encountered.