Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Dutch international Nigel de Jong and his connection with Qatar and playing amateur golf in Doha Doha Golf Club Do it with

 Dutch international Nigel de Jong and his connection with Qatar and playing amateur golf in Doha Doha Golf Club

Do it with passion or don't do it all. #Dedication, twitted former Dutch international Nigel de Jong @NDJ_Official some five years back.
A lot has changed over the years for him on the football pitch. During this period he changed several clubs moving from Italian giants AC Milan to USA-based LA Galaxy followed by Turkey’s Galatasaray and later on Germany’s Mainz 05 and to finally land up in Qatar with Al Ahli.
Currently, he is with another Qatari club Al Shahania and continues to be dedicated to his first love football but now is dividing time on the golf course to polish his skills with an aim to take it to another level.
Currently, he is with another Qatari club Al Shahania and continues to be dedicated to his first love football but now is dividing time on the golf course to polish his golf playing skills and take it to another level.
Nigel tested his skills last week at the Qatar Open Amatery Championship held at the Doha Golf Club, which was open for both pros and amateurs. He failed to make the cut in the three-day event with only 50 top golfers making it to the final round.
“It is nice to see everybody here most of the regular members at the Doha Golf Club. It's a great setup, you get to play with some of the pros out here, so it's always good to know some of the pros and compete against them,” said Nigel.
Nigel wants to improve his scorecard in the coming months and said he is working in that direction.
“I started not so long ago, I started to play consistently a year and a half ago but I hit some balls over the years. So, yes it's a great sport it's very competitive it's similar to football you know, so, yes it does a great thing you always want to be better and you want to learn,” said Nigel, who represented his country at two FIFA World Cups.
In 2004, the defensive midfielder made his international debut and during the period between 2004 and 2015 he turned out 81 times in Dutch colors and scored one goal. He took part in two European Championships and in the two editions of the FIFA World Cup he picked up a runners-up medal in 2010, and a bronze medal four years later.
Explaining his baby steps in the golf he said: “It's always easy when you start, the first thing you tee is that you always think that you're gonna be the Tiger Woods and that you're gonna show a low round but a lot of other parts will come into play when you get down the fairways and on the course.”
The football journey has been long and colourful for this 35-year-old. who started with Ajax youth academy as a youngster and worked his way through the ranks to make the first team at age 17, some 18 seasons back. A lot has changed over the years for him and many laurels came his way at the club level too.
At the club level, his football journey took him outside the Netherlands first with ]Hamburger SV followed by Manchester City. AC Milan, LA Galaxy, Galatasaray, Mainz 05, Al Ahli and Al Shahania in that order and he says a few things are similar in golf and football.
“So, the build is similar you have to focus, you have to do some warm-up some stretching, the same things which we do in football. So, it's just one of those things that is similar and I can't blame anybody else's, but yourself, so it's a great thing that keeps the competitor in me going, “ he said.
Physical fitness also comes into play he said and being fit as an active footballer is helping him a long way he said.
“Of course, I mean not only swing wise but also you have to walk most of the day so you've been out there for four and half hours sometimes five hours so it's good to be in a physical fit condition, so you can keep up to the game and the focus.”
“I just loved the game, I was watching on television so there was not this particular event that could have attracted me to go I just like golf in general because it's a sport that is close to my heart and you have to be in competitor and you know you can't blame anybody else and it's one of those only sports that you never old enough to learn you can always get better so that's good for us football players,” he added.
2002–2006 Ajax
2006–2009 Hamburger SV
2009–2012 Manchester City
2012–2016 A.C. Milan
2016 LA Galaxy
2016–2018 Galatasaray
2018 Mainz 05
2018–2019 Al Ahli
2019– AlShahania
National team
2002–2005 Netherlands (U-21)
2004–2015 Netherlands

The changing face of Goa





  Sobit Amchem Goem is a song sung by Bhupinder Singh, the lyrics for which were provided by the great Goan poet Manoharrai Sardesai.

It goes like this: “Sobit amchem Goem, Sundor amchem Goem, Madd-maddianchem, Nohiam-dorianchem, Duda zhorianchem,Torne xoktichem, Meklleponnachem, Munisponnachem, Soponn bhangrachem, Soponn bhangrachem Goem.”


Goa is changing and the changes are taking place at a fast rate. 


A number of factors are responsible for the changes.


A lot of Goan youth, fed up with the lack of job opportunities which match their educational qualifications are migrating. We call them skilled workers.

Where are they moving in search of employment? They are moving outside the state in search of employment, in bigger cities like Bangalore and Mumbai, to name a few which have jobs matching their educational qualifications.

A few lucky ones move outside the country.


Then there are the semi-skilled, who have been training in institutes or studied in educational institutions, yet, they are not able to win the confidence of the big factories or industrial houses in goa to give them jobs.


So what is the option left for them, make a passport, maybe a Portuguese passport and migrate to Europe. The other option is to search for jobs in the Gulf countries, but that window opening for jobs is slowly on the decline and not a preferred one for the Goans nowadays.

If we look back at the history of migration, Goans earlier used to work in the Gulf in large numbers. Goans working the Gulf used to have their families based in Goa while only a small minority would take their family along with them to the Gulf.

These meant, the children were born and brought up in Goa  and the Goan way of life, tied as they were to the land, language and culture.


In recent years Goa is facing migration of the entire family, leaving the aged parents behind to fend for themselves. Children are taken out of school, so there is a fall in the number of students in local schools.


Church attendance in some of the villages in Goa is falling while some villages in Goa are failing to field a football team for the popular inter-village football tournament.


The migration has seen a number of local artisans not available locally, like electricians, plumbers and several other skilled workers are in short supply. The empty space left by the Goans is filled up by the non-Goans who are moving into Goa in search of employment.


Some of them have honest intentions but most of the people are looked up with suspicion and with several senior citizens living alone, they pose a threat if serious effort is not made to check their background.

Just like the non-goans who come to Goa to work and provide for their families, the Goans working in foreign lands for time immemorial have been working as SeaFarers, and several other countries as far as Africa and South America (Brazil) and helping their families to live comfortably.


The cash inflow (salaries) from foreign land made it possible to build them good houses, and help them provide good education for their children and thus there was an upward mobility.


So we do not find many of the Goan artisans children taking up the profession of their forefathers and that is the reason there is a vacant place in  many professions.


So migration has been good for Goa in the past as it supported the local economy (markets), but the migration of entire families is leaving a big hole in society. A hole which is difficult for the Goans based in Goa to fill up. And the migration is affecting more of the Christian community. A day is not far when Goans will be a minority in their own land and the day is not far, if we do not take steps to support our artisans, our artists, our young people who are in search of employment.

We need to form support groups at all levels for youths, for senior citizens. We need to operate as an entire close knit unit and reach out with a helping hand.

We need to go to the drawing board and identify what needs to be done and we have to do it quickly lest we lose our “Sobit amchem Goem, Sundor amchem Goem, bhangrachem Goem.