Dutch professional footballers can be found in all corners of the world, from the spotlights of the major European leagues to the more adventurous jobs on other continents. In the Over de Grens section, Voetbalzone speaks weekly with a player who is active outside the national borders. This time with attention to Said Hamulic, who always believed in a career as a professional football player and is currently the revelation of the Lithuanian A Lyga.
By Chris Meijer
The talkative Said Hamulic (20) falls silent during the conversation. “Now that I’m on the phone with you, an agent is also calling. He probably has a sacrifice. So you see,” he mumbles. With ten goals and an assist, he is one of the big surprises in Lithuania this season at DFK Dainava Alytus – the number eight of the total ten clubs in the A Lyga. “Recently there was a club from Ecuador that wanted to buy me. The contract was ready, all I had to do was sign. That just motivates me, even if it’s not exactly a country I want to go to. Some people may lean back when they are offered a contract with a good salary, but for me it works the other way around. I just want to do better.”
It was still a utopia a year ago for agents to call him now. What Hamulic is living now has been a dream for a long time. Or an image he could only see for himself. Until the beginning of the calendar year, he only spent a few months at a professional club. Via RCL, UVS and Alphense Boys he ended up at Go Ahead Eagles. Nine goals and two assists in 16 appearances for the Under-19 were not enough to force a longer stay in Deventer. He then had the opportunity to sign with Airbus UK Broughton in Wales. A chance at a trial period with Portuguese Primeira Liga clubs SC Braga and Gil Vicente led him to turn down that offer. However, the internships in Portugal came to nothing.
“I took a risk and unfortunately it didn’t work out. It didn’t really go well for me, no. I always say: everything happens for a reason”, Hamulic sighs. He immediately adds: “Once you really believe in that, you start to accept things better.” Hamulic lists an impressive list of clubs: ADO Den Haag, Sparta Rotterdam, Almere City, Willem II, SC Braga, Gil Vicente, Huddersfield Town, Sheffield United, Miedz Legnica. Everywhere he was told that he was not good enough. Did not meet expectations. Or maybe try again next time. “Believe me, these aren’t even all the clubs. I could go on and on. I did an internship at big clubs. Lost weight. Internship at small clubs. Lost weight. Miedz Legnica didn’t want me after an internship. Now that things are going well in Lithuania, they have already called my agent ten times. The football world is very strange, you know?”
For now, Hamulic has 10 goals and 1 assist to his name in 23 official matches for Dainava.
Hamulic can give an example. “During an internship with the Under-19 of Almere City, I was sent away even after twenty minutes. They said: ‘You don’t cook at all’. The joke is that I went to Sheffield United with a football academy, and I scored a hat-trick there in 20 minutes. The same coach was there and came to me with the question if I wanted to come and play for Almere City. ‘What a great person you are,’ he said to me. I recognized him, but he didn’t recognize me. So I responded: you sent me away two months ago. ‘Was that you? Sorry man, it wasn’t anything personal. The way I see you playing football now, you really have potential. Keep it up,” he said. Despite these experiences, Hamulic’s belief that he would become a professional footballer never disappeared. In fact, all setbacks stoked the fire in him, as he calls it himself, to prove just the opposite.
“Because people have said so many times that I can’t do it, a certain fire has started. There is a difference between being motivated and really wanting to. I didn’t really have a choice, did I. I didn’t have school or work, I didn’t even play football at the time. That’s the big difference between me and the other players who are eager to take a step,” he explains in an elevated tone. At the beginning of this calendar year, Hamulic was still in a somewhat hopeless situation. He joined the Quick Boys Under-21 a year ago. Not the professional club he had hoped for after his departure from Go Ahead Eagles. But at least it seemed an opportunity to make minutes at a large amateur club. However, this would hardly happen due to the consequences of the corona pandemic.
When agent Foster Debrah came up with DFK Dainava Alytus at the beginning of this year, Hamulic didn’t have to think twice. Coincidentally, he had already heard of the club, because he had already received an invitation via social media to come to Lithuania. At first he wasn’t interested, but that was different now. “I didn’t know the country. Surely you want to know certain things and I tried to do some research on the internet, but I didn’t get very far. Lithuania is not really a football country to be excited about. But I played with the amateurs and because of corona I couldn’t play football, so that made that step easier. Otherwise I might not have done it. I wanted to play football again and not sit at home. I actually went in with no expectations. If you don’t go into it with too high expectations, it can only be easy.”
Dainava is received by his followers.
Hamulic’s internship at Dainava was quite special. After a week and a half, the Italian trainer Fabio Mazzone took him aside. ‘Yes sorry. You don’t care at all. Pack your things and go home,” Hamulic was told. Disappointed, but at the same time happy with clarity, he prepared to fly back to the Netherlands a few days later. Shortly before his departure, Hamulic was allowed to play in a practice match and he left an excellent impression with a goal and an assist. “The director came running to me afterwards: ‘You are fast, strong, young, good, you have the ability to score. I see it in you. The coach will have to accept that’. He said that the next day we should sit down to discuss a contract. I was a bit surprised: first they wanted me out and now we’re going to talk about a contract. But no sooner said than done: we came out quickly and I signed.”
Another stroke of luck soon followed: Dainava did get a license to promote to the highest level. “Then the trainer started again: ‘You can’t handle the highest level at all’. He left and I’m trying to prove him wrong,” Hamulic said. Under Mazzone, the Dutchman usually played as a left midfielder, with instructions to play as defensively as possible. His successor Tomas Razanauskas ‘just’ uses Hamulic as a left winger. “The trainer gives me a free role. In that I have to defend, we are a relatively small club and are normally the lesser team compared to the opponent. With this coach we try to play a little more football, which gives us more opportunities.”
“I have much higher ambitions, although I prefer to keep them to myself. We are on the right track, especially when you see where I come from.”
As the months went on, Hamulic has been performing better and better in Lithuania. Coincidence or not, but at the same time as the temperature increases his goal total. “It was a struggle in the beginning, especially because of the cold. It was -24 here, so that is extremely cold. Personally, I like warm weather, so I had to get used to it. But now that the weather has slowly improved, everything has fallen into place,” Hamulic nods. Moreover, time also made contacts in Lithuania easier. “Lithuanians are confidants. They want to know you well before they can trust you, which makes the beginning difficult. If they trust you, you’ll get along well with them. They want to know who you are, from head to toe. The club gives me everything I want: I have a good apartment, my food is taken care of and my salary is neatly deposited. I can’t complain, everything is to your liking.”
That everything is now falling into place also translates to Hamulic’s performance on the pitch. In the last fourteen games he has scored ten goals and an assist. “I often hear my name mentioned here, they say that number 99 is a great talent. A few months ago I was nothing, let me put it this way”, beams Hamulic. “I secretly always dreamed of professional football. Actually, I’ve always had faith in myself, I’m no less than the people who were in professional football. I just hadn’t had a chance yet. I certainly started to have doubts, but I always said to myself: one day it will work. It finally worked, although I’m certainly not there yet. I have much higher ambitions, although I prefer to keep them to myself. We are on the right track, especially when you see where I come from.”