It actually looked like Luciano Poeketi would play with IJFC in the second division of amateur football next season. The fact that BE-PRO, a kind of ‘Marketplace for footballers’, caught his eye on Instagram, has completely changed his life. The platform indirectly ensured that the 26-year-old attacker could sign a contract with NK Podravac, a club that plays in the third tier of Croatian football. The village of Virje should form the starting point for late bloomer Poeketi towards a larger stage, with the ultimate goal of the national team of Suriname.
By Chris Meijer
Photo: Luciano Poeketic
Poeketi was quietly scrolling through Instagram, until he suddenly came across BE-PRO’s account. Worldwide Football Social Network, that’s how BE-PRO calls itself in the description. In Instagram posts, football players are asked all over the world. Scrolling through the timeline of BE-PRO for a few minutes is a feast for every adventurous footballer. For example, for the competitions of San Marino and Gibraltar, players are sought in all positions, for a monthly salary of 300 to 1500 euros. If you are the center defender wanted for the Montenegrin Prva crnogorska fudbalska liga, you can earn 1500 euros per month. If you are good enough to become a right-back at the highest level in Russia, you can expect a monthly salary of 30,000 euros.
“I happened to pass by on Instagram and went to check it out. It turned out to be something and I reacted to some things,” says Poeketi. That is how he came into contact with an English consultant, who would make him fit and then bring him to Australia. “But yes, I had to get fit first and was stuck with a sum that I had to pay so that they would help me. I would rather go for a direct offer. I also had a chat in Slovakia, only they didn’t hire outside players there and I had to wait.” His eye then fell on an opportunity in Romania. “I came to a club from Romania that was looking for players. The deal was not beneficial to me. It wouldn’t work financially, I should have paid for my own house. That made no sense.”
In the end, the contact indirectly resulted in a foreign adventure. ‘I know a man in Croatia. If you send him the same as you sent us, he will be interested,” Poeketi was told from Romania. He did what was asked, sent video footage to NK Podravac and from there, in his own words, the ball started rolling. The Croatian club was charmed by the video images that Poeketi sent and offered him the opportunity to prove himself for six months. “I now get a salary, food is paid and they have arranged housing. If they like it, a next contract will come after six months. I’m really going there to quickly take the next step. I had the feeling that the door was closed in the Netherlands. Then you have to take a different path.”
Until now, Poeketi has spent his entire football life with the amateurs. Although he completed internships at PSV and FC Utrecht at a young age, he never turned out to be a professional adventure. In recent years he played in the Utrecht area for Vreeswijk, SCH’44, IJFC and LRC. Poeketi would return to IJFC next season to play with the amateur club from IJsstelstein in the second division of Saturday football. “I have always kept the faith. Hard work is always rewarded. Of course it gets harder as you get older, but I kept the faith. If you want something, you have to mind put on it. I had a dip because my best friend (Shawn Sotong, ed.) died on the football field. But the fact that I managed to make it in the end is the result of the extra work I put in.”
Poeketi leaves nothing to chance to arrive in Croatia this week well prepared. Cardio training in the morning, working with the ball on the footwork on the field in the afternoon, strength training in the gym in the evening and still working in between. “Yes, these are busy days,” Poeketi laughs with a sense of understatement. “I’m pretty sober about it, to be honest. Of course you will end up in different situations and the tension can come later, but that is not really the case now. Actually, I’m looking forward to it. It just gets easier, this is something I’ve worked for for twenty years and can finally get into it.”
In the past week, Poeketi extensively analyzed the images he received from his new club. “I asked if I could get some footage of the club so I know roughly how they play. So lately I’ve been doing a lot of training and analyzing matches, to see a little bit of what to expect and where I can help. I try to put myself in it a bit, but that only really starts once I get there. I do have a bit of an idea. In the Netherlands we are a bit further in football, but you can see that they are fit and that the game goes up and down. Conditionally and physically you have to stand your ground immediately. There are also outside players who can play nice football and are handy with the ball. In the ashes I could certainly be an asset when it comes to football. In any case, I have not yet seen artificial grass pitches and there can be more than three thousand people in the stadium, so that is something different.”
Thanks to Croatian friends, Poeketi also learned something about the culture he will be facing. The fact that Virje, located near the Hungarian border and a hundred kilometers east of Zagreb, is probably not the most vibrant place in Europe, does not bother him much. “I’m doing my thing and it offers opportunities to focus on football, that’s the most important thing. The other things will come after that,” he shrugs. The Croatian adventure has a clear goal for him: to become an international for Suriname and play in one team there with his brother Roscello Vlijter, who has already won three international matches. Nationality played. “He’s not making minutes now, but that should come eventually. I told him to keep working hard and keep believing in it, then the ball will start rolling. That’s how it went for me, after all.”