Bill Gougoulakis is the very young manager of Ramrod FC in the Athenian League of the Greek Minifootball Championship and says that it’s a life dream for him to win the Panhellenic trophy. Some players of his team, like Dimitris Karavidas, Spyros Sympsiris, George Andreopoulos, Panos Pomonis have already been in the Greek National Team during the past 2 years, but still the team itself has not managed to take the 1st place in the National Finals.
Bill adores minifootball. This sport is his passion and he always tries to push his players to play better and closer to his instructions. The strategy and the will are the two key-preconditions for realizing the big dream.
“Living the passion from inside the Minifootball court is much stronger feeling that living it for example from the same position in basketball court. This sport is incredible!”
“The result is what really excites me. I know that it does not sound very good, but this is the truth for me. Of course, I enjoy the game and the joy that it offers, but the result is the goal.”
“It is also very important to watch my players fighting inside the court, to implement our strategy and the tricks that we have planned. All these things really satisfy me because they prove that they have understood what we have prepared for the match. So, the joy for the implementation of our plans comes always first and then the joy for the result comes as a consequence.”
“The atmosphere in the team is fantastic. We are a family that was created by players that did not know each other before. And my personal dream to win the trophy was always the goal. I have not managed it yet, but this dream was the initial reason. I was always scouting good players in the N’JOY UNI-League and I started from two players. After some years, there were two different teams that were created, following the advice of a good friend and colleague and these two teams are very connected and they operate as brother teams.”
The truth is that Bill is a very popular manager in Greek Minifootball and it is not only his players that love him, but always the opponents show their respect to him.
“About the tournament, I have only one thing to say: N’JOY UNI-League is the perfect tournament! There are always teams that try to find the reason of their failure and then they implicate the referees but this is the biggest mistake, this is not right. ”
“I really want my players to be healthy and I believe that this year can be our year. Being healthy is always the most important thing though, since you can go to the National Finals and suddenly have 2 injured players…”
Next question was about the strong opponents that his team needs to play against.
“Kostakides is a very good team this year. Amigos are all time classic and we have played against them 3 or 4 times but unfortunately we have not managed to win them until now. Of course, it is still early. There will be surprises in the 2nd round and I have not seen yet all the teams. In some weeks I will have a better picture of the opponents”
“Being a manager is not only making the plans of the team, but it is also scouting the opponents’ matches. Being a manager is not a job that starts and finishes when a match starts and finishes. Biggest part of the job takes place before and afterwards. Firstly you have to respect everyone. This is the main principle for me.”
Bill looks outside of Greece, though, for his inspiration: “Mourinho is my teacher. He is my idol and I think that he and Beckham are the two most important sport personalities of the world. There is only 1 word for them: Respect!”
Then he spoke about the Greek National Minifootball Team.
“It is a great team. I have seen most if its games. There are fantastic players there and I keep studying very much its tricks and its plans for the fouls for example. I don’t say anything else in this interview! All the other information is secret! This year it was not pleasant that we lost against Germany in that way (4-0 in phase 16), but in the last year we played against the same team and we could have done it in the penalties. We were just unlucky (1-1, p.6-7 in phase 16).”
At the end of the interview, Bill sent his own life message:
“3 words: Never give up! Ok, I know, this is very generic, but every time you are able to do it and even if it is difficult, you should never give up in your life. You have to try, because there are only a few things that are over your human capacity. Just keep trying…”