Unique isolation for foreign-born Forge players
Cissé, Krutzen, Achinioti-Jonsson used to being away, but not quite like this
Scaling the ranks of professional soccer, each has grown accustomed to being away from his native country. In fact, they all played in Hamilton last year.
But, as it is for everybody during the pandemic, this year is much different for Forge FC’s three returning foreign players.
Here’s 25-year-old midfielder Elimane Cissé, missing his wife, Seynabou, whom he married last fall while he was in Hamilton and she was in their native Senegal, and living near Tim Hortons Field with a new teammate and housemate, Paolo Sabak, from Belgium.
Here’s 23-year-old Belgian defender Daniel Krutzen, sharing a downtown house with striker Anthony Novak, both staring wistfully when they pass shuttered Tim Hortons Field on teammandated training runs.
Here’s 24-year-old Swedish midfielder Alexander Achinioti-Jonsson, currently self-isolating in Barrie with his girlfriend, but soon moving back in with Krutzen and Novak.
They’re still working, spending a couple of hours a day running and on drills designed and monitored via high-tech by Forge coaches and athletic therapy staff. But they are soccer-less, locked down and prevented from pursuing the one goal that brought them to Hamilton in the first place.
Cissé’s situation is compelling. He finally returned to Senegal from Hamilton two months after he and Seynabou were married. They belatedly celebrated their wedding at a restaurant with their siblings, then lived together before he returned to Hamilton in February to begin training with Forge.
Then the pandemic struck, suspending camp in mid-March and causing Cissé deep concern about Senegal, where fatalities have been limited but case numbers are rising. He talks to Seynabou by phone every day, sometimes for hours. “She was supposed to come back with me but, with the disease, it was difficult to obtain a visa,” he says in French, translated by assistant coach Johan Albert.
“She’s living with her family, not as isolated as here, but there’s a curfew from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. I would really like her to come here, but I think she will probably not be able to.”
Achinioti-Jonsson says he’d feel more on his own if it weren’t for his girlfriend, Brittany Cyr, “and don’t know how I’d be at handling it.”
Connecting to his Swedish hometown of Helsingborg via social media, he is struck by the contrasting Canadian and Swedish responses to the pandemic.
“Sweden is very unique in this,” he says.
“It’s weird seeing all my friends going out to restaurants and basically living their normal life and I can get a bit jealous of that. They take precautions, they social distance, but nothing closed down. It’s a bit bittersweet looking home and seeing them on patios and enjoying life.”
Krutzen has spent most of his time in North America the past four seasons, returning to Belgium this year just for the
Christmas week. Although Forge players see each other on video conference for morning stretching exercises and oncea-week social sessions, he craves the spontaneous in-person conversations among the closely knit unit.
The players are unanimous on what they miss most. “It’s the soccer,” Krutzen says. “Physically being on the field, touching the ball, with your team. If I’m not playing soccer, then what’s my purpose here? You know what I mean? There are days when that thought can creep in, but you just try to stay busy and keep your mind on the positive things. Everybody has things they are dealing with, and that’s the only way you can do it at this time.”
Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator.