Maamria story shows value of always going out to impress
“YOU never know who’s watching you.” That is what Burton Albion assistant manager Dino Maamria tells young players – with very good reason.
Maamria was first spotted playing football barefoot in a remote village in his native Tunisia. Then, after moving to a big city club there, was spotted again by Burnley’s chief scout, who happened to be on holiday.
It led to him coming to England as a 22-year-old to start an extensive career in playing, coaching and management, which now finds him as number two to his friend Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink at Burton.
Maamria reflected on how his career came about in an extensive interview with The Coaches’ Voice website.
“I always say to young players I coach, you should always perform at your best because you never know who’s watching,” said Maamria.
“You never know who might give you the opportunity of a lifetime. I learned that early on.
“I grew up in Gafsa, right in the very south of Tunisia. It’s basically the desert, miles from everybody else.
“There was no club from there in the top division of Tunisian football when I was growing up, so when I told people my dream was to make it as a professional footballer, they laughed.
“Professional football was so far away from reality that nobody believed it was possible.
“Then, one day, when I was about 14, I was playing on what was essentially a dirt track, with my brother and my friends. We were playing in bare feet.
“This man came over to me at the end of the match, asked me for my name and address and that was it. I didn’t think anything more of it at the time.
“Three months down the line,
there was a knock on my door. It was some people from one of the big teams in the top division. They asked to see my father: ‘We’ve seen your son playing,’ they said. ‘We want to take him on.’
“My father replied, ‘My son is not interested. He is going to concentrate on his studies. Football is just something on the side for him.’
“I was gutted. Absolutely devastated. I thought I’d missed my chance. But they were obviously keen, because they came back for me three years later. This time, I went for it.
“From then on, I always told myself, ‘You never know who’s watching.’ I’d been playing in bare feet and ended up at one of the best clubs in Tunisia.”
Playing for a mid-table club, AS Marsa, Maamria was in the team which won a cup semi-final in Sousse, a popular holiday destination.
Burnley’s chief scout, Brian Miller, was on holiday, watched the game and was still around to watch the final.
“Off the back of that, I earned a move to Burnley,” said Maamria.
“I moved in 1995, just before foreign players really started moving to England in big numbers. At the time, there were only Scottish and English people at Burnley.
“I’d learned English at school but the language is totally different in a dressing room. Every other word is a swear word!
“Ted McMinn – a really funny guy who was very friendly to me when I joined – had a strong Scottish accent and there were Scousers in there too. So many different accents.
“It was quite daunting for a young man from north Africa and a big change from what I was used to.
“Burnley is a lovely place but it can be very grey, very wet. I’d also never been to a pub before. I was used to drinking coffee.
“We’d go to the pub. Everyone would have pints and I’d have coffee. People would look at me and wonder what the hell I was doing
“I learned quickly that it was important to adapt and, even though it wasn’t what I was used to, to embrace the culture – and that meant going to the pub even though I drank coffee!”
Maamria adapted his game too. Older supporters who saw him play in England will recall a big, hard centre-forward with the occasional reckless streak.
He scored a hat-trick against Burton for Leigh RMI in the Brewers’ first season in the Conference and later played against them for both Southport and Stevenage.
“Embracing the culture extended to my game, too,” said Maamria.
“I had to become a more physical player than a technical player to survive. It was a real eye-opener for me at a young age.
“The obstacles were huge, but my determination to succeed and move on in my career, to move around Europe, was so great that I made the changes I needed to
“I totally changed my game during my time in England. I changed from a number 10 to a winger and then to a centre-forward.”
And, as we also now know, he was coaching from an early age, as soon as he was at Burnley.
It is quite a story.