Former Magpie pushing for promotion in Finland
Luqman Kassim moved overseas from Maidenhead United u23s
Footballers plying their trade abroad is nothing new, but have you heard about the one about the Slough youngster pushing for promotion to the top tier of football in Finland?
Luqman Kassim was 19 years old when he got the call to head over to the country on an adventure that has seen him play for three clubs in the Finnish Football League, earn a Second Division winners medal and score 80 goals across the Third and Fourth Divisions for Norrvalla FF.
Currently coming to the end of the 2022 season, Kassim’s side Järvenpää Palloseura (JaPs) look well set to finish in the top half of the table before the Second Division is split in two, with the winners earning automatic promotion to the Finnish Premier Division – something he achieved in 2021 with VPS.
Kassim revealed that his move to Finland back in 2019 came a bit out of the blue: “I’d just started at JD Sports,” he told the Football in Berkshire website.
“I got a call from my uncle who was with an agent I was talking to the previous year. I had been with Aaron Steadman at Maidenhead United in the under 23s and was set to move across with him to Ascot
United.
“The agent asked me what he could do for me, and said he had an opportunity to go to Finland.
“At that time I didn’t even know where Finland was.”
Making his first steps into senior men’s football, Kassim had taken a job at JD Sports in Slough when the call came and had a tough decision to make: “When the call came I thought it might be a club in
Manchester or maybe Scotland, something like that.
“And he said Finland.
“The hardest thing was breaking the news to my mum. She’s my biggest supporter but she wanted to make sure I followed the education route.
“Football is a big risk but I had to try this and she supported me, but I was really worried she would say no and tell me to stay at JD but she supported me.”
“And it was great for my development, different to Slough which I think has the best 5-aside players in the country but I have really developed.
“It was the first time I was away but at Norvalla, my first club, where the was based there were no distractions.
“It was a village. There was a petrol station and two supermarkets and that was about it, it allowed me to devote myself to football.
“There was me and another lad, we shared a flat and we just trained like professionals would.
“We were in Division 4 but I had a training schedule and no distractions.”
Playing for JaPs, Kassim is comfortable with the club’s game plan which sees quick balls to the forwards and it’s served the team well following promotion last season.
For now Kassim’s aim is the Finnish top flight: “The aim is top-flight full-time football in Finland. That’s one step away for me.
“The exposure here because the level we’re at is much higher. If I can hit top-flight I’ll be playing teams preparing for European Qualifiers and really testing myself.
“I am loving the experience. “I want to play back in England one-day and see how far I can get, but right now I want to be a top-flight football player.”
The full podcast with
Luqman Kassim is available on all good podcast platforms. Search Berkshire Football Stories.
Alternatively, visit https://www.footballinbracknell.co.uk/ to read more about Kassim’s story.