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Asmir Begovic diary


loyola

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Interesting read:

http://www.edmonton.com/fifa2007/news_diary.asp

Asmir's Adventures

For those of you that don't know me, my name is Asmir Begovic. I played youth soccer in Edmonton, Alberta. Even though I have grown a little since my Edmonton Minor soccer days, I still remember them. It wasn't too long ago that I was running around at the Edmonton Soccer Complex. It is funny how quickly things change, I just turned 19 years old on June 20, 2006 and am up to 6'5 ft. tall. In the last years I have played Goalkeeper for the Canadian Men's National Team, the Men's Olympic U-23 Team and the Men's U-20 Team. I spent last year playing professionally in Belgium and am now currently battling for a spot on Portsmouth FC who currently play in England's Premier Division.

October 15, 2006

Hello Everybody. Things are going well over here in England. I've just got back from the Prague, Czech Republic were I was for a week with the U-20 Canadian team. We played the Czech's twice; we lost the first game 2:0 and won the second 2:1. Both goals we scored were really nice headers. It was a good trip overall because it showed us we can play with one of the best teams in the world, and gave us something to build on for up coming games. The Czech's have already qualified for the U-20 World Cup next year in Canada, so it feels really good to be able to have a good battle with them.

Everything at Portsmouth is going fine. I have just finished all my paperwork and will hopefully be able to play in the reserve game next week against Reading. I definitely need some games now to sharpen up and then maybe get a chance to go on loan to another team in England to get some first team experience. I'm also flat hunting at the moment which is going well, I would like to move into my own place soon so that I can finally get settled in a bit more. There is a really nice area right by the sea which would be a perfect location. We have a game against West Ham on Saturday which is a big game so hopefully we can get a result, and I'm sure we will with the support our home fans give us.

Take care everyone and talk to you soon.

Asmir

September 15, 2006

Hello everybody back in Canada. The season is definitely underway now. Things have been going really great for the team. We're in 2nd place at the moment so we've had a great start. I have not been involved in the first team but David James is a great goalkeeper and he's a great guy to learn from. I hope to go on loan soon because it will allow me to get some more game time experience playing in somebody's first team. I'm hoping to see my family soon; they are planning to come and visit me in England in the next couple months. This will be nice because I haven't seen them in a couple of months. At times it is tough being so far away from your friends and family but then I just remind myself that I am following my dream and that it is definitely worth it. I should also be moving into my own flat soon which will be nice.

We went to Belgium a couple of weeks ago for a 2 game series against the Belgians. We lost the first game 2:1 which was harsh because we conceded a penalty in injury time. And then we drew 1:1 in the second game which was good because we came back from a goal down showing some good character. Both of these games were a good experience for us and we definitely need more of these games to get us ready for next year's tournament. Talk to you guys again next month.

Cheers.

Asmir

August 15th, 2006

Here is a little bit on my first 5 weeks here.

I've been back for pre season now for 5 weeks here at Portsmouth. I had a great summer seeing a few friends and spending a few weeks at home with the family was awesome. As soon as I came here, I met the manager and all the players again who I haven't seen in 2 months and the work began. We started off with running straight away, so things have been tough. Even though I am a goalie, it is very important that I am very fit. We went away for a week down to Devon which was good for team bonding, and the training was also very good. We had some free time and we played tennis and bit of golf, I soon found out Golf isn't my type of game. We've also had some good tough games and the results have been good. The league starts on Saturday against Blackburn at home and everybody is looking forward to it after all of the hard work. I'm on the fringes of the first team and as soon as my papers get sorted out I hope to really be involved for the Premier League matches.

I'm off with the U-20 national team in a couple of weeks to Belgium where we have 2 friendlies. It should be nice to see the boys again after our great series with Brazil. I was so happy when we beat Brazil in Commonwealth Stadium, what a great game. Everybody is looking forward to competing for a spot on this team, so that we can be part of a great event next summer. We are trying to prepare real well because we don't want to let anybody down next summer and give it our best shot to win the tournament.

I will check in with you again next month. Later.

Asmir

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At the moment only Asmir is having that kind of diary, I truly like that idea. The other 5 cities should try to adopt this idea and having a local U20 player having his diary. Peters or Johnson for Toronto, Nunez or JBB for Montreal, would be good exposure for our boyz.

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:)

Ha! Nice find.

Got to admit, I'm a sucker for **** like this. Asmir's European Adventure. Grand stuff.

P.S. Agree with bettermirror. Always happy to count myself as part of the great, unwashed, LCD masses, but oy, that's some pretty harsh reading ;).

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  • 4 weeks later...

EDIT: I just found out that Asmir played in the last 2 reserves games for Portsmouth, I posted the links on the canadian abroad section.

I caught a report yesterday on Sky sports news where Portsmouth back up keeper Dean Kiely was saying that he wants out of Portsmouth. There was a clip of the goalkeepers training and we saw Begovic, so he's training with the seniors (there was 4 keepers James, Kiely, Begovic and another one).

I guess that if Kiely wants out it will be tougher for Asmir to get loan somewhere, which would be the best option for him. Here's the article about Kiely:

News

Kiely moves towards exit

Portsmouth FC

Written by: Chris Nixon

PORTSMOUTH, Nov 23 (SW) – Veteran Portsmouth ‘keeper Dean Kiely admits he will probably be forced to leave Fratton Park in the search of regular first team football.

Whilst admitting he holds no grudges towards current incumbent David James, it is the way he has been treated which hurts Kiely the most after he helped guide the club to safety last season.

"We did a miraculous job (last season), played really, really well and got out of trouble and I find myself discarded as you will know," said the veteran.

"And that doesn't sit too well with me really because I've always played and done the business with the clubs I've been at!

"Well, you know it's probably looking that way (a January move) and this has really been forced upon me.

"After remaining in The Premiership and making a good contribution, my big picture was maybe move the family down and settle in the area.

"I have nothing against any other keeper. We come and we do our jobs. I just find it really, really difficult.

"Wherever I go I try to make a contribution. I don't want to sit here and pick up my wages for doing absolutely nothing.

"I'm concentrating on keeping myself fit and well. Physically and mentally I need to keep myself sharp because within a week things might change."

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  • 3 weeks later...

Some updates from Asmir:

December 1, 2006

Everything is going well for me in England. I have actually just gone on loan to Macclesfield Town for a month. This is good for me because I will get to play some proper first team games and also work under a great manager in Paul Ince who I'm hoping I will learn a lot from. So I will be traveling between Macclesfield and Portsmouth quite often because I will still train with Portsmouth.

Things at Portsmouth were going great for me as well; I played the last 2 reserve games against Fulham which we won 1:0 and against West Ham which we drew 1:1, so I must have been spotted in one of those games. The first team there is doing really well; they’re in 3rd place right now. Hopefully my experiences here will help me down the line to try and get into the first team in Portsmouth.

We will be busy with the Canadian U-20 team over the next few months as many things are planned. I'm hoping to be part of some of the training camps, so hopefully I will be available and the club and CSA can reach an agreement. The World Cup is inching closer and closer and more teams have qualified so things are starting to get exciting.

I've also found a flat in Portsmouth which I should be moving into early next month, so I am very pleased about that. It's starting to get cold here which I am sure it is in Canada as well, I spoke to my mate in Edmonton and he says it’s starting to get to around minus 20, so I’m glad I’m out of that for the time being….ha-ha! Hope everybody is well and will check in with you again next month.

Later,

Asmir

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quote:Originally posted by Loud Mouth Soup

<i>I'm hoping to be part of some of the training camps, so hopefully I will be available and the club and CSA can reach an agreement.</i>

So nice to hear this from players that care.

No **** :)

quote:Originally posted by Jamit

How far away is Macclesfield from Portsmouth?

Pretty far I'd say. Macclesfield is south of Manchester/Stockport. Portsmouth to Macclesfield? Gotta be a couple of hundred klicks so I don't know if he's spending a couple of days at each end or what.

Maybe there's a cheap flight between Southampton/Portsmouth and Manchester?

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Asmir Begovic has returned to parent club Portsmouth after a knee injury cut short his loan with Macclesfield Town.

The Bosnian-born Canadian youth international is set to miss the next six weeks of action with the knee problem, as the 19-year-old will have surgery to treat the leg joint.

Begovic arrived on a month's loan back in late November as cover for injured keeper Tommy Lee.

Fortunately for Silkmen boss Paul Ince, Lee has overcome his groin problem and will resume his place in goal.

Meanwhile, former Macclesfield chairman Eddie Furlong has been charged with improper conduct by The Football Association in relation to financial irregularities.

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Bad news. Our young keepers are very unfortunate with injuries, first Karim in Hungary, then Wagenaar loosing the starting spot with ADO and now this. The good news: they are young and they still have at least a 15 years career ahead of them.

Good luck to Asmir for the recovery.

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  • 1 month later...

The January entry:

Asmir's Adventures

January 2007

Hello everyone, hope that everyone had a safe Christmas, and I also wish everybody a happy new year. I had a good holiday, I was able to go to Germany to see my family for a few days and then came back to England for new years which was great, one of my mates from Edmonton came to visit me for a few days so that was great. I’ve moved into my new apartment here in Portsmouth a couple of weeks ago so I feel really settled here now.

I’ve been out injured for the last 3 weeks because I had surgery on my knee. I had torn a tendon on the lateral side and would be out 6 weeks according to the surgeon and club doctors. The injury happened in a training session at Macclesfield and it was a day before a game training on Field Turf so that was really unfortunate. I have been doing rehab and I'm stepping it up so the knee is feeling better and better. The loan had been going well we won every game I played in which was really pleasing. But now I'm back in Portsmouth and once I am fit I want to battle for a spot here or maybe go on loan again, it will depend on the situation after the transfer window.

This injury unfortunately has kept me out of going to any national team camps but I hope to be with the team as soon as possible and hoping to be back involved for the Scotland series in March. The team had a disappointing result last month against the US but hopefully the guys have learned from it for the future. Its 2007 now and the tournament is approaching fast and hopefully people are picking up the vibe in Canada also. It will be interesting to see in the next couple of months which teams qualify for Canada 2007.

Well, I’m out and will check in with you guys again soon.

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  • 1 month later...

The March entry, must have been written before he got injured. You can find his e-mail at the end of the text if you want to write a little something to Asmir.

March 2007

Hello everyone once again. Hope you are all doing well. I am doing fine, I am currently in Dubai with the Portsmouth team on a week long training camp and it’s been amazing so far. My injury has healed up well and I am fully fit once again, I had my first 90 minutes last week which was great, and training is also getting my knee stronger and stronger. We haven’t been doing particularly well in recent games here in England (Portsmouth) but hopefully we can turn things around and have a great finish to the season because there are some great games to look forward to. I have been traveling and training with the first team quite a bit recently, a great experience for the future.

I think everyone has seen the draw for the World Cup, and most people, I think, are pleased with the draw. It's by no means an easy group but if we live up to our potential we have a great chance of going through. Chile will be a very tough opening game and I am sure they will be as fired up for the game as we will. If we get off to a good start in that game we will be set up for a good run in the group games. Once we get to Edmonton it won't get any easier as we play Congo who finished first in their qualifying and Austria who will be tough as every team from Europe is. So it’s a very interesting draw I think every city will get to see some great action, how about the USA v. Brazil game, or Spain v. Uruguay, those should be great to see, so a very interesting draw overall.

We have games coming up against Scotland in BC which should give us a great test; we really want to show well because we want to measure ourselves against these teams. The two games should give us a good idea of what type of things to work on and improve. I am very excited about the games as are most of the players and it should be a lot of fun, hopefully we will get a great turn out and have a great atmosphere at the games. If anybody wants to give any feedback to me on the diary please email me at asmirU20@hotmail.com.

Take care everyone. Ciao.

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quote:Originally posted by loyola

The March entry, must have been written before he got injured. You can find his e-mail at the end of the text if you want to write a little something to Asmir.

What do you mean by this? Has he been injured again recently? Maybe I missed something but I don't remember hearing anything other than his injury a couple months ago that ended his loan spell.

Edit: Nevermind, I just read about it in another release.

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quote:Originally posted by El Hombre

What do you mean by this? Has he been injured again recently? Maybe I missed something but I don't remember hearing anything other than his injury a couple months ago that ended his loan spell.

Yes, Asmir is injured and has pulled off for the Scotland games. Here's the link:

http://www.canadian-soccer.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=11599

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