Kicking it with Nam the Man

While 10 keepie uppies with a header thrown on the end is an achievement for most of us, Sligo-born Nam Hoai Nguyen has taken freestyle football to a different level.

In 1998, Nike recruited Dutch football legend Edgar Davids for a pre-World Cup advert. Davids, replete with dreadlocks, mirror shades and an arsenal of astounding football tricks, sent millions of young football fans rushing to their back gardens in a generally futile attempt to emulate what they had just seen. The advert series quickly gathered a cult following and freestyle soccer, the art of football juggling and tricks, went global.

Nam, meeting the man who started it all, Edgar Davids

While most freestyle careers ended with a broken window or a ball booted into a neighbour’s yard out of frustration, Irish-born Nam Hoai Nguyen persevered. Nam’s parents were two of the thousands of Vietnamese refugees to flee their home country in the years after the Vietnam War.

The so-called ‘boat people’ were often those lucky enough to escape the persecution meted out by the communist government to those it considered had aided the US during the conflict. The plight of the boat people – who often took to the sea in crude, dangerously over-crowed self-made vessels – won the attention of the Irish people in the 1970s, and many came to make their homes here.

“I was born in Sligo,” says Nam. “Although I’ve no idea how we ended up there.”  The family moved to Dublin soon after Nam’s birth where, aside from brief stints abroad, he has remained since. Asian faces were a rarity in 1980s and 1990s Dublin and Nam was frequently singled out by other kids.

He recalls: “I actually got quite a lot of hassle. It would be mostly name-calling and occasionally someone would want to fight because they thought Asian people would be able to do kung fu or whatever. It was really annoying, but I got used to it. I think it broadens your mind in a way.”

Nam got interested in football while in school, and at the age of 12 he joined his local side, Clondalkin Athletic. Nam later got into UCD’s intermediate side while studying Electrical Engineering and was then, just before France ’98, that his interest was sparked by that iconic Nike add.

Nam recalls: “I knew some juggling, just from playing out on the street, but I started to take it more seriously when I saw Edgar Davids in that Nike advert.” The popularity of freestyle exploded in the years that followed and Nam threw himself into the thick of it. “I started copying his tricks and then I entered a Nike freestyle competition in 2001. I went on from there,” he says.

Initially, Nam maintained his interest in mainstream football alongside his growing love for freestyle, and he began contacting clubs around Asia in the hope of getting stint with one. “I wrote to all the J-League [Japanese soccer league] clubs when I was in college,” he says. “I got one response but I ended up not going because I didn’t have the funds.”

Nam also turned to his parents’ home country and was eventually invited over. He remembers: “I went to Vietnam and I met with a national team coach. I trained with his under-21 team for a while, but I decided to come back to Ireland in the end.”

Freestyle began to replace football in Nam’s affections upon his return, and with his freestyle reputation growing, he no longer plays football competitively. “I’m mostly travelling around now so I can’t really dedicate my time to training,” he says. “Also, playing might cause injuries that might stop me from practicing freestyle.”

Nam is now a full-time freestyler, with his schedule taken up by demonstrations, shows, adverts, travelling and a grueling training regime. “I train every day for up to five hours,” he explains. “I usually get up, warm up and then practice for about two hours. I train again in the afternoon and then either play football or practice again in the evening.”

Nam believes that there is no big secret to mastering his techniques, many of which would be well beyond the capacity of the average Premiership footballer: “It’s like anything, if you practice hard at something and then you nail it, you have a sense of satisfaction,” he says. “Then you want to learn another one. Some tricks can be difficult and others you can pick up in 20 minutes.”

The 26-year-old says he is yet to come across a trick he hasn’t been able to master. “Even if it takes you 10 takes, you have to keep trying until you get it. And then if you’ve done it once you can do it again. That’s what I always say.”

It’s almost enough to make you dig out the ball and head back to the garden.

Robert Carry