Oh no, the football World Cup ended yesterday! No more streaming of games with bad Wifi. What to do now with all this spare time? There was a total of 64 matches in Russia, meaning that a real enthusiast would have spent more than 96 hours (more than 4 days non-stop)  watching all these games.

I am afraid to say it out loud, but the only game I really watch from the beginning till the end was the final. Yes, I could use a time difference as an excuse, but to be really honest, I just don’t care enough.

But you used to be a football player and coach, how can you not be interested?

I am interested and do love football, but I do not like to watch it. I want to engage, play it myself. Watching others play is pure entertainment without any action, and for me, there are better things to do to amuse myself.

One would say that I am not wholeheartedly into football, and probably he would be right. Maybe that’s why I didn’t ever make as a professional player? More about my past here.

Still, now travelling here in South-East Asia, the first thing I start to miss about home was football. Strange, eh?

I missed touching the ball. When I was a teenager I spent hours juggling and kicking the ball against the wall.  I missed having fun with teammates, jumping on grass and catching shots. Everything I used to do week after week for most of my life.

Without football matches, I didn’t have a possibility to compete, no way to feel an adrenaline pumping and struggled to feel manly. I felt that there was something inside me that I just couldn’t let out. Just watch the video to understand me.

Luckily my girlfriend, after seeing my troubles, decided to buy me a football as a present on Bali island. It’s one of the best presents ever, as it opened up more possibilities I would have imagined.

 What’s so good about some ball?

First of all, I had a chance to touch it, hold it, throw it, kick it, spin it and juggle with it every time I wanted to in our Ubud home. Either I had a bad mood or a very good mood, I could just grab the ball from bushes and start playing with it. Better entertainment than any match from tv.

Then after some days of having fun at home, I started to search friends to play with. I quickly found a group from a local Facebook community and joined the event. I ended up playing with a totally tattooed guy from French Polynesia and with an around 50-year-old Dutch guy who had never drunk alcohol in his life. We invited small children to play with us and it was fun, but not challenging.

Some days later one guy, after hearing that I used to be a football player, introduced me to another guy, who invited me to a real local football training. And this was competitive! It was futsal pitch 5vs5 and locals were short, quick and technical.  Still, I feel obliged to mention that I scored some goals. And sweat a lot!

And so the week passed in Ubud, I had football trainings 3 times a week. I had fun, I had a possibility to compete, and made new friends.

In fact, I think football is the best way to make new friends and contacts.

Strong statement! What do you mean by that?

Best story to illustrate this would be from Canggu beach. After the time was up in our Ubud home, I took my ball with me. And one late afternoon I took it to a beach in Canggu to juggle and chill alone. But just after 3 minutes I was already playing 1-on-1 with some local guy. Then 15 minutes later joined one English guy, then a Russian and soon we had a match against a young local football team on the beach. Never ever I would have seen it coming.

Playing with locals and other expats introduced me to so many different and cool people. And before and after training what we talked about? Yes, you guessed it. Did you saw the last Liverpool match on Sunday? Oh, by the way, Ragnar Klavan is from Estonia. Football is a perfect topic for small talk.

These are the reasons why I can’t live without playing football. Missing football is probably the biggest factor against my goal of living a location independent lifestyle.

Next obvious question is, can I make money with football on the road? Guess I have to find it out! And write about it.

Any ideas on how to monetize it while travelling around?