INITIALLY his plan was to play in the Commercial League, but finding the time even for that is proving difficult for Shaun Goater who still has plenty on his plate months after retiring as a professional footballer.Goater has been busy with the launch of a professional team to play in the United Soccer League, promoting his recently released autobiography Feed the Goat and a renovation project on his home to even have time to think about returning to the football field. Now, as was revealed last weekend, Goater could also be given the post of Youth Development Director within the Bermuda Football Association which would keep him busier still.

“I had contemplated a few things, really,” said Goater this week after spending his first Christmas back in Bermuda in almost 20 years.

“I haven’t made my mind up in terms of who I will play for. As my hands get more and more full with different projects, it will be less time for me to train and play. When I do get involved I will be training and coaching kids and that’s where I will be keeping myself fit. But that will only depend if I have time available to do that. At this time I don’t think I will.”

Goater has been flying back and forth to England to promote his book as well as travelling to the US for discussions on launching a Bermuda-based team to play in the USL next season. He hasn’t seen much football locally, let alone think about playing.

“If I had more time I certainly would have been to a lot more games and even would have been playing because I do love the game,” Goater stressed.

“I’ve only seen two games and probably about a half dozen games on TV,” he revealed. “I saw yesterday’s game (Dudley Eve at St. David’s) and that was one of the two games I have seen. I also saw Village play PHC about four weeks ago.

“I keep having this vision of professional players and I almost refuse to accept ‘well, welcome back to Bermuda’. But should we accept mediocrity? No, we shouldn’t accept it. These guys are well equipped, fit, good ability but we’ll accept they do bad things and say ‘well, this is Bermuda’.

“But what I did see and what is really good to see is the passion that the fans have. I’ve got a feeling that will never go away. I’m down there watching the game and it brought back memories of me playing down at St. David’s for Village.

“Once I was there for 15 minutes it gave me the feeling of what it was like to want to play on the day, to show people what you’ve got. I stood there next to (Allan) Maynard who used to play for Cougars years ago and he’s shouting to the Cougars players, other senior guys are around him shouting at their players and I’m thinking this is passion, this is real and this is one good reason why this game won’t die.”

The professional team will provide Bermuda’s top players with the opportunity to play at a higher level next summer, and Goater, who is in partnership with national coaches Kyle Lightbourne and Paul Scope, assures it will be a good thing for Bermuda football.“I think we’re at a point where we can only go forward with football in Bermuda,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of things happen at the fields which probably had nothing to do with football but which probably affected the gates and the numbers.”

Some North Village fans were hoping Goater, like Lightbourne at PHC, would return to his former club. But the former player sees himself helping out in a different way.

“I would rather use my energy and knowledge to pass onto kids and I think I can serve more good that way,” he stated. “I think my role now is about passing (knowledge) on.”

Goater admits it will be a challenge finding the ‘right’ players for the USL team. Flair players exist but he is also looking for good defensive players.

“It’s easy to go and find four or five players who you want to be creative...a striker who can score and has something in his locker to unlock a defence, a winger who can go past a player and put in a cross or score the odd goal,” he said.

“I don’t think you will have a problem finding a player like that but it could be a problem finding players who can defend and know that’s their role. We had the same mentality when I left, in that they were a defender but thought like a forward, controlling it and looking pretty and taking chances while the striker’s around you. Therefore we do amateur things, but in the professional game you take no risks.”

That said, Goater is encouraged by the talent available. “I feel we have a good bunch of lads to choose from,” he stated.

“At the same time we still want to have a trial date because, for whatever reason, some players haven’t been involved in the national programme and we’re not about to exclude anyone for whatever happened in the past. This is a pro team and is open to all the players we feel are good enough.

“We’re coming with a clean slate, we’re not prejudging anyone. We’re saying if you can deliver this standard of football, you’re committed and you adhere to our rules and regulations it isn’t a problem.”

[bul] The Premier’s Dudley Eve reaches its climax on New Year’s Day at Wellington Oval with the First and Premier Division finals. Devonshire Colts and Devonshire Cougars, by virtue of their two straight victories, are already through to the final and are awaiting their opponents which will be determined on Saturday night at Somerset when Ireland Rangers and Boulevard (each with one win and one loss) meet the winners of last night’s matches at Devonshire Rec. between Southampton Rangers and Wolves and North Village and Somerset Trojans.

Goater has his hands full after retirement