Hello. My name is Woy Hodgson. I’m a PE teacher in South London who has had a career in non-league. I started at Crystal Palace but never broke into the first team. I had doubts that I would even reach the professional game so I worked at getting my coaching badges early and by 23 years old, I had some badges. I didn’t give up my dream of becoming a professional player and even travelled to South Africa to see if it would kickstart my career. It never did and I find myself now, at 29, teaching PE to children in South London.
That was until I got a call. A call that I hoped would change my life. Just before Christmas 2021, I got a call from someone with a strange accent. They said they owned a small football club in Sweden. Calamari, or something like that. I thought it was a joke but gave them a chance. They arranged for me to fly out to Sweden and turns out that it was all for real and Kalmar FF wanted me to be their new manager!
I had been considering going into management, perhaps at a non-league team close to me in London. Perhaps I could have done it alongside teaching PE which, honestly, wasn’t that bad. But Sweden was a different country completely! I do have some friends, some of whom are ex teachers, who are living in Sweden and say they love it there. I did learn French at school and enjoyed it so I think I could give learning a Swedish a go! How hard can it be?!
I accepted the job and now, about to head into my 3rd decade of my life, find myself uprooting my family (sorry Sheila!) to start a career in football management! I’d like to document my journey using the website that MyFMStory has created ensuring you will get a look at everything that goes on at the club and some of the behind the scenes stuff too.
Kalmar FF are a average side that play in the top division, the Allsvenskan, in Sweden. They haven’t had much success in their existence with their only league win coming in 2008 and a domestic trophy the year before as well as a few in the 1980s. They won the second division, the Superettan, a few times in the early 2000s. The final trophy in the dusty cabinet was the Svenska Supercupen which was won in 2009. Despite this, they have a fairly decent following as I’m told they get nearly 3,000 season tickets sold each year. It won’t fill out the stadium but we’ll work on that one!
In terms of players, there are a few decent lads here. They’re helping me learn Swedish which is nice. I’ve learnt so far that the word Ball is pungkula. Not sure why they keep laughing when I say it thought. I’ll let you see more of the squad when I’m made a few signings.
I’ve been put up in the clubs digs with a few of the players in the appartments nextdoor. We all walk to the training groud together which is really nice. It did make me laugh when we had to walk passed a huge IKEA too! I wonder if all their stuff is names after English place names! Like, I’m going in to buy a new dining room table and have to choose between the Croyden or Dartford set! This thought made me chuckle!
And that’s about it! A short introduction but an idea into what I have planned. How far will we go? Will we reach the end? Find out by clicking below to see more!
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