A huge step for mankind, a little step for Pedro

Keepertrener Pedro Espinha har fått et tilbud han ikke kan takke nei til i Portugal, og derfor mister Lyn en svært god trener og person i trenerteamet. Pedro kom til Lyn i 2016 og har hjulpet keeperne i klubben til å ta nye steg.

Daglig Leder Bjørn Gohn Jønsberg har bare hyggelige ord å si om Portugiseren:

“Vi mister en en dyktig keepertrener og en humørspreder som vi alle på klubbhuset kommer til å merke at blir borte. Samtidig er vi glade på hans vegne, for vi vet han har jobbet hardt for å få en slik mulighet. Det at han nå har fått muligheten til å ta steget fra å jobbe i 3. divisjon i Norge, til å jobbe i en klubb på øverste nivå i Portugal viser også at Lyn er en klubb man kan utvikle seg i som trener. Det er gledelig for oss”.

“Vi ønsker Pedro lykke til med nye utfordringer i sin nye klubb, og han vet at han er velkommen tilbake i fremtiden", sier Gohn Jønsberg til Lyn1896.no.

Hans siste kamp er allerede mot Follo på søndag. Klubben er allerede i gang med å finne en erstatter.

Her er Pedro sitt farvelbrev:

“It's time to turn a page.

I am leaving Lyn and returning to Portugal, for a professional and extremely ambitious project. I was not actively looking for this, but I definitely worked daily for it, and so it appeared. The opportunity is way too good and unique to not take, at the same time I feel that it was also the right time for me to embrace a level where I will give and grow even more.

Lyn is special. Really special. When I came to the club, in 2016, I encountered a project with "sparkling eyes", discovering and developing itself, growing every day, with the ambition of becoming something better, putting Lyn back where it belongs: the highest level possible in the Norwegian system. In Lyn I've met people that will always follow me wherever I am and who I will follow and most certainly keep contact with as much as possible.

I've met and helped so many talented young Goalkeepers and Coaches, created and nourished friendships that will last a lifetime and witnessed some glorious and even sad moments. The most glorious was the promotion of our fantastic Damelag to Toppserien and the most dramatic, the missed promotion to the 2. Div in 2017.

For me is easy to talk about the Damelag, the Herrerlag in the same sentence. You see, that's also part of the reason why I, in the end, decided to leave and so many others "come and go". I have the "Latin-Mediterranean Honesty" on my side and always spoke my mind, without fear and without being politically incorrect, especially about this subject.

Lyn should be held as one single club. If there was a single wish I could leave before thanking everyone that made my daily job easier, it would be that I could see both clubs together, that I could see a unified structure working for the greater good of the same crest that everyone carries on their chest, the Bastionen on the Damelag games in full force, showing the other supporter groups that they are, indeed, alive, well and that they can also make tifos and banners for Noor, Camilla, Karen, Jenny, Joanna, not just for players that retired 5 to 10 years ago. I would love to see a better approach to Kringsjå, return on investment of our infrastructures, a roof over the stands, a stand between the ski track and the football pitch, making possible to see football in the summer and cross country in the winter, turning Kringsjå into a bastion of a Unified Lyn, allowing the Akademiet to grow ambitions of playing in a club that wants itself bigger and stronger. The same way that a kid in the Akademiet dreams about being a football player in Lyn, the same way that Mikkel or Joanna or Noor dreamt, it is important that we give space and conditions for those dreams to grow, structure, economical and sportswise.

It is allowed to dream these things and it is allowed to push this ideas forward, as nobody ever has the courage of being blunt about these things that, in the end, cost dearly to the club because they allow people to look for better things.

From this point, I want to leave my word to everyone that allowed me to feel at home and make Lyn my home: to Kjetil Rist and Rolf-Magne Walstad, for the courage and opportunity given to me. You guys are folks that I will carry with me forever. The immediate sense of "family" that you promoted, allowed me to understand what Lyn meant and allowed me to feel a little bit what was possible to do with "a single club" mindset approach and all the liberty that I always had to perform my tasks and to lead to a full functionable Goalkeeper Department. Also to Stian Nygaard, my predecessor, for giving me the ropes of the Goalkeepers in the club and for creating a solid base for me to work with. To all of my colleagues in the Akademiet and Youth football, for the patience that you all had to hear and discuss training with me all those meetings, where I could sit at the head of the table because it was Valencia's or where I always could have my ideas accepted equally. To the technical staffs that worked directly with me, from Tresor & Mikkis, that received me extremely well, Thomas André Ødegaard and Klaus Pettersen, that shared so many ideas with me, promoted challenges and allowed me to go one or even two steps forward, breaking boundaries and looking always ahead in terms of training and preparation of our senior Goalkeepers. A word of appreciation also for Torstein Schutte, that allowed my return to Lyn, when Klaus left, assuming Assistant Coach so I could have a space back in Kringsjå again. To Mats Nylænden, the only true Lyn Resistant that stands strong, has two or three jobs and a newborn child and still is able to come to all the sessions. You are one of my heroes and I really apreciate your effort. To Jostein for keeping it real and complaining all the time, your time will come...Arsenal will win something again...the Skybet Championship once looked further away, so your time is almost here! To the "new heroes of Lyn Herrerlag, Bent Inge and Karl Marius and Bjørn. The first is probably the nicest person I ever worked with in my entire life, a extremely capable coach and a people person. He can reach you and touch your heart, not by chance that we have a extremely united group at this stage, able to fight and die for each other. Speaking of United, Karl Marius. The man that can find always something negative about Liverpool's success and who I can challenge to a good football discussion about anything, from methodology and training approach, to exercises and set pieces routines. You two complete each other and make this group stronger. To Bjørn, who has the biggest shoes anyone can try to fill, keep going strong. It's not easy, but Lyn will pay you back. Lyn always pays back the hard work you put into it...you will reap what you sow. Thomas Nordeng, that strives and dynamizes the club image in-house by producing the LynTV videos (a great victory of ours) and the only man that can actually make Jostein feel like a normal person...because he supports Newcastle (nobody supports Newcastle, mate!).

To the "Office Bugs": Trine, Fredrik, Massimo, Aubert, Dennis (who I have to wish good luck as well), Eirik, my absolutely and utmost respect and word appreciation. You are the engine of this club, and you have a huge intake in what the daily life of Lyn. You stop, we die! To Sjur, for keeping our infrastructures on their prime and fighting for upgrades and improvements so we can have better conditions year after year, to Ali, for keeping the clubhouse pristine every single day. To Ole Johan, Vebjørn and all the staff around the Damelag. You are so, so good. Your ambition, professionalism and dedication are out of this reality. I am so impressed by your work and feel that the girls have a bright future ahead. Thank you for opening a world of possibilities to them every single session! To all the Herrerlag players: kids in the academy look up to you, they do. They go to the games, they dream of being football players and they have to, at some point, look at you as their beacon. I know I did, every day. I did because you guys are the maximum exponent of what we all want to be: a walking and talking ambitious dreamer. We dream every day of being higher, of being better. That's priceless! That's Lyn. That's the idea that the whole club should be and you are the personification of that. I am so proud and happy for being able to share the lockeroom with you this last 3 years and share experiences. I leave this club richer than I could ever imagine because of you. To my Goalkeeper Coach colleagues. 2016 we had two Goalkeeper Coach and roughly 35 Goalkeepers from the Akademiet to the A Lag and Damelag. December of 2016, we had three Goalkeeper Coaches and 40 Goalkeepers and a full functioning academy. Now have 5, sometimes 6, Goalkeeper Coaches (1 in the academy, 2 when Karen is not on the National Team can join Joaquin), 2 in the youth football from 12-14 years old, 1 taking care of the youth 15-19 and Herrerlag and Nils Martin and Joaquin also in the Damelag. Regarding Goalkeepers we have a number roughly between 45 and 50. There's an offer in Lyn for the Goalkeepers and this was due to a lot of sweat and fighting. Thank god we put up a great fight and now it is possible for all the Goalkeepers to have an offer and it will get better, I know! 2018 was a great year, 8 Goalkeepers made the SUP in the Oslo Fotballkrets, two made into the Kretslag and two make into the National Team. This has nothing to do with me. It has to do with all of us, with Lyn, so thank you Kevin, Mari, Karen, Joaquin and Nils Martin. Thank you and keep supporting each other!

Thomas Sandsør, Sofus Rasmussen og Pedro Espinha. Foto: Lyn1896.no

Last, to Thomas Sandsør, David Nowicky, Sofus Rasmussen, Adrian Møller, Christian Kjellsby, Tinius Klaussen, Elias Theophilakis, Henrik Nymoen, Orhan Simsek and Joar Dale. Words fail me. I gave everything that I could, with the constraints that we had. We had fun, laughed (more than cried, thank god), worked hard to try to achieve your dreams. At this level, my goal was creat competent Goalkeepers, rich and tactically educated, but as well, intelligent and hard working. It is not a surprise to see Thomas Sandsør being on the National Team of beach football and leading a team on his daily job with success or seeing Sofus as the Head Manager of the Oslo Students Sport Association at 24 years old. Being a Goalkeeper is this, in its essence. Excelling, leading, fighting, failing, fighting some more. Life is a full rounded lesson and if I taught you something, I hope that it was something like that it is allowed to dream. You have my utmost respect and appreciation, for all the things you shared with me and all the things you taught me. My experience is also yours.

To finalise, I really hope that we manage to achieve a respected position with the Herrerlag. We are rebuilding the club and I believe that Bent Inge's positivity is what this group needs right now. I hope that the OJ's Damelag can stay in Toppserien. I have so much, but so much respect and admiration for all of you girls! You have a great path ahead of you, specially aiming for equality even inside your own club. You deserve a full house, tifos, singing. You deserve it all!! And I am pretty sure you will have it, within a short period of time!

As the great Abraham "Honest Abe" Lincoln once said (and I am also being honest when I say this...) "A house divided will not stand". Lyn, in order to thrive, should be one logo, one crest, one heart, one club. Kids need examples and the senior players sustainability.

Lyn got a new supporter, from the heart. I will always follow the club and always root for the best in all this world for everyone involved in it!

Lyn for alltid, Alt for Lyn!”

– Pedro

A huge step for mankind, a little step for Pedro

E-post: 1896@lyn.no