Richard Offiong discusses his experiences in Turkey, Belgium, South Korea, Sweden and Australia.
It is fair to say that the career path of Richard Offiong is a complete one-off. After beginning his career at Newcastle, the forward from South Shields travelled to Turkey to play for Istanbulspor. Spells in Belgium with Patro Maasmechelen and South Korea with Chunnam Dragons followed before Offiong returned to the UK with Doncaster Rovers.
A three-year stay with Hamilton Academical and later moves to Carlisle and Gateshead looked to have brought his foreign adventures to a close but further stints with Ostersunds in Sweden and Oakleigh Cannons in Australia mean Offiong is uniquely placed to advice youngsters of the challenges that playing abroad brings.
Adam Bate caught up with him to discover more about his experiences as a Brit abroad...
How did the move to Turkey come about?
That was my first move abroad. When I was at Newcastle there was a guy called Gordon Milne there at the time. He had links over in Turkey because he'd been out there before. Somebody got in touch with him and asked me if I fancied going across.
That's an unusual transfer for a 20-year-old guy...
Definitely, but it was a great opportunity to see the world and get some game time.
But do you think you need to be a certain type of person to be willing to make that move?
You've got to be open to something different because you never know if you're going to like it or not until you try it. I was lucky because when I went out there the first game was against Fenerbahce. Wow. I'd never played football in an environment like that. It was totally different to playing in the UK. I was in Istanbul and it was an absolutely fabulous place. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and I've actually been out there on holiday since.
So was it a lifestyle decision or did you see this as progressing your career?
It wasn't really about the lifestyle because I didn't know much about the place, to be honest. I went there for the chance to play football. At the time at Newcastle I was quite far down the pecking order so I thought this was a great opportunity for me to play at a decent level and enhance my career.
After that experience it would have been easy to return to England but you went to Belgium soon after. Why was that?
I went from Turkey to Belgium. Again, it was just about getting an opportunity to play. I was at an age where I didn't have a family and I was so hungry to play that I'd go anywhere. Belgium was a new country for me but it was only an hour away from home on the plane. So I gave it a go.
Belgium was completely different from Turkey. Obviously there was the weather. That was just like the UK! Then there was the different culture to get used to, learning a new language. Everywhere is different, you know. There might be a different culture when you move from London to Liverpool or Glasgow. You've just got to adapt.
Belgium was very cosmopolitan. And the training was quite similar in Belgium to the UK. You'd train in the morning or the afternoon and then have your free time. Whereas in Turkey you'd train in the evening due to the heat so it was a different kind of lifestyle.
You scored some goals out there too...
It went really well on the field and it was a decent standard of football too. I got to play against Vincent Kompany when he was at Anderlecht. It was another great experience.
Then it was on to South Korea. How did that one come
