Martin Reier

I’m a 28-year-old Norwegian who’s currently living in Lisbon, where I’m doing the master programme in High Performance Sports Training at FMH. I’ve been involved in football for as long I can remember, as player, coach, student and fan. I’ve played football actively for over 20 years in Norway and now in Lisbon. I have experience from coaching players aged 6 to 19 years, I have a bachelor degree in football coaching from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences and I hold a UEFA-B licence certificate.

My ambition is to pursue a career as football coach at the highest possible level. To achieve this, I need a broad, solid foundation of knowledge and skills in all disciplines required to fill that role. The master is one step in this process. I’m constantly looking for ways to learn, gain experience and promote my understanding of all aspects of the game and of coaching, I want the post-graduate course to be the next step. Since I’m now living in Lisbon I hope that I will get one of the places in the course starting up in January 2016.

This post-graduate course will help bridge the gap that often exist between academia and the practical challenges a football coach faces. Training and composing a football team of individual players with different personalities require a variety of skills and insight. An opportunity to learn from world- renowned coaches and professors is a unique possibility. The experience I gain will also give me a competitive edge if/when I return to Norway to continue my coaching career.

In Norway I worked with three Portuguese coaches, who impressed and inspired me. They broadened my understanding of football and gave me new insight in how to work as a coach. This, combined with the success of Portuguese coaches at top international level, made me decide to apply to the FMH master programme and move to Portugal last summer. Portugal has had more coaches than any other nation in the Champions League the past two years, and led teams to seven national championships on three continents last season.