Former Rewa and Nasinu football player Abdul Mannan recalls a time when players throughout the game were filled with an innate sense of pride for their districts.
The former player turned captain highlighted this when recounting his professional career in the game, as part of The Fiji Times’ build-up to the 2025 BiC Fiji FACT this week.
He played for Nasinu from 1990 to 1992 and then Rewa from 1992 to 1998, being a part of key football tournaments such as the Fiji FACT and even the Battle of the Giants.
“Sitting down and watching it reminds me of my days when I used to play, and it’s really improving,” Mannan said.
“Back in our days, we didn’t have an academy, we didn’t have what they have now.”
The unavailability of these facilities, he mentioned, gave way to an interesting football scene among all players.
“Soccer then was more interesting because every district have the players from their own district, all the districts had their players playing for them so the pride they had for the district,” he explained.
“That is the difference from then to now; it is good now.”
While his stint with both teams was overshadowed by early exits in the Fiji FACT, it was a mere speck in the illustrious career he had prior to it and following it.
Before the Fiji FACT, he had been captain of the Rewa soccer team from 1978 to 1985 and was a part of Labasa for four months in 1980.
In 1990, he played the role of captain and coach of the Nasinu soccer team that went on to win the Inter-District Competition that year.
During these years, off the field, he worked as a lithographic technician and a four colour printing machine operator at The Fiji Times in Suva and for Canberra Publishing and Printing Limited in Australia.
Years on, he now co-runs a private security management company in Suva with a partner based in the United States.
Meanwhile, he has expressed his well wishes for all teams taking part in this year’s Fiji FACT and is eager to meet his former teammates to watch it when it kicks off this Friday at the HFC Bank Stadium in Suva.
