FROM DRACULAR TO THE SAMI

Ok, Whitby is quite far East but Ostersunds is way over there! In fact it's quite east but also in Arctic Sweden, the most northerly club in the top Swedish league.

Jamie Hopcutt left the warmth and charm of Whitby, Dracular's den, to ply his footballing trade amongst the Sami people (the indigenous tribe of northern Scandinavia) in Northern Sweden.

He was last subbing for Whitby Town and six years ago his career was taking a down turn. York City had told him he was no longer needed he played a bit at Tadcaster but last week Jamie scored a stunning goal for the Swedish "minnows" Ostersund FK, in their first leg, Europa League 2-0 win against the Turkish side Galatasaray. The second leg resulted in a 1-1 draw giving a 3-1 aggregate victory for the Swedes in the Turks'  notorious stadium, the Ali Sami (a coincidence) Yen in Istanbul.

Tomorrow Hopcutt's team play Luxembourg's Fola Esch in the 3rd Qualifying round, at what will be a sold out stadium (around 6,000), the Jamtkraft Arena.
This is a place where temperatures plunge to below freezing later in the year but at the moment Jamie should be playing under the warmth of the Midnight Sun.

Along side Jamie are Andrew Mills, an English goalie, last with Macclesfield and Woking and Curtis Edwards, a midfielder, also from England.

Jamie went to a trial day held at Warwick University and he scored a hat trick in his game. He was invited for further scrutiny by Graham Potter, an ex-York man, who is managing the Swedish side. Potter played for Birmingham and Stoke briefly, as well as for Southampton. He has led a "revolution" at the club, promoting Ostersunds from the fourth tier to the first tier in Sweden, playing along side Malmo and Goteburg.

Ice hockey and biathalon are the favoured sports in the city but now crowds are taking notice. 10,000 turned up to watch on a big screen, the away leg against Galatasaray and a huge crowd waited for the team to return to their home airport.

Jamie is being mobbed in the streets, as his team has won promotion to the Allsvenskan (top tier) and won the Svenska Cupen (the national cup) but more importantly the club is making their players join in cultural activities including performing in a full ballet production of Swan Lake in front of local connoisseurs in the city's theatre. Painting lessons have followed on from this and some players have published written works as well as enjoying lessons about the indigenous Sami people. (are you watching Fortitude?)

Hopcutt sees these challenges as things that you have to have a go at, like trying to perform on the pitch from day to day.