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In the series Ex on the Pitch, two former professional football players visit De Voetbalfabriek in Almere every week. Together with presenter Jelle Kusters, they look back on their career and play a number of mini games. In the second episode it is the turn of Ruben Schaken and Abel Tamata, who regularly faced each other with Feyenoord and PSV, among others.
By Jonathan Van Haaster
Chess climbed the football ladder via SC Cambuur, BV Veendam and VVV-Venlo to Feyenoord, with the ultimate crowning achievement being seven international matches for the Dutch national team. Tamata went through PSV’s youth academy and became national champion with that club in 2015. Via Roda JC, FC Groningen and ADO Den Haag, he ended his injury-ridden career at the age of 27.
The two met for the first time in a match between Roda JC and Feyenoord. Tamata as left back with the Limburgers; Play chess as a right winger with the Rotterdam team. “We first met there, although it was not as friendly as now,” laughs Tamata. “Then you intimidate each other, you tell the other that he can get in trouble off the field.” Chess admits that he exchanged heated conversations with Tamata. “I was always nipping, and at some point they got the hang of it. Once I outsmarted him and provided an assist.” Tamata: “That was also the only assist you provided with me as an opponent, haha.”
Both gentlemen are amicable and when asked about their craziest teammate, Chess is obvious. Marcel Meeuwis. He’s one of the funniest guys I’ve been with. We tied Kostas Lamprou to the massage table once. He’s strong, so we needed about five men to tape him all the way down. He was a mummy, couldn’t move. With his head up, he started yelling and cursing in Greek. At one point Marcel comes, takes his pants down and sits with his ass on Kostas. Kostas can appreciate that now, that’s humor. Things like that happen, you’ll be talking about that for weeks. Kostas wasn’t happy then, I think he didn’t speak to Marcel for a few days.”
Manolev
Tamata also has fond memories of former teammates. In his time at PSV, Tamata was a teammate of Stanislav Manolev. “We had a Nigerian midfielder in the group at the time, Rabiu Ibrahim. Once, when he walked into the locker room, Manolev burst into laughter out of nowhere. He also had a very strong opinion of his own, which also made him funny. We always argued with him about what was right and what was not. Playmaking, tactics.. and then said: ‘You are crazy!’. That was nice about him.”
Tamata has been playing football for FC Viralia for a few months, which is a team of the Rotterdam amateur team FC Banlieue. “I think I’ve played four games this football year. There I play or played with, among others, Nourdin Boukhari, Rick Kruys and David Mendes da Silva.” The team’s trainer is Khalid Alterch, aka rapper ICE, who is also known as Tonnano to viewers of the popular Mocro Mafia series. Tamata got to know ICE after he decided to go to college. “I was still doing an internship at Almere City and was going to study part-time. Then I got injured and I fully focused on my Master in Sport Management at the Johan Cruijff Institute. Actually, I quickly asked for an internship and I got it at Amstelveen Sport. I noticed that I was doing well there and was also offered a contract. Then I made the decision not to do my best to become top fit, but to dive into society.”
Tamata (left) became champion with PSV in 2015.
After a year, Tamata obtained his master’s degree and started working at SPEC. “I was there for three and a half years, until last October. In those years there I coached a lot of artists, including ICE, for which I was mainly responsible. So I built a very good relationship with him. For some I was the main responsible, and for others I was second responsible, assistant.” Tamata was an assistant for Glen Faria, Nesim El Ahmadi and Boef, among others. “At SPEC you work in teams. You can imagine that when ICE is on TV on a Thursday evening, you receive a lot of requests on Friday. You get to take care of a lot of important things, like his new album. You just can’t do everything at once. As the second manager, you arrange things that can wait a while, such as e-mails. And as a manager you are the contact person for the things that still need to be done today, the ‘must-haves’.”
Speaker
Yet Tamata is currently outside the artist world and that was a conscious choice. “I used to love to read. Until I was eighteen I did VWO and got my diploma, but after that I didn’t study. And I missed that. I did read development books and during my career I continued to read a lot. I’ve always had the feeling that I had something to say, to highlight a different side of football. So I wanted to give speeches. I asked if there were people who could help me with that. I really needed to share my stories and hopefully help people. That is how I came into contact with Sylvia Karres.”
At her company De SportMaatschappij opposite the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam, he has embarked on a process to master the profession. During his studies he gave his first speeches. “I started doing a lot of cold sales. People asked me: ‘You have been a professional football player and have made quite a bit of money. Why do you go to schools to indicate that you can give speeches?’ But I just really wanted to do it. I got a lot of speeches then and would get many more, but then corona came. Then I thought: damn, now I no longer have contact with those young people.”
“I went to see if it is possible to have one-on-one contact, so that I can still contribute and be of value,” says Tamata. “I then announced this on social media, received applications and started my sole proprietorship. During the corona period I started giving one-on-one coaching and that went very well. I also spent a lot of time in juvenile detention centers and then started the vof Life Changing Group with two partners. Experts by experience, specialists and role models that we think have something to say, then visit juvenile detention centers. This is going very well and we are active in several juvenile detention centers and schools. I am also active at Peak4 as a coach for development and personal growth projects at a large bank.”
Some time ago, Tamata indicated in an interview that he wanted to become a football agent. “I still want that. Management is guidance and I like that. It all has to do with people. I really enjoy working with people and have received good feedback about it. Music manager or football manager, I don’t care. For me it is more about the total guidance and in particular the mindset of people. In any industry. I would like to meet the needs of those kinds of talents in my own way. I think football agent may not be the right word, but young footballers also need guidance. If youth footballers but also bigger footballers need it, I’m certainly open to it.”
Just like with Tamata, an injury was also the reason for Chess to dive into entrepreneurship. After he suffered a cartilage injury in 2014 and the future of his career was uncertain, Chess started his own football school in Lelystad, where he also lived at the time. “During my rehab, I was thinking about what I could do after my career. Soon a hundred children had joined my football school, including my own children who were four and five years old at the time. Of course it helped that I played for Feyenoord and the school was also very professionally arranged, among other things with sponsorship. We are now almost ten years later and I still have the school to this day.”
Chess is also active outside the football world. “After my career, I started several companies, because then you lose an important source of income. That is why, in addition to my football school, I also started my own catering company and clothing company. I also became a player coach for two or three months. Together with Menno Groenveld (from Pure Sports, ed.) we have a number of players that we are going to pick up. I still have to work on that. Next summer we will do a lot of transfers, so I’ll be surprised what that world looks like. For the rest I am very busy with my businesses. I have no staff, so I do everything myself. But I can’t complain.”
Cheating on me
In his biography, Chess was candid about his life. About the fame of being a professional football player, but also about cheating, for example. “My children have already read the book. I indicated that they might be startled by things they did not know. I told them that because I want them to still respect and take me seriously. I explained that when you live and make mistakes, you always have to take responsibility and luckily they do too. They learned those lessons. In the beginning it was scary. You have to make sure you rebuild that trust and show that you have changed in that regard.”
Chess in his period at Feyenoord in discussion with Graziano Pellè.
Chess indicates that the temptations have diminished now that he is no longer a professional football player. “I am very selective now and want to live a good and quiet life. The things I’ve been through have shaped me. It’s hard to say, but hey, my relationship with my kids is great and they’ve forgiven me in that regard. My oldest son is now almost twenty. Not that he understands, but he does understand that if you’re in that world and you’re prone to it, you can be prone to temptations. And I was prone to that.”
The former attacker indicates that he felt the need to talk to a psychologist. “We came to the conclusion that I needed an outlet. If you practice top sport with a lot of pressure, you must have an outlet. Then this was wrong. Some, like Abel, like to read, others like to play games or whatever. I had a really annoying outlet. Everything has to do with something and it was important for me to find out. You also need to be able to forgive yourself and look at yourself in the mirror again. From my childhood I have experienced a lot, such as growing up without a father. I always looked for confirmation, in my case at the time with women.”
Chess indicates to have struggled with uncertainty for a long time. “People who cheat are often insecure people who think they are tough, but you are actually just a pathetic man. It wasn’t the attention, you get that enough as a professional football player. I had to re-develop myself to set the right example for my children. If they ever become a footballer, at least I know how I can help them. They have seen how it should in any case not be.”
