The good old days, the glory days… Will Mein   From boxing to become the local ‘Socrates’ |22 February 2022

Captain Mein leading his St Louis team onto the field at Stad Popiler (Photo: Will Mein)

He was known as the local ‘Socrates’ for like the former Corinthians and Brazil star footballer, he sported a beard, played as a midfielder, possessed some deft touches, back-heels and genius pinpoint passing, wore the number 8 shirt and the captain’s armband.

He is Will Mein, the St Louis football team’s former classy midfielder. And although Mein has not known the kind of success his idol achieved, he had a real influence on the local game.

Mein has volunteered to feature in today’s fortnightly series aimed at reviving memories of achievements and honouring former Seychellois greats who have become coaches, administrators or are just living a simple life away from their once loved sport.

Early years in sports

Mein started practising sport at the age of 18. Contrary to what many people would think, he did not practise football at first. He was into boxing.

“I was not sure about football, but I loved it though. I played for the reserve school team, because my mother did not want me to play. She was worried that I might get hurt, so playing for the reserve team, I could miss some matches and play when I could. The first team was more serious. I would get in trouble if I missed games consistently. I refused to play for any team, because I saw some of my schoolmates on their debut in football at the Gordon Square (now Freedom Square), getting insulted by those football fanatics whenever they made a mistake. So, I decided that I was not going to get insulted by those crazy people too,” said Mein.

“I joined boxing at the Victoria Gymnasium. Englishman Jack Causton was the manager of The Noble Art boxing club and Selwyn Medor, who was a very good boxer, took me under his wings when he noticed I was not like the others. I was very serious, trained Monday to Friday. He told me that the first thing about boxing is to prepare your body to absorb the onslaught that it is going to take. We did mainly abdominal exercises. We worked on the big punching bag. He taught me, the right hand punch, the left jab, the left hook, right hook, uppercut, left and right. Some of the other boxers on the club were my cousin Ridley Rose and long distance runner Brian Esparon. There was another boxing club ran by Finlay Roselie at Hangard Street. Famous boxer Michael Pillay was one of theirs.

“I fought five times, won four and lost the last one. I won my first fight on a technical knockout in the second round. My last fight did not do me any justice, not because I lost, but because I was not prepared.

“After my fourth fight, I told Mr Causton that I was quitting boxing to concentrate on playing football, because it was what I liked. I started playing football for third division team Sunderland as a striker. I loved scoring goals and scored most of the team's goals. Sunderland were a new team in the third division. Our goalkeeper Jeffrey Hoareau was the brother of Tony Hoareau, a famous Rovers player, and he watched our matches together with Clifford Edmond, another famous player who played for the national team and Ascot club. Clifford knew me since I was a kid and he once lived at St. Louis. They told me I should play as a midfielder. I was like ‘what the hell, how do you play in midfield?’ I also noticed that I was better than most of my teammates and got a little discouraged by their performances. I told myself that I am not going to keep playing for this team the following season and I told my teammates of my decision at the end of the season,” added Mein.

During the off season of 1976 there was a tournament reserved for under-21-year-olds and Georges Bibi, who played for St Louis, approached Mein offering him a spot on the St Louis under-21 team. He agreed and started training with them. Marcel Arrisol, also a St Louis player together with Bibi advised Mein to play for St Louis the following season. He played in the under-21 tournament and lost to Rovers in a very close match.

Georges Bibi then convinced him to join St Louis telling him he has a good chance of playing first division football and he did. But one day when he was training football, Noble Arts boxing club manager Jack Causton came looking for him and told him he wanted him to take part in a boxing tournament in two weeks’ time. He even bought him a pair of real boxing boots.

“I was like ‘what’? I'm done with boxing, I've told you that. I haven't done any boxing training for more than a year, I not in boxing shape", Mein told Mr Causton, adding that boxing fitness and soccer fitness are two different animals.

Mr Causton offered Mein money to fight and he said he can still remember what he did with the money although he did not want to share it with our readers.

“I told him that I had to train, and there was not a lot of time. There was a boxing gym at the end of the Long Pier road at that time. I went to that gym only once with Selwyn (Medor), and did some skipping rope, worked on the punching bag, and sparred three rounds against Selwyn. I could barely finish the three rounds. The bout was refereed by a former manager of the Northolme hotel who was a friend of Mr Causton. Although I complained to him that my opponent was using unlawful tactics, he did not understand and I lost the fight on points. That was the end of boxing for me,” said Mein.

Playing for St Louis

A few weeks after my last boxing match, the football season started and Mein was in the St Louis starting line-up. They played Ascot, the third best team behind Rovers and Rangers, and won. Mein scored a goal.

Then St Louis played the young Bombers team and were losing. Someone on the team said "let’s walk off" and they did. Mein said he is not sure Georges Bibi and Marcel Arissol were playing because if they were present this would not have happened. As a result, St Louis were suspended for the rest of the season.

Another St Louis player, Neville Dufresne, the big brother of Willis ‘Tibo’ Dufresne, told Mein he would talk to Ulric ‘Keker’ Mathiot who was playing for the Survivors club and the latter gladly took them on board in 1978.

“I started with the reserve team and then got my break in the first team. In those days, every first division team had a reserve side, and there was a league for the reserve teams. I was at that time learning how to play in midfield. I used to go watch matches only to see how the midfield players operate. I watched good midfielders like Charles Alcindor, Jeris Cesar and Michael Barra in action to learn the tricks.

“I remember we were going to play against Rovers for the very first time, and Ulric (Mathiot) told me to guard Charlie (Charles Alcindor) and I said to him: ‘I don't think I can do that’. He reassured me, and told me not to worry and to just stay close to him when we were not in possession of the ball. I played for two seasons for Survivors, before zoning came in in 1981.

“When zoning came in (in 1981), Ulric told me that St Louis would have a very good team as Ange Dubignon, who was playing for Ascot, and some other players would be joining the team. I was a happy guy. By that time Neville had passed away. He was involved in a car accident. The team trained under player-coach Ulric ‘Keker’ Mathiot and I scored two goals in a friendly match against Anse Aux Pins. In fact, I would have scored a hat-trick, but a player cleared my header with his hind and Georges Constance netted the ensuing penalty. Everybody was talking about me after that game. Not long after, Ulric left for his five-year studies in Cuba (in 1981-1986) Georges Delpeche, the drummer from the band Nightshades and himself a former football player, helped us with training.

“Then the St Louis branch got involved through the late Dalfey Barbe who was the chairman. Georges Bibi then joined as coach in 1981. We had been losing to the Mont Fleuri team consisting of mostly former Rangers players like Jeris Cesar, Rene Cesar, Michael Barra, Marc Jeremie, Pat Marguerite and others. They won the Championship in 1982. We trained extra hard, running from Victoria to Beau Vallon before doing physical exercises on the beach following by swimming. We chanted Mont Fleuri’s name during training and we started winning against them,” added Mein.

By this time, new players like the Dorasamy brothers ‒ Vincent ‘Tolor’ Dorasamy and Bernard ‒ had joined the team. Mein was voted the team’s captain and he wore the armband until he decided to hang up his boots in 1988 at the age of 33.

Most memorable goal

“I scored quite a few goals for the team. My most memorable one was in the 1988 cup final against the Plaisance team of the likes of Charles Alcindor, Gonzague Boniface and Suketu Patel.

“I chest-trapped Robin Mousbé’s pass and volleyed the ball between goalkeeper Patel and the post. The ball hit the inside of the post and went in. Coach Bibi was impressed and he told me about it afterwards. We won the match 1-0,” added Mein.

Best technical team around

St Louis then wanted to be the best technical team in Seychelles. A hard disciplinarian, coach Bibi tried to get the team to reach that level and whenever the team played poorly, he would criticise our game. But some players hate it when they were criticised in public.

Then the team started following the Brazilian World Cup team with Socrates and company.

“Some of us including Vincent Dorasamy and myself, really wanted to play attractive one touch football with practically no dribbling like the Brazilians. We watched Brazil’s matches over and over again. It was then that I started to emulate Socrates’ style, how he used the inside and outside of his foot to make passes, his famous back-heeled passes. He also had an exceptional vision. He wore the number 8 jersey, the same number I wore. In fact, it was Georges Delpeche who first gave me the number 8 shirt.

“When Romeo Quatre joined as manager it was then that we started receiving some perks. We stayed in nice hotels when we had important matches to play, had nice celebrations after major wins. He got us nice uniform also. He was always willing to help someone out. St Louis had become the team to beat. We travelled to Praslin and La Digue to prepare for the new season and play friendly matches against teams there,” exclaimed Mein.

Coach Bibi stopped coaching St Louis in 1984 to pursue overseas training and in came former player François ‘Topilo’ Finesse as coach. When Bibi returned in 1986, he decided to switch to coaching Anse Aux Pins.

In 1987, Mein got injured and was sidelined for a while, hoping that with physio and all he could come back. By this time Ulric Mathiot had come back from his studies. He took over the coaching responsibilities from Finesse.

“We later that year travelled to Reunion to compete as Seychelles’ league or cup champions. When we came back from the trip, I had surgery on my knee. The surgeon told me small pieces of cartilage had broken off from my meniscus and he removed them. I had no meniscus. I don't understand how come players abroad get the same injury, receive treatment and come back to play. After my surgery, I could not compete at that same level anymore because my knee was always hurting after and during training.

“A year later or so I retired. A year into my retirement (1989), a friend who lived at Mont Buxton and was the manager of the Mont Buxton team, asked me to come watch a match. It was Mont Buxton's last match of the season against Grand Anse Mahe under the influence of the famous Yvon Saunders. Mont Buxton won and were promoted to the first division. So, my friend asked me to become the team’s coach, but I refused at first. After some more convincing from him, I accepted the challenge and the team had some good players like the late Charlie Hoareau, Marc Adolphe who was very skilled with the ball, his brother and goalkeeper David ’Sonmey’ Adolphe, Jude Woodcock, the Mathiot brothers ‒ Gabriel, Jason and Pascal ‒ and midfielder Marcel ’Beton’ Labiche.

“The team did extremely well during their first year in the first division. They came out runners-up behind St Louis in the league. I remember, we played St Louis twice and we won one (1-0) after ‘Tolor’ missed a penalty and earned a draw in the second game. At that time a win was worth two points and a draw one point. We collected three points out of four against St Louis.

“I was labelled a traitor and that I should have been Ulric's assistant. We had to jump in a Mini Moke and out from the Stad Popiler car park because the St Louis fans were cursing me. What they did not know, was that I was never interested in coaching, or to become Ulric’s assistant as Finesse was the assistant,” Mein noted.

Move to Montreal, Canada

Just before the season ended, I got everything ready for my move to Montreal in 1990 I could see the disappointment on the players' faces when I told them that I will be leaving them. I remember Marc saying ‘just when I thought we had something good going on, you decide to leave.’

When Mein reached Montreal he was met by Mark Latulippe who used to play for Ascot together with the late Jimmy Baker, Clifford Edmond, and the late Rene ‘Chor’ Laporte.

“We played in the Latino-Québécois league. Although I could not play at the level I played when I was with St Louis, I could still play a little bit. I met another Seychellois, left-footed Patrick Pool who used to play for Grand Anse Mahe. Then came a guy, Dufresne, who used to play for the St Louis reserve team and the Jeannevol brothers. We had quite a good team. I played for three summers. I also played indoors during the winter. I remember there was a Haitian guy who played in defence for us and when he saw me doing the back-heeled passes, he said: ‘Oh, Socrates’,” said Mein.

Mein then stopped playing football and fell in love with tennis after seeing Boris Becker play Andre Agassi who he had heard of before but never seen in action. Since there was a big park with three tennis courts, about 5 minutes’ walk from his house, Mein decided to learn to play tennis and he practised the sport for six years.

He later suffered two slipped discs in my lower back and had surgery. He was told by the surgeon that his nerves had been compressed for too long by those two discs. He was hurt in January, and had surgery in September.

“I couldn't play sports anymore. I cannot even jog. I can only walk. Sports was done for me,” said Mein

Special words for ‘Tolor’

Mein said even though he is far from his friend Vincent ‘Tolor’ Dorasamy, he praying for him to regain his health.

“Be strong because when I come home again, I would like to see you and give me a tour in your truck like you did before,” concluded Mein.

Gerard Govinden