Danish football player founds nonprofit soccer club in Taiwan

Danish football player founds nonprofit soccer club in Taiwan

2023-05-28

Today we take you to meet Johnni Nielsen, the founder of a nonprofit football club in Taipei called the F.C. Vikings. He and his wife, Hope, founded the club in 2010 to make football more accessible. Over the 13 years, they have provided free football training for elementary school students all the way up to adults. FTV reporter Stephany Yang has the story.

Walking up the staircase, he lists the trophies and medals accumulated over 13 years. This is Johnni Nielsen, founder of the F.C. Vikings. He says this trophy in particular is one of his proudest achievements.

Johnni Nielsen
F.C. Vikings founder
This is the newest trophy we won in our team. This was Shih Hsin University that won this trophy. I am very proud of this one. The school is proud of it and also the students are proud of it because this means that we’ve moved up to the first division in the university league.

For the past 13 years, Nielsen has made it his mission to share his passion for soccer in Taiwan, 5,000 miles away from his home in Denmark. Nielsen has played soccer since he was young. He’s even a European Football Federation-licensed coach. After he met his Taiwanese wife, Hope, the couple moved to Taiwan in 2009. In 2010, they launched a club that provides free training for soccer talent from elementary school all the way to adulthood.

Johnni Nielsen
F.C. Vikings founder
I try to do it the way I was taught when I was playing and coaching in Denmark, though I do things a bit differently here. We are a football club based in Taiwan. We play for schools because I think education is very important for young people. We go all the way from kindergarten to elementary school, junior high school, senior high school, and university, and now we have a professional team. We do training after school. We’ve just started a professional team, the F.C. Vikings PlayOne is our professional team. Our goal is to move up from the second division up to the first division and complete our AFC Club qualification. If we make it up to the best teams in Taiwan, we get to play abroad.

Hope Tsai
F.C. Vikings manager
These 13 years have had a lot of ups and downs. We are actually looking forward to let the society know that and we need to learn. We are building a brand new system here and it is something that has never existed in Taiwan before. We need to try to figure out a lot of things.

In 2023, they launched a professional adult team called Vikings PlayOne, composed of locals, students from Shih Hsin University, and players from abroad.

One player in the team is Mitchell Carter, a New Zealander who grew up in Taiwan. After attending university in New Zealand and playing for several teams semi-professionally in New Zealand and Qatar, he’s now back in Taiwan to play for the Vikings PlayOne.

Mitchell Carter
Vikings PlayOne player
I am currently a middle school PE and health teacher at Taipei American School. Obviously, one of my favorite hobbies is playing football so I am very happy to be playing football for Vikings PlayOne this year. I played a lot of football in my past so I am very happy to be in an awesome country as Taiwan is. For me, my goal is in terms of the team. That is making sure we are in the top two. If we can win this whole thing this year for division two. That would be fantastic.

After teaching at school, Carter trains with the team three times a week on the field and at least one time a week in the gym.

Mitchell Carter
Vikings PlayOne player
We train three to four times on grass. We do a lot of tactics, we do a lot of technical work. Obviously, our coach loves us to be in peak physical condition. So a lot of shuttle runs and a lot of ball work. In terms of what we do in training, it is a lot of mixture between drills, exercises, and gameplay. It is a relatively new team. It is the first year that they have had a senior team. It has been a lot of new recruits and some young guys coming through but in terms of quality, it has been probably some of the best players and teams that I played with since I’ve been here in Taiwan. Playing for a while here, I have seen the quality and the level. Definitely, this team has a really high level and potential to grow further as we progress and develop under our coach.

Making soccer more accessible is one of Nielsen’s main goals. He also hopes to provide talented players a chance to train and compete without having to choose between sport and study or sport and their full-time jobs. He says the past 13 years building up the club have not been easy, especially raising funds, as the team provides free training and covers travel expenses for its players.

Johnni Nielsen
F.C. Vikings founder
We did a lot of traveling before COVID. As you know, traveling on a football team is quite expensive. We got sponsorship. The families that can afford it they will help with the tickets for their own kids. So, we really rely on sponsors to keep it going. I believe football should be for everybody. It doesn’t really matter if you are rich or poor, you should be able to play football. For me, once you put on a uniform and it has a name, then everyone is equal. It is a giving system. It is helping a lot of people.

Hope Tsai
F.C. Vikings manager
Through Vikings, we can let people understand that football and Taiwan is open to the world. And that Taiwanese actually care.

Nielsen hopes the club will continue to provide talented players with quality training and the chance to shine in Taiwan and internationally.

非營利足球隊 F. C. Vikings 免費培訓台灣學生

2023-05-28

今天帶大家認識一個非營利足球隊 F. C. Vikings創辦人Johnni Nielsen。他和他的妻子蔡欣穎於2010 年創立了這F. C. Vikings，目的是讓人們更容易接觸到足球。 13年來，他們為小學生到成人免費提供足球訓練。一起來看看!

走上樓梯，秀出13年來累積的獎杯和獎牌，他是非營利足球隊F.C. Vikings的創辦人Johnni Nielsen，其中最讓他感到驕傲的，是這個獎杯。

[[F.C.Vikings創辦人 Johnni Nielsen]]
"這是我們球隊成員最新拿到的獎杯，贏得獎杯的是世新大學，我感到非常自豪，學校感到自豪，學生們也為此感到自豪，因為這表示我們已經進入年度大專院足球聯賽的甲級聯賽。"

13年來，Nielsen在距離他的家鄉丹麥5000英里遠的台灣，投注他對足球的熱情。從小就踢足球的Nielsen，甚至擁有歐洲足球聯合會的教練證。他與台灣妻子蔡欣穎相識後，2009年移民來台。2010年，他們成立足球隊提供無償訓練，從小學生到成人都有。

[[F.C.Vikings創辦人Johnni Nielsen]]
"我試著按照我在丹麥踢球和教球時的方式去做，儘管我在這裡做的事情還是有差別。我們是一支在台灣的足球隊，之所以為學校踢球，是因為我認為教育對年輕人來說非常重要。我們訓練幼兒園、小學、國中、高中、大學的孩子，一路走來，現在也有職業隊。我們在學生放學後練球。剛剛成立的職業球隊叫「F.C. Vikings - PlayoOne」，我們的目標是從乙級聯賽升到甲級，並完成我們的AFC亞洲足球聯盟資格賽。如果我們在台灣晉級，我們就可以到國外踢球了。"

[[F.C. Vikings經理蔡欣穎]]
"這13年來有很多風風雨雨。我們其實很期待讓社會知道，我們需要學習。我們正在建立一個全新的體系，是台灣以前從來沒出現過的，我們有很多事情要弄清楚。"

2023年，他們成立了職業足球隊「Vikings - PlayOne」，由台灣人、世新大學學生和外籍選手組成。

其中一名球員是在台灣長大的紐西蘭人Mitchell Carter，他在紐西蘭讀大學，並在紐西蘭和卡達當半職業選手，他現在回到台灣為Vikings - PlayOne踢球。

[[ F.C.Vikings PlayOne選手 Mitchell Carter]]
"我目前是台北美國學校的國中體育和健康老師。踢足球是我的主要興趣，所以我很高興今年能為Vikings - PlayOne踢球。我有過許多踢足球的經驗，很高興來到台灣這個很棒的國家。對我來說，我的目標是球隊能持續處於前兩名，如果今年能在乙級勝出就真的太棒了。"

學校放學後 Mitchell每週會與球隊在球場練球三次。每週還會一起在健身房訓練至少一次。

[[F.C.Vikings PlayOne 選手 Mitchell Carter]]
"我們在草地上訓練三到四次，我們討論大量的戰術，也鑽研球技。教練顯然喜歡我們處於最佳狀態，所以有很多折返跑和球類訓練。訓練的整個過程，結合了練習、體能訓練和比賽等元素。這是一個相對新的球隊，是他們有進階隊伍的第一年。有很多新人和一些年輕人加入，但就質量而言，這可能是我來台灣之後遇過最好的球員跟球隊。我加入了一陣子，看到有一定程度的素質。這支球隊絕對擁有很強的實力和潛力，在我們教練的帶領下會不斷進步。"

讓更多人接觸足球是Johnni Nielsen的一大目標，他還希望訓練優秀球員並參加比賽，不必讓他們在運動和課業，或運動和工作之間做選擇。他說，過去13年經營球隊並不容易，尤其是籌措資金來為球員進行培訓並支付旅費。

[[非營利足球隊F.C.Vikings創辦人Johnni Nielsen]]
"在COVID之前我們常常出國比賽，你也知道足球隊出國是非常花錢的，我們拉贊助、能負擔的家庭會幫自己的孩子買票，所以，我們真的相當依賴贊助商來維持下去。我相信足球應該適合每個人，不管貧富，只要能踢球就行。對我來說，一旦你穿上了隊服，上面有你的名字，那麼每個人都是平等的。在這個給予的機制下，很多人正因此受惠。"

[[非營利足球隊F.C.Vikings蔡欣穎]]
"透過Vikings，我們可以讓人們了解足球和台灣是向世界開放的。台灣人真的很關心。"

Nielsen希望球隊繼續為優秀的球員提供優質培訓，並讓他們在台灣和國際上發光發熱。

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