They may not be playing but David Littlejohn and Dean Elrick have been two of the key figures in Aberdeen Futsal Academy’s journey to the Champions League.
This week Aberdeen are in Linz, Austria, representing Scotland in the UEFA competition.
Former Breedon Highland League player Grant Campbell founded Aberdeen Futsal Academy in October 2022 and continues to play for the team.
Off the court, Littlejohn and Elrick have been two of his key supporters in helping to grow the club and the game of futsal – the Fifa-accredited version of five-a-side football – in the north-east.
Littlejohn, a former amateur footballer who also played in the Juniors with Lewis United, serves as Aberdeen Futsal Academy’s general manager and throws himself into any task which needs doing.
Ex-Fraserburgh player Elrick, meanwhile, is team manager.
Explaining how he got involved, Littlejohn said: “I met Grant because our daughters play football together. He told me he was starting up a futsal league and asked if I’d be interested in entering a team.
“I did that in the regional league for a couple of years and over time I’ve just become more involved.
“In terms of my role, I do the little things that just need done usually – when we arrived in Austria on Tuesday there was a meeting with UEFA to go over all the paper work and sorting out the kits we’d be wearing, so I was at that.
“Myself and Dean try to take the workload off of Grant where we can so he can concentrate more on playing.
“I think this trip has been an eye-opener in terms of how many jobs there are to do that you wouldn’t think of.”
‘A mountain of obligations’
Elrick added: “I got involved initially as a player when the club started.
“But because of injuries I ended up taking more of an active role helping in the general running of the club.
“As we moved into the Scottish Futsal Super League, there was more of a requirement to have a manager or coach on the sidelines so that’s how I ended up taking on that role.
“With this trip there have been so many things to do.
“The players had to pass a medical, there are drug tests to do, passports all need to be checked, you need to be kitted out properly and there’s all the compliance and governance you need to follow for UEFA.
“There’s a mountain of obligations you need to meet. Grant’s very involved and none of this would have happened if it wasn’t for him.
“But Grant is also one of the key players so we need to try to free him up to focus on playing and the games. Even if we only do little bits, that’s still things he doesn’t have to do.”
The pair hope Aberdeen’s involvement in the Champions League can create more interest in futsal in the north-east.
Later this year, Aberdeen Futsal Academy will start running youth leagues.
Elrick said: “Hopefully us being here shows people, and youngsters in particular, that stuff like this isn’t out of reach. There are good opportunities in what is a growing sport.”
Day Two Diary
After defeat to AEL Limassol on Wednesday, the Aberdeen squad watched their opponents on Thursday, Linz, defeat AEK Athens 3-1.
Despite the Limassol loss, spirits were high in the camp on Thursday morning.
Grant Campbell held a 10am team meeting at the hotel to run through the tweaks he wanted to make to Aberdeen’s style of play from the first game ahead of facing Linz.
Campbell is the club’s founder and driving force. From listening to him, it’s clear he has put a huge amount of time and effort into coming up with gameplans to try to allow Aberdeen to compete with these more seasoned sides.
Dean Elrick and the rest of the players also chipped with their thoughts and ideas on the plan for the second game.
After a light training session from 11am to noon, the squad had lunch and were able to relax ahead of their 7.30pm kick-off (local time) against Linz.
Austrians on top
However, the game against the host club, who were backed by a few hundred rowdy supporters, was anything but relaxing as the Austrians showed their class to ruthlessly expose Aberdeen mistakes and win 9-0.
Linz captain Edwin Skrgic produced two tidy finishes in the third and eighth minutes to give them a 2-0 lead.
On 11 minutes, Aleksandr Milanovic made it three, and in the final minute before half-time, Rok Snofl netted following a free-kick routine and Milorad Bojic added the fifth after Aberdeen were caught on the break.
Aberdeen did threaten sporadically with Jamie Shawyer and Arran Christie going close either side of the interval.
But Linz didn’t let up with Bojic, Milanovic, Qali Idrizi and Emir Muminovic on target in the second period to complete the scoring.
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