Milan Blaga, our Assistant Manager, moved from Serbia to Seychelles 5 years ago and has since made it his second home. In 2018 he fell in love with a small and unknown football club and now spends his time looking how to propel it to the next level.

We caught up with him to talk a bit about what keeps him busy at Rovers, the importance of performance analysis and nutrition, and if we will ever see him play for the team again!

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you started at Rovers?

I’m from Serbia and have been living and working in Seychelles since 2015. I have been with Rovers since the day it was formed. I started as a fullback and clocked only about 30 minutes of football in total in my career! I have since been demoted or promoted to Assistant Manager, depending on how you want to look at it!

What roles and responsibilities do you have at Rovers?

As the Assistant Manager I help with the day to day running of the club and try to take some of the workload off the Manager. 

Since we are still a club that is growing we all try to get our hands on as many different roles as possible to try and help the team. 

This season I will also be analysing our opponents, looking for patterns in their play, strengths and weaknesses, etc. – and then try to relay that information back to the coaching team.

Recently, I have also taken on the responsibility of everything relating to sports science, injury prevention, nutrition, etc. – and to be honest – I am enjoying every single moment of it!

What specifically are you doing with sports science and injury prevention?

During the off-season we partnered up with Catapult, one of the world leaders in sports tracking technology. We are using their GPS tracking vests to monitor our player’s performance and load metrics. This data, along with other regular testing we do with our players, helps us to analyse players individually across a number of different physical aspects and gives us meaningful insights into how to tailor our preparation or prevent injuries!

This has been particularly useful during our preseason preparations as we look to bring our players into the right physical condition and help them to peak at the right time.

This is an incredibly useful technology that is used in football and sports around the world and we are really pleased to have access to it since it’s not something you see at any clubs locally.

We are learning more about it every day and as we gather more data we will, together with the coaches, be able to make more and more informed decisions which should hopefully pay off during the season!

You are a bit of a fitness and nutrition nerd yourself so how do you relay that to the players?

Nutrition for an athlete is super important. I’m always trying to be there for the players and advise them on what they should and shouldn’t be consuming – and when what types of food are appropriate.

My previous experience with players is that they do not pay enough attention to recovery, nutrition and even hydration. So I provide them with the right information, try to help them understand what will benefit their bodies for recovery, what will benefit their bodies for performance, etc. 

It will take some time to change the culture but we will keep working on it until it’s second nature!

What are Rovers the ambitions for the season ahead?

With all due respect to the other teams our ambitions will be the same as last season. We plan on challenging for the title and securing our promotion to the Premier League.

If we maintain our focus and continue in harmony and positivity then we can have much success.

We know that the level in Championship 1 will be higher than last year but I believe our club is ready to step up and rise to this new challenge.

We will also keep developing our youth academy and try to offer opportunities to our under-20 players to work and play alongside our seniors – with the hope that they can have a pathway into the first team.

Any chance we see you playing again on the field this season?

I made a promise to my friends and teammates that I’ll be back once we reach the Premier League. So I have slowly started with preparations for the 2021/22 season! At the moment I have plenty to keep me busy outside of the field and helping our team grow and improve… but I’ll be back!