Match reports, results, photos from the changing rooms, reactions from the trainers and much more. For years, William Puyk has been posting the news from the Gooise amateur fields (and now also far beyond) on his Facebook group Voetbal Midden-Nederland. But strangely enough, you won’t easily find William himself on the Gooise sidelines, because he has been living in distant Thailand since 2007.
It is Saturday morning and Gooi is playing football and is traveling towards the amateur fields. At that moment, William has been awake in Thailand for several hours and busy post in his Facebook group. “It’s a hobby that got out of hand,” says William, born in Bussum and raised in Hilversum.
“I have two advantages: I live six hours later, so when everyone wakes up the information is on the site,” explains 62-year-old Gooier. “I also come from the Gooise football world and I know everyone. William started playing football in the youth of the Bussum SDO and then switched to the now defunct Hoogerheide, Donar and sc ‘t Gooi from Hilversum.
Transfer news
The Facebook group works as follows: the clubs from ‘t Gooi provide the information to William who then throws it back into the group: results, summaries, images from the dressing room, transfer news and much more about the first men’s teams. Every Sunday he also asks for a short response from the trainers about the matches played, which he then puts online on Monday and he posts interviews and other related articles from local media.
“It really is a day job,” he says. But one that is worth it. “It triggers me, because I love football.” It is also a great way for him to stay in touch with where he comes from. “You certainly maintain a bond. I followed it before and now you have become a key player in it,” he laughs.
“I’m actually a glorified taxi driver here”
“But of course it must remain an interaction,” he says. “The information has to come from the clubs. I shouldn’t have to chase it all the time. Fortunately, that has not been the case so far. I keep it accessible and simple. I am not a journalist and am not going to investigate anything. And so far it remains people like it: that football language in the form of this interplay.”
Thailand
And William does all this from distant Thailand, where he has lived for years. “In 2002, a friend of mine went backpacking through Asia. He ended up in Thailand and liked it so much that he stayed there.” So William decided to visit his friend. He also liked the country and returned several times.
So he sold his mailing company in Wormerveer and emigrated to Thailand in 2007. “To put it bluntly, I suddenly found myself here with a bag of money.” Eventually he also met a woman with whom he married and had two children: a 12-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter.
“My wife has a real estate agency and I have been able to invest in real estate.” So William has plenty of free time, which he mainly uses to drive his son around. “He is in the youth academy of the Thai professional club Pattaya Dolphins. “I am actually a glorified taxi driver here,” he jokes.
From Hilversum to Central Netherlands
So William now has a lot of free time to post about football news from the Gooi and Vecht region, Utrecht and Amersfoort from the football fields of Thailand. His group now has four thousand members.
But what is now a large Facebook group started seven years ago as a small site about Hilversum’s football history. “Then I received messages from people who now play football. They asked why I don’t do anything with contemporary football. Then I started posting about the Hilversum associations and one thing led to another. Members of clubs asked if their club was also on it. was allowed and so it continued to grow.”
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The group for Hilversum amateur football became Hilversum and surrounding areas, the Gooi and Vecht region and ultimately what it is today. There are now about sixty associations that send William news. “It’s actually unbelievable how big it has become.”
Donation
There is a small catch for these clubs. “I ask the clubs I write about if they would like to donate 50 euros per season to the MZS (People, Care and Sport) foundation.” As founder and chairman of the foundation, William works with a large group of volunteers to raise money for (local) charities through benefit competitions. The annual charity match is the only time you can spot William along the Gooise sidelines.