Limerick man puts amputee football on world map

SIMON Baker has banished the word ‘can’t’ from his vocabulary, and from his mind-set.

Can’t, says the man who has been living in Adare for the past 22 years, means you have failed without even trying. Couldn’t means you have tried even if you haven’t succeeded.

But then Simon is a kind of object lesson in taking on challenges and trying, even in the face of adversity.

In 2004, following a  workplace accident, he lost one of his legs, a loss that was followed by the loss of his business (he was a plasterer) and his home and a period of deep depression which included two suicide attempts. .

‘’But more than that I lost my identity.  I was now classed as disabled,’’ he explained.

Fortunately, he recalled this week, he realised one day the only person who could change things for him was himself.

And so he did. “Sport became my medicine and my road to recovery,’’ he said. In 2008, he ran the Dublin Marathon on one leg with his crutches and earned his place in the Guinness Book of Records. Then he took on the task of walking from Dublin to Limerick, a journey of 257km.

Then, in 2011, he set up amputee football, as  a way to support other like minded people who were amputees and looking for a release.

The Irish Amputee Football Association was the end result and in this, Simon said, he got good support from John Delaney.

But Simon didn’t stop there. He went on to co-found the European Amputee Football Association of which he is now general secretary and he is now also general secretary of the World Amputee Football Association.

Ultimately, he wants to see amputee football well established and organised in every country in the world and is in discussion with FIFA in order to achieve that aim.

He is also looking forward to seeing football included in the Paralympics.

Last year, Simon went to Tanzania where he helped set up amputee football there and he is just back after spending a week in Gaza where he ran a special training programme for amputee footballers and coaches organised by the International Red Cross.

It was, he told the Limerick Leader, the first programme of its kind and it was an amazing experience. The situation in Gaza, he said, is very political but he was there as a neutral.

“I made it clear I wasn’t there to discuss how someone lost their leg,” he explained. “I was working with coaches who have worked with footballers but not with disability.”

“I want people to see these footballers as athletes, not people with disabilities. For me, it was to create awareness and education”.

His constant reminder to amputees was: ‘You are here to play football. Look to tomorrow or you will never get over it.’

Simon will be making a return trip later this year but visits to Rwanda, Georgia and possibly Afghanistan are also in his sights.

Meantime, he is back at the day job, as manager in Embury Close sheltered housing in Adare and dreaming of getting a storage space where he could store the crutches, soccer balls, boots and other kit until they could be used to make a difference somewhere around the world.

For the man who has banned can’t from his mindset, that dream is very likely to come true.