As a Rangers player during the club’s years in the lower leagues, Robbie Crawford grew accustomed to finding himself in unusual places.
Indeed, there was something “surreal,” in the midfielder’s own words, about the tour of tiny grounds like Borough Briggs and Galabank, but even by that standard Crawford recent experiences have been something new.
“I guess it would be a surprise,” the 26-year-old admits when asked how the younger version of himself, the one who played 45 times for Rangers, would react if told where he would be in 2019.
Scottish players don’t tend to travel far, but Crawford has found a footballing home in the Åland Islands, an autonomous region under Finnish rule where the inhabitants speak Swedish.
An IFK Mariehamn player since February, Crawford has embraced island life.
“Obviously it’s a bit remote in the sense it’s an island,” he explains, “but you can get the ferry to Helsinki, Turku or Stockholm. So you don’t feel totally isolated, but you see a lot of the same faces most days. You run into your teammates quite a lot when you go to the supermarket.”
There’s a music festival in town this weekend which will draw thousands of visitors, but at any other time of year it’s a quiet place.
“It just helps you appreciate the smaller things I guess,” Crawford says when comparing life in a city to life on the island.
“I guess you don’t need a lot of the stuff you think you do.”
What Crawford does have, however, is a place in one of the best teams in Finland.
IFK Mariehamn play in front of home crowds of around 1,500, but their recent history has seen them win cups, league titles and play in Europe.
“I’d imagine they’d do pretty well in the Championship back home,” the midfielder says, using Scottish football to evaluate the level of IFK Mariehamn.
“Aberdeen had a competitive game against [Finnish team] RoPS,” he adds.
"I know Aberdeen dominated the games, but it was tight enough and we beat that team just the week before Aberdeen played them.”
Before calling the Åland Islands home Crawford played in Iceland. He spent two years playing for Fimleikafélag Hafnarfjarðar (or FH for short) after former Rangers player Steven Lennon recommended Crawford for a trial after reading he was close to joining another team in Iceland.
“It was quite random,” he says of the process that led him signing.
Scotland has long boasted a strong expat population, but this somehow hasn’t translated into many of our footballers seeking opportunities abroad in recent years. There is a solid contingent in the United States.
There’s David Bates in Germany, Jack Harper in Spain, Ryan Gauld in Portugal and Liam Henderson in Italy. Beyond that, though, Scottish players tend to stay at home.
“Obviously I can’t speak for everyone, but for me it’s been a great experience,” says Crawford. “I definitely recommend it to any players who are looking for something new. I was fortunate enough to be in a position to go [abroad]. It opens up horizons and gives you opportunities you don’t really expect.”
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Crawford could have ended up in the United States before making the move to Iceland having played a trial match with North Carolina FC in the Spring of 2017. America might still be somewhere the midfielder ticks off his list.
“I think there are quite a few places that would be quite appealing to go,” he says. “The USA would be good. Maybe higher leagues in Scandinavia too… there are good leagues and good size of clubs here.”
Despite his career seemingly going the way of an Anthony Bourdain TV series, taking in cities and countries in far-flung corners of the world, Crawford insists he still puts football ahead of location. “First and foremost it’s about developing my football career,” he says, “but there’s more to life than football.
Everything comes into consideration. Off the field, it’s a bonus if it’s an interesting place as well.”
Now playing in a league and a country where top level football is not quite as physical as it is in Scotland, Crawford’s game as a ball-playing midfielder has been allowed to grow. “Watching the RoPS against Aberdeen game, they are a lot more athletic at Aberdeen,” he explains.
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“Maybe that’s the main difference.”
While Rangers suffered their darkest days in the lower leagues, it was argued that one positive could be the opportunity it would afford to young, homegrown players - players like Crawford who was with the club from the age of eight.
Those years were wasted, though. Kyle Hutton, Fraser Aird, Ross Perry, Kal Naismith and Crawford… none of them are still at Rangers. Barrie McKay and Lewis Macleod made their mark, but didn’t hang around long, making the move down south.
“Going abroad was always something that I liked the idea of if I wasn’t at Rangers,” says Crawford. “But that was always the priority to be honest.
"I was at Rangers from the age of eight and getting in the first team was all I ever cared about. I would have happily stayed there. [The young players] did what we could and then new managers came in and had different ideas.”
Crawford’s different ideas post-Rangers led him to Iceland then the Åland Islands. Maybe after his Rangers experiences, he just developed a thing for playing in strange places.
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