Peters sees Roar talent

Ben Drewe | 16th June 2010



MOST of us will get to see the Brisbane Roar on Friday night when they play Melbourne Heart, but Gatton's Emmanuel Peters has seen their talent up close.

Emmanuel Peters gets back to Raiders training after playing the Roar.
Nev Madsen

MOST of us will get to see the Brisbane Roar in action on Friday night when they play Melbourne Heart at Clive Berghofer Stadium, but Gatton’s Emmanuel Peters saw their talent up close last Saturday.

The Toowoomba Raiders striker played in an African Invitational XI in Brisbane in a fund-raiser against the A-League stars.

The Roar won the match 2-0 thanks to goals from Massimo Murdocca and Henrique, but 20-year-old Peters still enjoyed the experience.

“It was terrific,” he said.

“I was pretty nervous and stuff, but as we got onto the field I started to cool down and everything was okay. I just pretended I was playing any other team.”

Peters immigrated to Australia from Sudan five years ago and plays in the Men’s Premier League Division One in Brisbane off-season for a team comprising African players.

It was from there he was invited to trial for the invitational side.

He was the only player not based in Brisbane to make the squad and he made the trip down twice a week for training in the lead-up to the match.

The Gatton resident enjoyed the chance to take on the Roar, but missed Raiders’ 7-0 drubbing of Rocklea United last Saturday night.

He is friends with some of the Rocklea players and is disappointed he missed out on playing them. However, he was thrilled when he heard how well his team-mates went in his absence.

“I’m happy with the boys’ performance on the weekend even though I wasn’t there, but the news, it was just incredible,” he said. “Hopefully we keep that up week-in week-out.”

I was pretty nervous and stuff, but as we got onto the field I started to cool down and everything was okay.
http://www.thechronicle.com.au/story/2010/06/16/emmanuel-peters-gets-a-shot-select-brisbane-roar/