Name: Abraham Watkins




Country: Fiji
Club: Nadroga F.C.
Position: *SB
Side: LF/LS
Age: 24-27 years (??/??/1961)

Height: 175 cm *
Weight: 70 kg *


Attack: 62
Defence: 65
Balance: 69
Stamina: 80
Top Speed: 75
Acceleration: 73
Response: 68
Agility: 72
Dribble Accuracy: 63
Dribble Speed: 67
Short Pass Accuracy: 65
Short Pass Speed: 66
Long Pass Accuracy: 65
Long Pass Speed: 65
Shot Accuracy: 54
Shot Power: 72
Shot Technique: 55
Free Kick Accuracy: 52
Curling: 54
Header: 64
Jump: 69
Technique: 65
Aggression: 67
Mentality: 70
Goalkeeper Skills: 50
Team Work: 64

Injury Tolerance: A
Condition: 4
Weak Foot Accuracy: 4
Weak Foot Frequency: 4
Consistency: 4
Growth type: Standard/Lasting

CARDS:
S09 - Covering

SPECIAL ABILITIES: Covering

Attack/Defence Awareness Card: Defence Minded


INFO:
Watkins is a former left-back who played as striker in the latter part of his career, when he was past his prime. He spent his career at Nadroga, playing there from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. He capped for Fiji Islands in numerous occasions in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. His biggest achievement was the 1988 Fijian Sportsman of the Year ─ he's the only footballer to win the award ─ after playing a major role in the historical win over Australia in the same year.
Considered the pride of Nadroga, Watkins was a solid defender who owned his left-back position for many years. He was a great utility player, distinguished for discipline, commitment, charisma, a calm composure, and remarkably high fitness. During training, he would finish all the sets before his teammates even when he was the oldest member of the squad.

For the height/weight for those 80s players, maybe those pictures are helpful for "guessing" it a bit at least:

Two squad pictures where they stand on one line, one from 1982 and one from 1988:



So we still need a starting point what brings me to Watkins. Here's a picture of him with legendary German coach Rudi Gutendorf:



Gutendorf was approx. 177 cm tall and looks a little bit taller than Watkins (maybe 1-2 cm), so Watkins should be around 175 cm I guess.

Source for Gutendorf:




Sorry for the long post

Thanks, mate! I had a look at many squad pictures while looking for info about the players, but I'm not very good at guessing the height. The comparison between Gutendorf and Watkins should help.

I don’t know if you had a look, but some of the 70s and 80s players have a game from 1981 available on Footballia, a World Cup qualifier against New Zealand. Including this guy, although it doesn’t match the era.

Yes, but it's a decisive 13-0 win for New Zealand as Fiji did basically nothing other than being very crap in defence.
There's also footage on YouTube, mostly highlights of games against New Zealand and Australia from the 1980s and 1990s. You don't get much from any of them though.

No offence to these guys, but if they could lose 13-0 to a New Zealand team that wasn't even very good themselves (even Scotland could beat them 5-2), then I'd imagine they'd have worse stats. Mannan for example looks like he could play in some second or third tier team in England, not a player of a team that was realistically similar in skill to today's Andorra or San Marino. Especially if you're saying that their defence was so useless.

It was in that specific match, but Fiji still has some historic wins: 1-0 over Australia in a 1977 friendly, 4-0 over New Zealand in the 1980 Oceania Cup which was also valid for the 1982 World Cup qualifiers, 2-0 win again over New Zealand in a 1983 friendly, and last in 1988 two wins in a row against New Zealand (both friendly) and right after a 1-0 against Australia in the first leg of 1990 World Cup qualifier knockout. Furthermore, 1970s and 1980s are considered Fiji's "golden era" in football (which says much and nothing at the same time). That said, do you suggest any changes in some sets (maybe even via PM)?