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| Portrait: Andy Butler |
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Born of a Protestant Father and a Catholic Mother, Andy keeps making different choices; in a nation where Gaelic games and rugby dominate, he played cricket. At just 20 he traveled to New Zealand where the sport is more popular. After a year or so of being a coaching assistant, he returned to Ireland after a short stint in London. But Andy's restless spirit didn't keep him stationary for long and soon Andy began some different enterprises from an interior design firm in London to a residential language school in a castle outside Dublin. Through his work with his educational company he had the opportunity to travel to China. When he arrived in Harbin in frosty Heilongjiang province the temperature was -36 C. Two years later he moved to Harbin after two days spent in Beijing, where he'd thought he would have lived. Instead he opened a bar in Manchuria where he lived for two and a half years until his Russian girlfriend told him that she'd found a job in GZ . During that time the bar in Harbin met a few problems and when he went back there, his partner had sold it and left with all the cash. No matter, Andy's Irish resilience kicks-in; he gets back into business with a Chinese friend, it doesn't really work and after a falling out with this guy and few weeks spent teaching at the local university, Andy heads back to GZ by train with a bandaged arm, 300RMB in his pocket and no passport. He stayed a couple of months with friends in Foshan while working in GZ and after a year he raised enough money to invest again. Andy is a fighter, he has always known instinctively what to do. He set up a company with a partner, providing renewable energy solutions to commercial and residential customers in North America and as if that wasn't enough, he started organising a football league last August. Andy has never really been interested in playing football but organising a league of 12 teams excites him and he talks about it with passion. This League embraces 12 teams of more than 30 different nationalities, with players from Africa, South America, The Middle East, Europe or Japan. For him life is about people and enduring friendships, bringing people together and contributing to the social fabric of life. Andy has also started a charity grassroots program alongside the football league, providing football coaching for children and interested parents from disadvantaged backgrounds in Guangzhou.Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites          |
