In this Brownbook Magazine Article towards the end it quotes me as saying  – ‘None of that “new year, new me” around here,’ Kerbouche tweeted at the beginning of 2016. ‘I just [want to] carry on where I left off. Excited to see what 2016 brings.’  2015 had been a good year and I was excited to see what would happen in 2016. It turned out to be a great year for me.

Of course a massive highlight was being involved in the first ever African ice hockey tournament, what a great experience. As a result I appeared across various media. British tv channel ITV, huge British publication The Financial Times, local newspapers Hackney Today and Islington Gazette, and on the IIHF website. Publications like this go a long way to gain attention to my projects and the existence of Algerian ice hockey in general.

Tied in to the African championship, was the creation of my hockey club HC Alger Corsaires. Another one of my dreams and a long term project of mine, to own a hockey club and develop the sport inside Algeria. Putting together a logo, team uniform, website and associated social media was a challenge at a fairly short space of time but I’m happy with the results. The same year it was created, the jersey appeared in the famous Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, wow!

Along with the Corsaires website I also created this website in 2016. For a while I’ve wanted to create a site/blog for myself where I could write my experiences and challenges in building ice hockey in a non-hockey nation. More and more nations are starting hockey so I thought it would be interesting to give a behind the scenes look in to what actually goes in to it.

Away from hockey, it was also a pretty great year. promoted in my day job to manage a brand new £36 million sports centre in East London, I moved in to a lovely new apartment by the Thames River, and built stronger relationships with family and loved ones.

So going into 2017 it’s pretty much a carbon copy of the tweets quoted in Brownbook magazine. I want to carry on where I left off. I’m excited to see what will happen in 2017. I’m hoping to gain another promotion in my day job, of course hoping to keep my health and fitness, hoping to continue playing, I still feel fit and eager to play some more even if it’s just for fun.

I want the Corsaires to continue to grow, I want Algerian hockey to continue to grow. We have had Africa’s first ever championship, we have had Algeria’s first ever club. Now I think it’s long overdue to have some events inside Algeria. My big dream of Algerian ice hockey is made up of various small dreams, one I haven’t been able to fulfil yet is the dream of hockey being played inside Algeria, this must happen in 2017.

I need sponsorship, I need government support, I need to sell merchandise to raise funds, these are all key for the Algerian hockey project to continue to grow.

At the time of writing this, the next African club cup is planned for July in Rabat, and I’d like to arrange more exhibition games or send the team to compete in tournaments.

I want this blog to be more active, I want to start vloging, having the websites and social media updated more regularly with more interesting content.

Only time will tell, but I’m sure it will be an interesting year either way.

Follow my Twitter @KarimKerbouche and my Instagram @KarimKerbouche