Why I left England and moved to Spain to become a football coach

28-Jan-2021 11:42:08 | The Guardian

After being turned down by the FA, I decided to learn Spanish and set off on an adventure. I can’t recommend it enough

Suspenseful whispers of “what sort of brain has that lad got?” from fellow candidates are followed by an eruption of congratulatory cheers and the 19-year-old is welcomed into the dressing room through a pasillo – a guard of honour. He has completed his final practical assessment and has been given feedback from the course tutors. Like the rest of us, he is now a Uefa A licenced football coach. Once he completes his 160 hours of assessed coaching hours, that is.

The young coach has just completed the last of his 12 practical assessment days, including a 40-minute on-pitch exam. As the sweltering Mediterranean sun beat down on the parched turf, endless instructions were thrown at him. “OK, now what if this player hasn’t turned up or got injured in the warm-up?” bellowed one tutor, signalling for one of the players to leave the session. The young coach threw a bib at another player immediately, telling him that he was now the neutral and should play for whichever team is in possession.