Midnight call changes coach’s career
It is a long way from Fraser Park to the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka but that is the unlikely football path travelled by Ryan Sandford.
After the final game of the Central League with Lower Hutt, Sandford was looking for work.
On August 21 he received an unexpected midnight phone call from Paul Smalley, who had worked for New Zealand Football more than a decade ago.
Smalley is involved with Bangladesh and was desperately in need of a goal keeping coach for the men’s team.
The German who held that position had let him down and with an important fixture coming up for the Bengal Tigers, Smalley rang Sandford.
‘‘He gave me 18 hours to get on a plane.’’
Sitting at 185 in the latest Fifa ranking, Bangladesh is not a glamorous coaching gig. Best known for cricket, there is a recent history of terrorism and attacks on foreigners.
The men’s team is trying to qualify to play in the Asia Federation with teams like Australia and Japan. Their recent fixtures include Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanker and Tajikistan
Despite their modest ranking, Sandford was upbeat about the players. They had a level of skill he could work with and the facilities were good.
Cricket dominated and had shown what could be achieved if money was invested in coaching and development.
As well as the men’s team he had also worked with their under 16 girls, including a stint with the side in the Maldives.
The girls won a qualifying tournament and were too good for some quality teams.
‘‘Their closest game was against Chinese Taipei, they beat them 4-2. The standard of the girls was really quite impressive.’’
One thing he quickly had to get used to was the media attention. As soon as he stepped off the plane, he was swamped with media requests. TV crews covered every training.
Security was also a big issue and although foreigners had been targeted, he felt safe.
‘‘We have armed guards and policemen around us all the time.’’
Looking back over the past month, Sandford said it was hard to believe that he had gone from the Central League to coaching internationally. He had another three months’ work and he was hoping that will be extended for a year.