Barnsley coach’s ‘guilt’ at avoiding fatal air crash

Poya Asbaghi, the new head coach of Barnsley, has spoken of his “survivor’s guilt” after revealing he came close to being on the tragic Germanwings flight in 2015.

All 150 people on board were killed when the Barcelona to Dusseldorf Airbus crashed in the French Alps. Investigators found that copilot, Andreas Lubitz, had deliberately grounded the A320 after a psychotic episode days earlier.

Asbaghi was assistant coach at Swedish side Dalkurd FF at the time, and he said: “We were travelling home from a training camp, my team was split into three different flights going from Barcelona and eventually on to Stockholm.

“The fourth flight, the one we didn’t fill with any of our players, crashed into the Alps. When we were checking in, I remember seeing the German school class who all tragically died. When you experience that, you almost feel ashamed to be alive. It’s difficult for me to say that some things are more important than football, but actually in that moment you understand.”

The 36-year-old fled Iran with his family in the 1980s to avoid political persecution due to their opposition to the Islamic regime. They set up home in Sweden, where he decided to curtail his playing career as a teenager to concentrate on coaching, progressing through the ranks to lead Gothenburg to the Swedish cup 16 months ago.

“I quit playing when I was 19, it meant I could start coaching,” he said. “I understood that if I worked very hard every day maybe I could play at some level, but not at the best level. It was more interesting to start managing because I felt the potential in me as a manager was higher.”

Asbaghi’s arrival at Barnsley continues a series of “left field” appointments by the South Yorkshire club, whose last five permanent head coaches had no prior experience of managing in England. The former Sweden Under-21 international manager takes charge with Barnsley anchored in the bottom three after just one win in the past 16 Championship games, in contrast to last season’s top-six finish under Valerien Ismael.

After watching Saturday’s 4-1 defeat at Fulham, Asbaghi oversees his first game at home to Swansea City tomorrow.

“What I have learnt is that this is a place where its people haven’t got anything for free in their lives,” he said. “Normally they have to put down a lot of work to get the same outcome as other people do with less effort.”