Passion for game is missing in young players: Domenech
MUMBAI: Raymond Domenech was shocked by the questions asked to him by 12 to 13 year olds during a causal school gathering recently.
“All the questions were about money in football. One of them had written that ‘I want to be a footballer to buy a house for my family and have lot of girls with me’. I was shocked. Nobody said I wanted to be a footballer because I loved football,” said Domenech, who was France coach for six years during which the Les Bleus finished runners-up at the 2006 World Cup and four years later in South Africa they were knocked out in the first round.
“Sport stars are like movie stars now and kids want to emulate them,” says the 66-year-old before stressing on the fact that there’s so much money coming into the sport that it’s easy for a youngster to lose his focus.
So what will be his advice for a young, upcoming player? “It depends totally on the player and what he listens to. What we as coaches can tell him that: ‘Don’t try to earn money before you become a good footballer.’ But that’s a big problem which needs to be addressed,” says Domenech, who is the president of the Union of French Football Coaches (UNECATEF) and is in India to explore the possibility of French coaches working with Indian club sides and under stand how Indian football works.
June 2010 is the darkest moment of his career. France exited in the first round of 2010 World Cup and player revolt became a national issue back home. It brought an ignominious end to his reign as manager. “National disaster,” he says.
But his book Tout Seul (All Alone), which became a bestseller, generating a degree of sympathy for Domenech.
He gave up management thereafter, coaching an amateur team for a couple of years and while he had offers to coach club teams, he wasn’t interested. “Coaching clubs involves lot of problems,” he says.
Now in a happy space, he is looking to take the plunge back in to managing a national side and is on the hunt for options.
My first team had Zidane, Thuram, Makelele. They wanted to fight. As years passed by, the desire among the players was not the same On his stint as France U-21 coach When a coach has a problem with big players it’s dangerous for him. Now, they have more power than before. Coach must be more firm, clever On challenges of current coaches
The darkest hour of France football also became a template for his successors to avoid repetition. “Even (Didier) Deschamps explained to the players, ‘look what happened and we don’t want that to happen again’. It set an example for French football players,” says Domenech.
Coming back to the current generation of players he feels that they lack the drive and desire of someone like Zinedine Zidane when he was coming up the ranks.
“When you are a coach for a long time, like I was of the France under-21 team, you do see the difference. My first team had Zidane, (Lilian) Thuram, (Claude) Makelele. They wanted to work, wanted to fight. As years passed by, the desire among the players was not the same. More money came in and changed their mindset. Zidane was all about football. Now it’s more showbiz,” says the Frenchman, who coached the under-21 team for 11 years between 1993 and 2004.
Domenech also feels that nowadays it helps to have an illustrious football background before entering management as it helps you deal with the egos of multi-million dollar-earning players better.
“When a coach has a problem with big players it’s dangerous for him. Now, they have more power than before. Coach must be more firm, clever. It helps when you were a good player.
“If Zidane or (Thierry) Henry has a problem, he knows that he has time. If it was not Zidane and Real Madrid had not won the Champions League, the coach would have been sacked,” Domenech explained.
“Zidane was appointed when there were problems at Real, between (Cristiano) Ronaldo and (Rafa) Benitez. But Zidane comes out and says, ‘he (Ronaldo) is our best player, and our leader’. That’s how you have to handle a player. His background makes it easier,” he went on to add.