EVER HERD A STORY LIKE THIS?
From running a Brazilian-style academy at a primary school to coaching Canada... Englishman John is really living the dream
JOHN HERDMAN began a coaching adventure that reaches its high point at the World Cup today by painting Brazil colours on a primary school wall.
Herdman, now Canada coach, would listen to samba music as he splashed yellow, white, blue and green around at Moorside Primary, in County Durham, where he was setting up a Brazilian football academy.
His dad, an electrician on the North Sea oil rigs, suffered badly from depression and was briefly institutionalised while his mother’s coping mechanism was alcohol.
Football was his calling. He was never good enough to play professionally but he had an energy and drive that was infectious so he decided to teach the game. A couple of decades on he is still doing that as coach of Canada after taking a unique path through football.
“I could never have envisaged this when I was working with my Brazilian music and my little football de salao balls,” said the 47-year-old. “It has been a hell of a journey to get here.” Every success story needs its lucky break and Herdman’s came with an intake at his Brazilian academy that included the sons of Sunderland defender Chris Makin and Martin Scott, the Hartlepool manager. Scott liked his style and offered him a role at the club. Then he moved onto Sunderland’s academy. He later took a football development job in New Zealand, which eventually evolved into the post of manager of the national women’s side.
Two World Cups later, he changed continents again and accepted the same role with Canada.
After he’d won bronze medals at the London and Rio Olympics, the men’s side came calling in 2018 and Canada’s biggest moment in 36 years arrives when they take on Belgium today.
“We don’t have a great amount to lose,” Herdman said.
“Looking at Belgium you can get blinded by their attack. But there’s an element of not fearing what Belgium will bring because it is all new to us.”
Herdman’s one world-class player, Alphonso Davies (left), is expected to be fit after a hamstring injury sustained on Bayern Munich duty. But against the side that finished third at the last World Cup, this will be a challenging assignment.
If Canada wanted an elite boss to negotiate a group which also includes Croatia, then Herdman is not that character. If they wanted someone to personify their underdog status, they could not have a better man.