TV STAR SAM!
Versatile Non-League ace bags Ted Lasso role
PROMOTION, captaining his country at the Gold Cup, coaching aspiring Harry Kanes and even a role in Apple TV hit Ted Lasso – football has provided Sam Cox with more than he could have ever imagined.
The 32-year-old has enjoyed a fine career in the Non-League game, at the likes of Boreham Wood, Hayes & Yeading, Wealdstone Hampton & Richmond, Braintree and Welling United, where he spent last season as assistant manager.
And the effervescent midfielder has achieved plenty off it too.
“I say this to the kids I coach at Spurs: football creates so many opportunities,” Cox says. “The enthusiasm and the love you build for it at a young age sets the foundation for when you’re older – whether you have a professional career in the game or go off to do something else in the field of football.
“Football has taught me so much personally. The way to interact with people. The way to talk to people, handle interviews, others personable skills. This is another opportunity that has come from my love for the game. I am very blessed and very grateful.”
‘This’ latest opportunity has been taking on the role of Armando in Ted Lasso, featuring alongside major stars like Jason Sudeikis.
It came about from a Sliding Doors moment after answering a late call to join film at Hayes & Yeading’s ground to be in the background of the football scenes before accepting an invite to a five-a-side tournament.
“I got talking to some of the guys and directors,” Cox says. “They said they liked the way I looked and my personality and asked if I’d done any acting before. I said, ‘Not since GCSE drama but it’s something that’s always interested me’.
“They asked if I wanted to be involved in season three and I said 100 per cent but took it with a pinch of salt – four months later I got a call from Warner Bros. asking if I’d like to be Armando in season three!
“It’s crazy how it’s come about, I can only put that down to God’s grace. We started filming a month later. I’d done a few adverts before but never to this extent so to see how that world works and how it is all created is phenomenal. Honestly, it’s been one of the best experiences of my life. And surreal, seeing some of these guys you see in Hollywood movies and on TV.”
Cox, of course, is well-used to rubbing shoulders with the stars. By day he coaches the U15s at Tottenham’s academy alongside Yaya Toure, having grown up in the same youth team as Kane.
“It’s a privilege to help these boys doing the same journey I’ve been through,” Cox says. “I think because I am still young they can relate to that.
Journey
“I’ve seen some of the youth team boys I grew up with go onto the first team – you’ve got the England captain and club’s all-time scorer that I went through the journey with. I can share, ‘This is what Harry did to get to where he is, this is the standard, this is maybe where I fell short’.
“It’s trying to give not only the knowledge on the grass to improve technically and tactically, but the mental side of things as well. The mental barriers you have to overcome.
“It’s another opportunity that has come from football.
It gives me huge pleasure to see those boys I’ve been part of coaching over the last nine years go on to have successful league and internationals careers.”
Kane is the example to all. “I remember before the start of the season (coach) Alex Inglethorpe used to make us write out our year targets and our career targets,” Cox says.
“He would get us to read some of them in front of the group. Some would say, ‘ten first team appearances or ten assists’. “Harry read his out. They were that he wanted to be the club’s all-time goalscorer, the country’s all-time goalscorer and the Premier League’s greatest goalscorer. That must have been in 2009.
“I remember the group kind of being like, ‘Yeah, right’. He had that self-belief from that early age. And the desire. Through the setbacks, he still believed in himself. I am so proud of him. He’s an example across the world.” Cox’s examples growing up among the Spurs coaching staff were Inglethorpe, Chris Ramsey, John McDermott, Bradley Allen and Perry Suckling.
He’s trying to lead in the same way at home and abroad with Guyana trying to make more history by qualifying for the Gold Cup again.
“Probably the most proud I’ve been is captaining my country at the Gold Cup and helping us achieve that for the first time in our nation’s history,” Cox says.
“I had a vision we would qualify for a major tournament and put our country on the map. Not many people knew our country over here. For us to achieve it, I remember that day when we qualified, the attention we got, it was a huge honour.
“Captaining the country, left, against America, viewed by millions across the world, it was phenomenal. I had tears in my eyes for the national anthem.
“I am always like, ‘What’s next?’. To achieve a second Gold Cup would be unbelievable.”
For Cox, Non-League has made all of it possible.
“I say to my young players who have dropped into NonLeague that it provides an unbelievable platform to those who have slipped out of the professional game to continue enjoying their football but also build another career on the side,” he says. “That is still success.”