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A Professional's Perspective, part 1
March 23, 2009
The following is the first part of a two-part interview series that will take you further into world of soccer from our Technical Director's perspective.
Q: Where do you originally come from?
A: I come from Tbilisi, Georgia. It's a small country in Southeast Europe with ancient history, 16 centuries of Christian tradition and unique cultural heritage. Football was introduced to Georgia by the British sailors in the 20s and very quickly became the people's game. Georgian players in the old times were called "Brazilians from the Soviet Union" for their technical creativity which one can understand on watching Georgian folk dancing. The club that was my second home since childhood was Dynamo Tbilisi, the winner of UEFA Cup in 1981. Making transition from youth to the first team was almost an impossible job, since for every position there were between 8 or 10 extremely gifted and well-schooled contenders. Most outstanding players started their careers as street footballers, then were selected to the Dynamo Football School of Excellence and later came to international prominence.
Q: Can you name some of the recent Academy graduates with international recognition?
A: Temuri Ketzbaia, who had a great career at Newcastle FC and now is a very successful coach in Cyprus, Arveladze, the darling of Ajax FC, Georgi Kinkladze, probably the most outstanding player to emerge from Georgia in recent times, and certainly the mainstay of AC Milan defense Kakha Kaladze. You can check them out on youtube, there's a lot of good footage there. I recently visited Tbilisi and had a wonderful meeting with one of the best defenders in the history of world football, my old friend Murtaz Hurtzilava. He and Alexander Chivadze were the only two Georgian skippers of the USSR national team in its entire history.
Q: How did you get involved in coaching football?
A: I’ve always been fascinated by education both in academic terms and in football. Of course, teaching football is different from teaching science, but the end result at both ends is the same – acquisition of knowledge and skills. Football is a psychokinetic activity involving complex interaction of body and mind so consequently attainment of high level of coaching education is essential. The biggest and the most morally rewarding feeling for a coach is to see improvement and guide his/her charges to the achievement of excellence.
Q: Who were some of the most influential coaches in you career?
A: I’ve been blessed to have been able to learn from the best in world coaching, and by virtue of circumstances most of it was absolutely free. There are so many unsung heroes in the profession – my early youth coaches, consummate in the art of instruction, possessing amazing feel for the game combined with decades of playing experience at the highest level. With children it is a standard requirement that a coach must have a legitimate playing experience, without which there can be no recognition of the building blocks in teaching the technical and tactical elements of the game. Paradoxically, at the highest levels of the game playing experience is somewhat less of a prerequisite. Some of the greatest players in the history of the game had failed as coaches – Pele, DiStefano, Puskas are prime examples, some excel in both – Cryuff, Valdano, Trapattoni, while some reach the pinnacle of the profession having never played the game at a serious level; this is what Arrigo Sacchi once said about coaching – “You don’t have to have been a horse to become a jockey”, and in his case it’s absolutely justified. So, go figure.
I’ve been influenced by personal association with Jock Stein, Bill Nicholson, Branco Zebec, Stefan Kovacz, Valeri Lobanovski, Bob Paisley, Nodar Ahalkatzi, and Enzo Bearzot among others. They were all hard working and intelligent technicians generous in sharing their knowledge, modest and unassuming. Bob Paisley, who won more trophies with Liverpool than Benitas will ever dream of was one of the most humble persons I’ve ever met in my life. His wife recalls how upon returning home from Rome the night Liverpool won the Champion’s Cup, her husband just “had a cup of tea and went to bed”.
Q: How important was football in the lives of your contemporaries?
A: You know, as everywhere else in the world football in the streets was the preferred activity for millions of kids, literally day and night with any object of round shape. The lucky ones were invited to the Dynamo tryouts that sometimes lasted a few months and only after a comprehensive trial period they would start their careers in organized football. But when they came home after training at club grounds they rejoined their friends and played street football till late at night. Then, when they retired from the professional game most of them maintained their involvement in the game through what was then called “mini football”, the earliest version of futsal. On any given weekend there were about a dozen locations in Tbilisi where four-a-side and five-a-side games were played from sunrise to sunset. There were local legends galore, some ball magicians who had never played organized football, but were capable of making the hardened pros look silly with their sorcery. I remember one such player, his name was Simon, a redhead who consistently refused enticements to join the club; his manner was reminiscent of the great Copa, the legend has it that he beat a Dynamo winger in a hundred yard dash wearing regular khakis and a pair of loafers. So as you understand I have a lot of wonderful memories.
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