Added: 02/23/2006 |
Famous Soccer Managers and Their Impact on GameSoccer managers are experts in dealing with people and dealing with egos. They have to be. How else can you handle a squad of athletes - each of who is earning more than the President? Sometimes one successful game is equal to weeks or even months of exhausting work and trainings. Somebody has to organize and coordinate all this process. And manage football team. We call this person a coach or a soccer manager. Physical state of each single football team as well as internal microclimate and final positive result depend on manager's professional skills and chosen strategy. On the whole, there are plenty of additional factors which may have influence on football but we focus our attention on soccer managers.
Nevertheless, the personality of a football manager plays a very important part in football life. History knows such famous coaches as Bekkenbauer, Lobanovsky, H.Kendall, Don Revie, Zagalo, R.Foller and others. Different countries have different methods of how to select appropriate specialist for a football team. Although this profession has a lot of pros and cons many famous football-players become successful soccer managers after finishing their career.
Here is the story about three famous soccer managers (any resemblance to "The Three Little Pigs' is strictly coincidental).
First will be the story about famous and contradictory soccer manager - Don Revie. He had three basic components whish were of use in his manager's career - it is discipline, devotion and total dedication to his work. Using all these principles in the work he had achieved complete success by the year 1974 with his football team "Leeds United". Footballers admired him and were ready (by the words of team's captain) to "run through the wall" for him. On the whole, there were a lot of changes in the team under the Revie's direction.
He begins implantation of radically new principles between football-players. Among them are communication with the "right" girls, short-cut hair and other useful habits which helped in setting family-like and confidential atmosphere between the team's members. As some people concerned there were several key moments in Don Revie's career which were supposed to have a "turning-point" status. One of that moments should be mentioned: it was a victory over team from the second league called "Suonsy" in September 1962 when Revie let out four of his recruits on the green field at once.
Nevertheless, there were results and they were positive. The first champion title was in 1969. After that epochal year there was infinite number of titles as well as great victories which were unforgettable for English fans. Don was a person who changed traditional blue color of the player's uniform to a white one and in fact there were nothing from the old team's regime he could stand for. In 1970, Don Revie was generally recognized as the best coach and was the first candidate to lead the main team of the country in 1974. Don was retired when he had failed to qualify to the World Cup with the national team of England in 1978.
He died in 1989. There is no doubt that Don Revie was a striking example of unflinching man whose life was full of disappointments but at the same time as glaring as meteor.
Another famous personality in the list of prominent soccer managers of English football is Howard Kendall, who trained well-known football team "Everton". Kendall "extracted" "Everton" from the second league. During his leadership "Everton" qualified to the FA Cup Final. Howard left "Everton' in 1987.
Let me introduce our second hero - Jose Mourinio. On the one hand, it's very discrepant and conflicting person, on the other Mourinio is a professional to the marrow of his bones. Some people hate him, some people changed their good opinion about him since he had left Portugal. Lots of people (especially in England) and football organization persons confirm unanimously that fact that at the present moment Jose Mourinio is one of the most prospective soccer managers in the whole world and they are not alone in their statements because many foreign newspapers along with the yellow press are always ready to describe different kinds of scandal stories about famous personalities.
But let us be objective. Analysing Jose's career as a coach any person may come to a conclusion that there are a lot of achievements that could be recollected: double-winner of the Portuguese championship with "Porto", Mourinio has also won Champions League, UEFA Cup as well as Cup and Super Cup of Portugal.
Now Jose works with "Chealsea" (club which is along with "Barcelona" supposed to be the leader football teams in the world) and quite happy in London. However, one might assert that Jose Mourinio despite his scandalous image is a very charismatic personality in modern football and his tandem with Roman Abramovich (President of "Chealsea" football club) looks very promising in prospect.
The third story is about the legend of the Ukrainian sport Oleg Blochin. Maybe there is no need in representing this man just because not only one generation was witness of his unforgettable victories on the green fields of the Soviet Union. He is the owner of all personal records in Soviet football - 112 matches for the Soviet Union national team, more than two hundred goals in general, the best football-player of the Soviet Union (1973,1974,1975), master of the Golden Ball (1975), well-deserved sportsman and so on.
He is also a football writer and the main hope of Ukrainian football fans on a forthcoming World Cup 2006 in Germany. There were "kilometers" of information that was already said and written about this unique talented footballer but it is quite clear that Oleg Blochin added glorious page to the World football history and Ukrainian history as well.
To conclude, it is significant that football managers wherever they are play very important part in football structure and they will do their best to create ideal football team in the future not to say about making football more attractive for those who do not care about sport.
Article comments:
No comments for this article yet. Post your comment now!
