[This story will mainly be written from the manager's perspective. I wanted to try something different. Many thanks.]
[F.C METALIST] Adventures of an Unknown Manager
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This was it. I stepped off the plane and for the first time I tasted the fresh air of Ukraine. A little shuttle bus guided the passengers from the airfield to the colossal airport in which I glided through border control. Outside, I scanned dozens of heads until I halted my glance. There he was, a scruffy man in his mid fifties holding up a cheap piece of paper, written on it 'HARVEY LAWSON'. After a bumpy, never ending ride in his compact taxi, I waited outside OSC Metalist for a senior figure to guide me to the chairman's office. I'd not been this nervous since I did my A-levels, which meant **** all in the end. One knock on the door and it swung open, behind it a welcoming smile from Sergiy Kurchenko (I'll have to write that down somewhere).
I applied for the Metalist job a few weeks ago but didn't think much of it. It felt like I was one of those teenagers applying for a job with their Football Manager or FIFA experience, just for a laugh. I've done my coaching qualifications but it seems like clubs want an older person who's played professional football in the past, and I fit none of that criteria. I'm only twenty two and, well, I only started following the game a few years ago. I used to hate it, wondering how people can be so intrigued at men kick a ball around for an hour an' a half. I was eleven when I was made to watch a football much. But it wasn't any football match; it was the Champions League final between AC Milan and Liverpool in Istanbul. That's the first time I actually enjoyed the sport, and ever since, it's grew on me. But back to the point, I applied for the Metalist job just for the sake of it, so you can imagine my disbelief when I got a phone call asking me to attend an interview. I couldn't back then because I was too poor to spend money on a trip to Ukraine, but they let me do the interview over video chat. About a week after, I got another call demanding I travel to Ukraine, and this time the club paid for me to go there. And here I was, in the chairman's office.
"I want to give you the job," he told me. "I'm extremely impressed by your enthusiasm, maturity and knowledge at such a young age and I feel like you could go on to be an extremely successful manager. But, you have absolutely no experience of management in football which is obviously quite risky for a club of Metalist's stature. So I'm willing to give you a contract, but only of one year for the time being." I nodded, too overwhelmed to force any words out of my mouth. And that's where I am today. I'm the manager of Metalist Kharkiv Football Club.
I applied for the Metalist job a few weeks ago but didn't think much of it. It felt like I was one of those teenagers applying for a job with their Football Manager or FIFA experience, just for a laugh. I've done my coaching qualifications but it seems like clubs want an older person who's played professional football in the past, and I fit none of that criteria. I'm only twenty two and, well, I only started following the game a few years ago. I used to hate it, wondering how people can be so intrigued at men kick a ball around for an hour an' a half. I was eleven when I was made to watch a football much. But it wasn't any football match; it was the Champions League final between AC Milan and Liverpool in Istanbul. That's the first time I actually enjoyed the sport, and ever since, it's grew on me. But back to the point, I applied for the Metalist job just for the sake of it, so you can imagine my disbelief when I got a phone call asking me to attend an interview. I couldn't back then because I was too poor to spend money on a trip to Ukraine, but they let me do the interview over video chat. About a week after, I got another call demanding I travel to Ukraine, and this time the club paid for me to go there. And here I was, in the chairman's office.
"I want to give you the job," he told me. "I'm extremely impressed by your enthusiasm, maturity and knowledge at such a young age and I feel like you could go on to be an extremely successful manager. But, you have absolutely no experience of management in football which is obviously quite risky for a club of Metalist's stature. So I'm willing to give you a contract, but only of one year for the time being." I nodded, too overwhelmed to force any words out of my mouth. And that's where I am today. I'm the manager of Metalist Kharkiv Football Club.
