Stephen and the Media

Soccernet.com

Is this man the future of English football?

By Sean Smith

Friday, January 5, 2001

The letter finally came through the post on Wednesday evening - 24 hours after the event had been announced back in England. It simply read: "Dear Mr Constantine, Thank you for your interest, but we have given the job to Nigel Worthington."

Not surprising, some might say. After all, who has ever heard of Stephen Constantine? He is not remembered for his footballing skills, and the closest he ever got to professional football were trials for Millwall and Arsenal and a substitute appearance for Enfield Town.

But in the last year - and on the recommendation of the English FA - Constantine has guided Nepal, a disorganised group of players who didn't even have the same coloured shirts, into a team that won silver in the South Asian Federation (SAF) Games.

His ability to take a chaotic organisation and deliver order and, in turn, success should have a number of chairmen in England sitting up and taking note. Of course it hasn't. Because of the outdated belief that a coach's ability is in direct proportion to his ability as a player, qualified coaches like Constantine are receiving short shrift when searching for work.

'Since I left the UK, I have applied for the manager's job at Plymouth, Oxford, Southend, Huddersfield, Luton and Brentford and, more recently Wolves, Norwich and Barnsley,' Constantine told Soccernet. 'Norwich were the only club who had the courtesy to reply.'

The irony of Constantine's success last summer is lost on the English establishment: that while a two-time European Footballer of the Year was mismanaging England to an embarrassing early exit in Euro 2000, a former Enfield substitute was performing miracles on the other side of the world.

Constantine, a North Londoner by birth, moved to the US to play professionally, but in 1989, at the age of 28, he suffered cruciate damage and was forced to retire. He immediately found a coaching position at the club he played for and, thanks to Cypriot connections at the New York-based club, moved to Cyprus to manage a fourth division side.

Over the next three years, he invested in an education, attaining an FA Advanced Licence, an FA Conversion Course and a UEFA A Licence, which allows him to coach anywhere in Europe. In 1996 he became the youngest top flight manager in Cyprus when he guided Apep FC to promotion at the age of 34.

The FA took an interest in his progress, and he was asked to scout for England under-18s at the UEFA Championships - a move which indirectly led to his appointment as Nepal's manager. Nepal asked the SAF for help in finding a coach and one phone call to the English FA brought Constantine to their attention.

On his arrival, despite their rather ragged appearance, Constantine immediately saw possibilities. 'I didn't know the level at first,' he said. 'But after I saw several videos and then we went and played a couple of games in Bangladesh I saw that we had some potential.'

He also managed to tap into the spirituality evident in the psyche of a nation that is largely Buddhist: 'I believe in unity and team spirit. A less talented team that fights for every ball and is prepared to battle for team-mates can sometimes overcome a better technical, but not together, team.'

The enthusiasm he generated in his players was immense. As his methodology began to take root, Nepal fell in love with a game that it had been struggling to master for years.

Despite having only five months to prepare for the SAF tournament, Nepal began by thumping Bhutan 7-0 and then beat Pakistan 3-1 to qualify for the semi-finals, where they had to face a Maldives side ranked 20 places higher in the FIFA World Rankings.

Excitement in Katmandu, the capital, hit fever pitch as fans literally fought for tickets and rumours started that Crown Prince Dipendra was to attend the match - unheard of in a country where royals are considered to be descended from Buddha. Sherpas even went on strike, refusing to take climbers up to base camp as the tournament progressed.

With a nation expecting, inspiration was needed. Stephen takes up the story: 'I made them sing old nationalistic songs in the dressing room before we went out. I wanted them to feel that "here is some guy from England and he cares more about winning than we do".

'I even wore National dress as a surprise just as they were about to walk out for the semi-final. You should have seen them, there were tears in their eyes - they couldn't believe it!

'We won 2-1 against the Maldives. Three months prior to that Nepal had lost twice to them in another tournament. They were gutted. They thought they were going to murder us!'

A 1-0 defeat at the hands of Bangladesh in the final proved an anticlimax, but the actions of their new manager had already guaranteed him a place in Nepalese history. So much so that he was presented with the Prabal Gorkha Dakshin Baahu Medal - the equivalent of an OBE- by His Majesty the King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev.

	“	We won 2-1 against the Maldives. They were gutted. They thought they were going to murder us! ”
		— Stephen Constantine

And yet he continues to be ignored by his own countrymen. If he were to walk into a job in the Premiership tomorrow, he would be the most qualified coach in the league. The letter of rejection from Norwich, though polite is a poignant reminder of the coaching hierarchy in England - a hierarchy that has done the country no favours.

'I didn't play much in England, and perhaps the chairmen of English clubs are afraid of taking a risk on anyone they haven't heard of,' he said. 'Although I would have thought hiring someone to coach just because he was a great player is more of a risk than hiring a qualified coach like me.'

'The question is can the great players teach football? Can they motivate? I really am surprised that chairmen hire someone who has never managed before and then give them the responsibility of running a club.

'I would like to come back to England or somewhere else in Europe, but in this game you don't always get to choose where you go.'

If Sven Goran Eriksson was the only choice as England manager, it was not because there aren't talented English coaches out there. They are just not getting a chance. Stephen Constantine could be the future of English football.

If only he was given a chance.

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