E. Vincent Joshua Chingakule - Comments

Was just curious anyone have any specifics as to how much bank balance or any conditions that need to be met before a club turns fully professional especially when even the top tier league in the country does not require professional status like a few other clubs in the league are professional the rest are semi-professional

First off, I had to narrow down, where I would start this journey into this new career, and being fluent in English, German and Spanish, I narrowed the scope to countries which had those languages as official languages. And found one in a country I barely knew anything about, Luxembourg. Where CS Fola Esch a semi-professional league club invited me for an interview after applying. Wasn't the first place to I applied several places refusing saying they liked my personality but couldn't afford to let me take charge because their circumstances and having more experienced options, which I obviously undertsood and was a little apprehensive.

I researched all I could about the club in the week leading up to the day. Learning they were a moderately successful side despite being semi-professional having won the league 9 times and as recently as two years prior and were third and were the oldest club in Luxombourg. Which had me curious if they would even give me a fair chance. However, Florian Engel the club chairman was very welcoming speaking in German for my benefit and I surprised him with a few lines of Letzburgesch, which on a whim decided to take an online courses on, no matter if I got the job or not. He gave me a short tour of the club facilities, they were a multisport club too, with athletic teams.

They asked me why I had decided to go into coaching, and what made decide on coming here. Asked me a lot about tactics and and were quite happy I had a degree in business administration. And what almost caught me off guard they had me take the pitch and set up a session with the junior team. For some strange reason it I did not expect it but made a mental to always expect it and be ready for it, if I went to any other interview. From what I could tell they seemed impressed and told me they would call me back, 6 days later they offered me the job and I decided to take it and asking for the obvious opportunity to study to earn my first coaching badge, and they glad said they would even sponsor me, which was the best part.

8th July 2022, the fist day I walked into my office as a football manager. I was under no illusions and knew I would be playing a lot of catch up. And had the task of helping the club staying in the league, the BPL Ligue as it's known here. Where this journey will lead only time will tell.