DUBAI: For most of the 12 coaches from Pakistan, attending the first-ever Train the Trainer programme with Liverpool’s International Academy coaches was a unique experience.

Apart from Kaleem Kerai and Sheikh Hamdan, who are Karachi United’s first team and academy coaches, the other 10 were from the club’s community and youth programmes.

Most of them were taken aback by the great details that are put into training young players, the reasoning to every method employed in training.

After three days of intense training sessions in the programme organised by the club’s title sponsors Standard Chartered for which Pakistan was chosen as the first market globally, they will now take what they’ve learnt in Dubai and implement those values back in the country.

The community centre coaches are from some of the football-crazy localities of Karachi including Lyari, Shireen Jinnah Colony, Malir, Baldia, Old Golimar and Orangi Town where they will collectively train thousands of kids.

Liverpool academy coach Steven Gillespie told Dawn about the club’s player-centred approach where they “put the person above the player”.

“Unfortunately everyone cannot go on to be star player and ultimately we want the players to go through and guide them with the best coaches and create all-rounded people,” said Gillespie. He added that the focus was on preparing them for life in or outside football. “It’s all about development. I think things can get lost in coaching, as it’s all about winning tournaments. But for us, it’s important what we do for those who don’t make it.”

“It certainly has challenged our beliefs and now we know what we need to do differently,” said one of the coaches during the training sessions.

But for Hamdan and Kareem, the onus is now on them to focus on coaching education.

“The plan is to go to all our targeted communities in Karachi, give classes to coaches and invite the best of them to the Karachi United’s elite coach training programme,” said Hamdan. “What we’re taking back from this programme is how to structure our elite programme the way Liverpool do it.”

Kareem informed that the Karachi United’s community development programme is very much similar to Liverpool’s but they will “tweak it a little and that will hugely benefit community football”.

“The coaches have a lot more clarity in the little technical details that matter,” said Kareem. “Grassroots development through community is very important to help football improve in the country.”

Kareem, who is pursuing a UEFA ‘B’ licence, is of the view that coaches education is crucial to lift Pakistan football.

“It eventually comes down to how good the coaching is,” he said. “Good coaches can make good footballers and that’s what we need at this time.”

Karachi United CEO Imran Ali was of the view that this was a huge opportunity for his club.

“No club in Pakistan has had such an opportunity to interact with coaches of the stature of Liverpool,” Imran told Dawn. “Putting this kind of a programme together is a massive credit to the sponsors. Now we need to inculcate their value system into our programmes which will not only benefit Karachi United but also Pakistan football.”

Gillespie was impressed with what he’s seen in the coaches.

“The coaches made our job really easy,” he said. “They’ve come here with the mindset of improving and a good knowledge of football. It’s a good base layer to start with and we’ll follow up with them in few months time to assess the impact and the areas they need to improve.”

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2020