Former Tottenham and France star Pascal Chimbonda admits he ‘likes a challenge’ as he reveals why he’s taken his first managerial job at Skelmersdale United – BOTTOM of the ninth tier in England
- Pascal Chimbonda says he wants to ‘open the door’ for other black coaches
- The former Wigan star took a unique and challenging route into football
- Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport’s podcast ‘It’s All Coming Up!’
Pascal Chimbonda has just begun his managerial career at a non-league team who had lost 15 of their first 16 league games and been handed the task of trying to save them from relegation.
But when he insists he cannot be stopped once he sets his mind on something he only has to look at his own career for proof.
‘In 1998 when France won that World Cup I was living in the Caribbean,’ began Guadeloupe-born Chimbonda, a member of the 2006 France squad that reached the final.
‘I was watching that with my family and I said to my mum Francina ‘you see we’re watching that game now, one day you will see me in that TV and you’ll be watching me as well.’
‘And it happened eight years after, with some of the same players that played in 1998. In ’98 I wasn’t even a professional footballer. You see how quickly things can go?’
Pascal Chimbonda won his first game in charge at Skelmersdale United 4-1 to inject new hope into the ninth-tier strugglers
The Wigan cult hero says he has ‘never had anything easy’ and says he wants to ‘open the door’ for other black coaches
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Skelmersdale United, rock bottom of the North West Counties Premier Division, the ninth tier of English football, are hoping for their own swift turnaround in fortunes with former Premier League defender Chimbonda now at the helm.
Victory in his first league game last week, a 4-1 win against high-flying Barndoldswick Town, was an ideal start.
And the 44 year-old’s route into professional football should offer further encouragement given their predicament.
‘I like a challenge. My life was always about the challenge,’ said Chimbonda. ‘I never had anything easy.’
Chimbonda did not join an academy until he was 18 and had to leave the Caribbean and his family behind to get that opportunity at French club Le Havre.
Back in Guadeloupe the weather was nice – ‘it’s like 35 degrees every day,’ Chimbonda smiled – but the football structure to support his dreams did not really exist.
He played with his brothers and their friends rather than in any professional-style set up and would train and play just once a week.
Chimbonda then had to scrap his way through a trial against 200 other hopefuls to impress a scout who had a once-in-a-lifetime ticket to Europe for just one player.
The former Tottenham star did not join an academy until he was 18 and played once a week
He became an established Premier League footballer and reached the 2006 World Cup final with France
When he reached France the Chimbonda who stood out in the Caribbean, always playing with and shining against older players, found himself playing catch-up but with no time to waste as he had just two years to prove himself and earn his first professional contract. His first year was tough and ‘my dream nearly stopped after one year.’
He coped in training but felt like he struggled to put one foot in front of the other at time in matches, in part due to a lack of confidence. The cold weather was a shock too.
He said: ‘There were a lot of things in my head like ‘I don’t want to disappoint my family.’ People push me, believe in me and I don’t want to let all these people down. This give me a second motivation. In the end everything happened good and make me have a good career.’
It eventually took him to newly-promoted Wigan ahead of their first ever Premier League campaign in 2005.
Chimbonda did not know where Wigan was when he joined from Bastia.
He did not speak any English, needed help to understand manager Paul Jewell’s scouse accent and support from Grenada international Jason Roberts to settle.
But he became a Wigan cult hero. They finished 10th, at one stage were as high as second, and reached the Carling Cup final against ‘big Manchester United.’
‘We were living a dream,’ said Chimbonda who was voted the Premier League’s best right-back that season ahead of the likes of Gary Neville and Paulo Ferreira and further rewarded with a place in France’s World Cup squad.
Chimbonda says he was ‘living the dream’ at Wigan and they reached the Carling Cup final
He said: ‘It is not giving to everyone to be in the 23 best players in the country and in 2006 I was. To be in that squad was unbelievable. In training when you see the quality of Zidane, Henry …
‘One thing that marked me in that World Cup was when we played Brazil in the quarter finals. Zidane, wow.
‘I was on the bench and when I saw what he did for the first ball he touched I said ‘mate, we’re going to win that game easy.’ Nobody is going to stop him today.
‘Brazil, they had Ronaldo, Kaka, Ronaldinho, Adriano … all the best players and we beat them but that time when I see Zidane touch his first ball I say, ‘we’re winning.’’
Chimbonda’s climb continued following the tournament, joining Tottenham for the first of two stints, and he got his hands on the Carling Cup at the second attempt in 2008.
After further top-flight spells at Sunderland and Blackburn, Chimbonda finished his playing career in the non-league just before turning 40.
While that was a sign of his desire to keep playing the game he loves, starting in management at Skelmersdale is an indication of the difficulties he has had getting that first break.
Chimbonda, who impressed Skelmersdale chiefs with his work at the PC39 Academy he set up in Manchester and was known to vice chairman Gordon Johnson, has faced the familiar barriers other black coaches have done while attempting to get into the game despite having his A Licence.
He said: ‘I don’t know why this bias is still there because there are so many good black coaches who played a high level of football and you never see them involved in coaching or on different boards in football.’
He said: ‘If you never start somewhere, you will never learn and do something good’
But he has refused to be deterred and added: ‘I have had many people telling me ‘don’t give up. One day maybe it will happen and you will open the door for other black coaches to be involved in the football industry.’
‘This challenge, if I have to accept it to go into football, I open my arms for it. I’m really pleased they gave me that opportunity to express myself.
‘There are still plenty of games to go. I’m going to shake that tree, try to build a good base and come out of this bottom of the table.
‘I have to start my coaching career some somewhere. Even though I know the challenge may be tough, if you never start somewhere you will never learn and do something good.’
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