Jermain Defoe on merits of new Tottenham role and learning from Gareth Southgate
After spending more than two decades obsessing over his craft in a bid to become England's premier penalty box predator, Jermain Defoe has found a new fixation: coaching.
Defoe landed his big break at the tender age of 16 when he was prized away from Charlton Athletic by West Ham and now, aged 41, he's part of the next generation of young, progressive coaches hungry to blaze a trail in the dugout.
Instead of spending hours plundering goals, Defoe is now poring over training drills in his role as Tottenham Under-18s coach. And while his craft may have changed ever so slightly, his unquenchable thirst for improvement is as resolute as it's ever been.
"You have to constantly keep working and learning," Defoe tells Mirror Football at a McDonald’s Fun Football event.
"Some coaches travel all over the world and watch different people, different sessions and consider different ideas. It's important to use that time to soak everything in and learn more.
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"That's something I'm really keen on doing: getting out and speaking to different coaches. You have to be ready when that first job comes. Just because you've played at an elite level for 20 odd years doesn't guarantee that you're going to be a top coach."
During his 18 months in the job at Spurs, he's already sounded out a number of the different coaches he played under while cutting his teeth. He is still close with Harry Redknapp. Sam Allardyce is another name he cites, while invitations to converse with coaches outside of his own sphere have also come his way.
Defoe took up a role coaching in Tottenham's academy back in 2022 (Joe Toth/Tottenham Hotspur FC/REX/Shutterstock)The former England international recently got the opportunity to sit down for a couple of hours with Gareth Southgate, who was thrust into senior management at a tender age long before an opening his ascent with the national team.
Defoe adds: "That was brilliant, just having the opportunity to pick his brains. His journey was quite unique, really. He got thrown in at the deep end at Middlesbrough, because all of a sudden he went from a player to managing those people he was in the changing room with. That was a real challenge for him."
The transition from playing to coaching has been relatively smooth by his own admission, even if he does still yearn for one last dance. The pangs hit hardest when he's at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, rather than taking in games at home.
"That feeling of scoring goals...I can't describe the feeling. It's the best thing ever and I craved it throughout my career. To wake up one day and that's just gone is incredibly hard.
Defoe scored 143 goals across two spells at Spurs as a player (Julian Finney)"Coaching is the nearest thing you can get to playing. But that feeling of getting your boots on, walking down the tunnel and playing in front of a crowd...nothing can ever replicate that. You're still kicking balls in training but it's not the same."
While Defoe's role nurturing the next generation is a rewarding one, there remains a dearth of black coaches in elite football. A report released by the Black Footballers Partnership (BFP) last March outlined that just 4.4 per cent of management-related positions in English football are held by black employees.
Does Defoe feel things are moving in the right direction when it comes to diversity in football?
"I don't think anything's changed but at the same time I'd like to think it will, even though we've been having these conversations for many years," he reflects.
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"You look at grassroots football and academy coaches and you do see a lot of black coaches, but I want to see more at the top level in a first-team environment, whether that's managers or members of staff.
"Hopefully the numbers will improve. Then the next generation could look at someone like me - just how I looked at Chris Hughton at Spurs - and decide they want to go into coaching and become a manager. But I don't want to get a job just because it ticks boxes; I want a job because I'm good enough."
Throughout our conversation, Defoe regularly cites the need to be ready should an opportunity in management present itself. He already has an idea of how a Jermain Defoe team would look on the pitch, plus the makeup of his backroom team.
Picking and choosing the best parts of coaches you've experienced is a given, particularly for someone with Defoe's longevity in the game. The importance of establishing his own identity has not been lost on him, though.
"You have to think about the coach you want to be and how you want your team to look. I've thought about things like that for a long time.
Defoe has been in his current role for almost 18 months (Joe Toth/Tottenham Hotspur FC/REX/Shutterstock)"'If I were to get a job, how would I want my team to look? How would I want them to play, what coaches would I want to emulate? It's so important."
There are other plenty of other aspects to consider, too. Ange Postecoglou in particular has shown how invaluable a human touch can be after transforming both the mood off the pitch at Tottenham and the club's identity on the pitch.
He concludes: "On one hand you have to coach the team to win games, but you also have to be a good man-manager. When you've got 25 players in a squad, you've got 25 different egos, 25 different characters, people from all around the world...you have to be able to manage people.
"Managing people, in my opinion, is probably more important than putting on an amazing training session. You could put on the best training session in the world, but if you can't engage and connect with players then it's pointless. That's not easy, but the best managers are able to do it."
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Tottenham Under-18s Coach, Jermain Defoe:“McDonald's Fun Football teaming up with Kick It Out, England Futsal, and British Blind Sport is a real game-changer for grassroots coaches. These new qualifications mean coaches will be able to implement their new skills across UK communities and remove barriers to participation.
“We all want football, especially at the grassroots level, to be an inclusive environment so it is vital we constantly review and tackle the barriers that families face to evolve and grow all areas of the game. What McDonald’s Fun Football is doing is exactly that and it is an important lesson to everyone involved in football that more can be done to ensure football is truly for all.”
Jermain Defoe was supporting McDonald’s Fun Football’s new coaching qualification in partnership with Kick it Out, British Blind Sport, and England Futsal to make Fun Football the most inclusive grassroots programme in the UK. Register for your local session here - mcdonalds.co.uk/football
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