Welcome to Episode 9 of the Because Football Podcast presented by Transform Soccer.
Our guest is Chris Steel, a former professional player, coach, and club director with 22 years of experience on 4 different continents. He holds UEFA A & UEFA Elite Youth A Licences.
Chris began playing soccer as a boy in Glasgow, Scotland on red ash pitches and very quickly developed one sole aim for life: to become a professional footballer. That was always plan A and his passion took him to play in Australia, Hong Kong, and even a brief stint in an NCAA program in the United States. Currently, he provides Technical Director and Director of Coaching consulting for grassroots and professional clubs through Football ConneXions, a company he founded in 2018. Football ConneXions is a football consultancy aimed at progressing clubs and coaches to their next level through Strategic Planning, Player and Coach Development and Programme Implementation.
Along the way, Coach Chris took his coaching badges and, influenced by his father who was also a coach, quickly grew to love developing players and helping them be the best people they could be. He coached for various youth and women's teams, ran Coerver coaching in India, and even worked as a scout and opposition analyst for professional teams in Australia. Throughout his coaching journey, he has followed his Plan A of football to countries such as Malaysia, Canada, Scotland, Australia, India, and the United States.
This episode touches on the wilder side of playing professionally in Asia and exposes some of the darker side of football - coach and player misconduct, the instability and constant change of professional soccer, and the focused drive required to "make it" and be successful.
Sometimes that involves taking a stand to voice concerns over mistreatment and abuse of young players, as Chris did in a recent role, and in reward for bringing the issues to light, he was fired from his role. We talked about the importance of taking a stand, regardless of the outcome, in order to do what's right and hopefully change the culture within youth clubs, teams, and even national federations.
And, in between all of it, we hear Coach Chris' choice of best food in the world. I gotta be honest, he surprised me with his pick!
You can learn more about Chris Steel below:
Find out more about our Transform Soccer programs here:
