Category Sports News

The Football Interview is a new series in which the biggest names in sport and entertainment join host Kelly Somers for bold and in-depth conversations about the nation’s favourite sport.

We’ll talk about defining moments, career highs, and personal reflections, as well as motivation and mindset. The Football Interview brings you the person behind the player.

After a knee injury ended his professional football career at the age of 20, Brendan Rodgers has been a manager for almost 20 years, but he has also been a coach for much longer.

After travelling around Europe to learn coaching methods from different countries, Rodgers became a youth team coach under Jose Mourinho at Chelsea in 2004, before taking his first steps into management, aged 35, with Watford four years later.

Former manager of Reading, Swansea, Liverpool, and Leicester, who is now 52, is currently in his second spell at Celtic. He has won four Scottish Premiership titles, as well as two domestic cup victories.

Brendan Rodgers: Football, for as long as I’ve known, has been my life. I’d often say to my children, “This ball here has taken me around the world and given me an amazing life.” That has purely been from when I was a child just loving the game and watching the game. I have a photo of my broken leg from when I was just two. It’s actually how I became left-footed because I used to kick the ball with my right foot. My brother pushed me out of the pram, and I broke my leg, and they said I’d always wanted to play football. I started kicking with my left foot and when I got the plaster off, I was all left-footed. I had a very, very good time playing football when I was there. For as long as I’ve known, it has been a part of my life.

Kelly, do you recall your first true team?

Brendan: I didn’t play my first 11-a-side game until I was 13. We loved football but never had a team in primary school. I never had a team in secondary school but it was through friends at secondary school. They requested that I come along and play for them because they used to play for a team called Star United in Ballymena. That was virtually my first game.

Kelly: When you first started playing in the system, you might have realized you could succeed.

Brendan: I’d always hoped that I could. You are always unsure of the chance when you pass through those age groups, of course. Because I wasn’t playing in teams, I remember I’d read the Shoot magazine and there was the Bobby Charlton Soccer School and I must have annoyed the life out of my mum and dad with saying, ‘ I needed to get to it ‘ – and I was able to go there in the hope I could maybe be picked up. The ultimate goal was to move to England and work full-time.

Kelly: You were this young boy with a dream of being a footballer but it didn’t go probably the way you would have hoped at that point, I am guessing…

Brendan: I had visited Barcelona and Spain. I was always interested in youth and I tried to earmark clubs that really had that top-to-tail philosophy – so from the very top of the club right through to the bottom there is a sort of synergy there. That matched my opinions of the game, which is technically a game. I also went to Sevilla and Valencia and I was in Holland as well – to Ajax and FC Twente. For me, seeing how young players are developed in Europe and how that process differs from how we develop our own players was the starting point.

Kelly: Moving on to you going to Chelsea, would you say that was your first big coaching job?

Yes, Brendan. I think it shone the light on me probably a lot more. Reading was a fantastic club that looked after me as a player. I ended up being academy manager there and had a great spell of nearly 14 years there. There was no denying that going to Chelsea with Jose Mourinho in to determine where they wanted to go as a club and how they wanted to change the youth section, where they were only in the door for two or three weeks, and there were four or five prominent coaches associated with my position. I had never had that before. I first spoke with Jose, who said, “You will have at least 12 names associated with your job when you are at these top clubs.” It will be the same with me as a manager. Work hard, perform well, and everything will work out.

Kelly: That must have been an incredible learning ground and taught you so many things you still use today…

Brendan: I had the chance to work with some outstanding young players and world-class players, and I also had the chance to work with the first team more closely. At that time it was John Terry, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and Claude Makelele – to be around that and see how they live their life every day, how they train and operate… it set the bar for me because everything they wanted to do was world class.

Kelly, you have worked for a wide range of clubs since then, starting with Watford, Swansea, Liverpool, and Celtic twice. How you would you sum up your coaching journey, and has it surpassed your expectations?

Brendan: I think I was very proud of my first managerial job when I realized I would manage the clubs I owned at the age of 35 and that I would be sat here after that.

Kelly: What was that like in itself?

Kelly: If you could relive one match, what would it be?

The play-off final, Swansea v. Reading, stands out because it really pushed me. To get Swansea into the Premier League as the first Welsh club to arrive there and knowing how much it meant to people at the time…

Kelly: Isn’t it the worst game in football to lose and the best game to win?

Brendan: 100%. Due to the drama surrounding it and the significant Wembley Day, if you knew you could do it, you would accept it even more than you could win the championship. That was special. I had the honor of winning awards here with Celtic, which was unique to me. Winning the FA Cup for the first time in Leicester’s history was special. However, I believe that the Premier League match only made things better for me when we played well.

Kelly: Has there been a turning point in your career?

Brendan: I can go back in time. My cousin Kieran McMullan in the little village where I was from. He and the neighborhood football team would meet outside the pub and play together. I wasn’t allowed to go in the pub when I was younger. The team would meet there to play games and be seated outside. Guys would come out of the pub and just go past me into the car, but he always made sure I got in a car so I could see the football. That is something I never forget. For the remaining years of my childhood, that got me started in football. I might have started playing Gaelic football or hurling instead if he hadn’t taken the time and care to look after me.

Kelly: You’ve managed numerous clubs in England and now you manage one of the biggest clubs in Scotland. How does managing Celtic compare to the pressure?

Brendan: It’s a real unique pressure. Celtic is right up there with the most pressured positions in football in terms of pressure. Even when I was managing Liverpool, you might have drawn with Manchester United and you wanted to win, but it wouldn’t have been the worst result. With Celtic, it’s expected to win every game, not just to win the game, but to do it in a way that is associated with the club. The club was the first British team to win the European Cup. In a manner that established the foundation of this club, they did it. It’s not just about winning. It’s Celtic, but it’s much more than that. The mental fortitude you need to show here as a player, as a manager, under the spotlight is huge. It would be like taking a vacation compared to managing Celtic and Rangers, which are both very popular Premier League teams.

Kelly: What’s the proudest thing you have achieved in your career?

Brendan: I believe that my path to becoming a manager was different in the beginning because of my experiences. That is the biggest achievement for me. I want to continue to be as successful as possible, and I mean helping players develop, improve, and improve the conditions in their lives. If that allows me to win trophies along the way, then great. My favorite job is being a manager.

Kelly: If you could only achieve one more thing in your career, what would it be?