Des Buckingham loves to fly planes. He also loves helping football teams soar. Buckingham coached New Zealand to the Olympics, was the youngest manager in Australia’s A-League and, most recently, navigated Mumbai City’s trip to the ISL League Winners’ Shield in some style. Spoke to the 38-year-old from England Hindu in Kozhikode during the Super Cup, in which they fielded an all-India team that finished first in their group. Excerpts:
Why did you accept the proposal of Mumbai city? Indian football must have been an unknown amount to you at that time.
Yeah it was. it was two things [that influenced my decision], The first is my association with City Football Group. So I was working at Melbourne City, a sister club within the City Football Group network. The other thing was that I could see a lot of similarities between the Indian Super League and the A-League in Australia. This was the ninth season of ISL. And the A-League is only 17 years old, so they are relatively new.
If you look at the first season of ISL in terms of length of time, amount of games and where it is now, there has been massive growth and a lot comes with it. I see the passion of Indian football and I thought I could bring in players here, clubs here, both in the short term and hopefully in the long term to try and grow it.
How do you look back on your time in the city of Mumbai so far?
I think most people look at external things and people often decide on trophies and victories. win the league [ISL League Winners Shield] This year was good because it was the first trophy of Kovid. And playing in the AFC Champions League was another big moment. But for me it has been a journey of 18 months; Those moments are on top of the work that has been achieved not only by me and my coaching staff, but by the whole group of people we have at the club. It’s also about how we won the league, the records we broke – I think we went 18 unbeaten and 11 in a row – and the way we played football, what people said was something Which he had not seen here before.
Lots to work with: Buckingham is impressed by the talent found in India. He believes that ‘the players here are capable enough to compete and challenge their peers on the international stage.’ , Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
What have you seen of Indian football, where does it stand on the global stage?
I spent six years in New Zealand and three years with the national teams. And I see a lot of similarities: There are a lot of good players here. On the world stage, players are not perceived to be as good as they really are. And we certainly found that with New Zealand, where we were always the underdogs; When you put us on paper compared to others, it was not a match-up at all. So for me, when I look at the league now, having been here for two years, I have seen a lot where players are able to compete and challenge their teammates on the international stage.
You took New Zealand to the Olympics. Do you think India has the potential to do the same?
I don’t see why not. In New Zealand, there was a journey that started maybe 10 years ago and was called the Total Football scheme, which aligned the game across the country from grassroots to professional play. I’m excited to see this vision for 2047 just put into action [by the AIFF], I think if this roadmap for 2047 can help not only the clubs but the community as well, I don’t see any reason why India in the future can’t position itself to do the same.
You have worked a lot with young players in different parts of the world. How good do you think the young Indian talent is?
I am sure you are familiar with a young guy named Sarpreet Singh who is of Indian heritage. He was in New Zealand with me earlier in Wellington Phoenix. We took him to the Under-20 World Cup and then Bayern Munich signed him. When I look at our team here, from two years back till now, we have players like Phurba Lachampa, Mehtab Singh, Vikram Pratap Singh, Lalengmawia Ralte who were already very good players before they came to us, and Vignesh Dakshinamurthy. We have a number of young players who are now regularly making it into the starting XI. I can’t speak for other clubs and players, but what we do and how we work with our players here has huge potential for growth, because they are very keen to learn.
Would you be interested if at some point in the future, you are offered the role of coaching the Indian – senior or junior – team?
I don’t look too far into the future. Who knows? I certainly didn’t expect to be in India probably two years ago. So it’s been a wonderful journey that football can be. It’s exciting to see where I can go.
Which football managers have you admired over the years?
I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of good managers, like Chris Wilder from my time at Oxford, Mickey Lewis who coached me in the first place, Ernie Merrick, the most successful coach in Australia. And then there are others that I look up to, like Pep Guardiola.
What makes the Premier League special?
It has arguably the best players in the world. You have great clubs with excellent fans. From the Premier League to now League Two, the standard is high in the English football pyramid, it’s very well organised, very well set up. You will also often see League Two grounds that are at full capacity for most of their games. He drip-feeds all the way into the non-league. And all these clubs have their own academies. All of them are connected to their respective communities. Very often it is more than just football for those clubs.
What are you doing with your pilot’s license?
Haven’t been able to do anything with it since last off season when I went back to New Zealand and was able to use it. I will be back in New Zealand after the Super Cup. I’ll definitely use it there. So I’m very much looking forward to this and hope to remember how to do it.