Jobs4Football meets JP Austin
Jobs4Football spoke with JP Austin, a determined British coach who has trained football players from Burnley to Taiyuan. Austin has an incredible story from working in hospitality to achieving his goal of becoming a coach.
Austin was working in hospitality when Aguero scored that monumental goal for Manchester City in 2012. “Seeing the fans and the goal inspired try and achieve more in my life, it made me realise there must be a better career out there.” After going to the job centre JP saw a flier for a sports course at Barnsley FC for ‘hard to reach people’ to gain leadership skills through multi sports sessions.
Austin paid close attention, but was worried he went through the course for a participation certificate. JP requested to volunteer at the club and they accepted; “James Mahoney, Rob Burkill and Kieron Campbell allowed me to join and I was able to work on various community projects like football camps, school sessions, inclusion projects, walking football, NCS and disability football, I feel that this helped me a lot as it gave me the foundation and ability to work with people from different backgrounds and levels of ability, that being said they all had one thing in common the desire to play football.” This gave JP the foundation he needed to build his role at the club as well as experience coaching at a professional level.
Austin felt limited by the opportunities in Barnsley and was determined to expand his knowledge of coaching. “Eventually after a few years at Barnsley I had gained my coaching badges but was feeling limited by opportunities in the area, one day I was looking at the now defunct FA Licenced coaches club careers page and saw an advert to coach football in China. I applied for the position and was invited to Etihad Campus for an interview after attending the interview I was sent an email saying that they would like to offer me the position. It had taken a while, but I had escaped the zero-hour contract economy I was stuck in and I was more than happy to accept.”
JP has shown true grit and determination in reaching his aspirations in coaching, he has been able to showcase his skill for coaching in China as well as in England which isn’t an easy task, especially starting your coaching journey from scratch. During his time in China, JP was assigned to Taiyuan in the Shanxi Province, I was eager to hear how the transitioning phase was for JP.
“My first week was difficult as I had under estimated the challenge of adapting from a small town in the UK to China. However, once I had time to adapt, I was able to commute and it is here where I delivered City Football Schools ‘Play for fun programme’ at various locations throughout the city. It is here where I made lifelong friends who still contact me now to tell me how their lives are going and ask for advice about football.”
In 2018, Austin worked with The FA as a TLO (Team Liaison Officer) for Bosnia and Herzegovina's national U17 team as well as Czech’s U18 team. “The experience gained in this role was invaluable as it helped me to understand how much work and effort goes into the delivery of tournaments and matches. At the end of the UEFA U17’s Championship I was given a gift back which had the tournament pennant in it, I am big believer in preserving and sharing football history so I donated this item to the National Football Museum in Manchester and I believe that it is currently on display for the public to see.”
“At the moment I am based in Yorkshire it is great to see how much football has developed over the years.” JP has developed his coaching characteristics and attributes abroad in China, but due to the Chinese border still being closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, JP has returned to home soil and has been using his time wisely to assist the football community with help from Barnsley FC. “During the pandemic I felt that my professional development had halted, so I began to look for ways to improve and I was able to do this by studying on the FC Barcelona Innovation HUB Academy Coach and Sports Law courses, learning from La Masia has really helped me develop my skills on and off the pitch.” After harnessing his skills and looking to ever improve on his coaching ability, Austin decided to enlist for the PSFA to find new talent.
“I have helped to provide projects with access to coach education, through my contact Andrew Ducille I was able to provide some advice for community football projects and when contacted by my friend Yochai Cohen of Hapoel Jerusalem about their ‘neighbourhoods league project’, which is a project that is funded by the UEFA Foundation and that also works with children in all of religious groups in Jerusalem to give them access to football. I’ve provided what support and resources I can to my contacts Gary Wilson who runs an academy and does charity work in Bali and Indonesia. Russ Horsley also, has his own football academy linked to a club in Cyprus. I got to know the well known football agent John Viola and i have been able to learn a lot from him. I have even taken his football agent course so that I can better advise players and clubs on & off field matters."
JP Austin is a consistent coach with a charitable heart whom has helped with the development and expansion of football in China, the UK, and the next place JP has set his sights on is America, which will be the perfect opportunity for him to expand his network. “In the future I will keep my projects in China active, but I am looking forward to a few months in America with Community Athletic Solutions. Matt Brown and Roy Collins have been great, they found me an exciting placement where I can use my skills to help grow a football community and be more than just an imported accent.” Austin has been keeping busy while in the UK and has been requested for his assistance in London. “I have been asked to help a private school in Central London to secure a football education partner. I'm excited by the idea of doing this and once I have all the details confirmed and with the help of my friend Andrei Kanchelskis Jnr, I will start to short list potential clubs who would be a good long-term fit.”
JP Austin is hoping that through his work in China he is able to establish a project that will help generations of Chinese players, coaches, officials and fans. He hopes to someday combine projects both charity and football to help enhance the quality of teaching sport and improve communities by uniting them through the beautiful game.
