Jobs4Football meets Antonio Magalhaes
The Portuguese born, Antonio Magalhaes, who is learning his trade as both a coach and analyst in North Wales.
The Lisbon local moved to Wrexham with no previous coaching or analytics experience but knew when he arrived in the UK that he wanted to be involved in football as a career.
He said: “I have always loved football, I used to play futsal back in Portugal growing up and this passion I grew up with for the sport made me want to pursue a career in football, and I thought coaching could be a good way of doing so.”
“I started my coaching badges when I moved to Wrexham, I emailed a few clubs around the area and TNS ladies got back to me, so I started helping them out, one season as the assistant and second season as a head coach.”
Magalhaes was assistant manager of TNS ladies U14s in 2016 before going on to be their head coach the following season in what was his first experience of being a coach in a new country, and he loved every minute of it.
He went on to say: “It was a really good experience, it was a small group of players that were together for a long time before I arrived there and this meant it was a good environment between the players, parents and coaches, which helped make it a good first step into coaching for me.”
Whilst working with TNS ladies, the ambitious Magalhaes also took on a role as first team coach of Welsh third tier side Brymbo FC in 2018, and this is around the time when his interest in analytics came about.
“One of the subjects whilst I was at Wrexham Glyndwr University was analysis and they had a few places at their regional camps in North Wales, so I got involved more than anything to discover what it was about as I only knew the broad aspect of analysis before, but I didn’t know all the details. After the first contact I knew it was something I wanted to do, so at that point I started doing both coaching and analysis.”
In May 2018 he left TNS Ladies U14s to become Bala Town U15s manager for a short period before going on to join current club Connah’s Quay Nomads FC in 2019, where he works as the U16s head coach, U19s coach, 1st team analyst and head of academy analyst.
Connah’s Quay Nomads FC currently play in the Welsh Premier League and Magalhaes has adapted to the difficulty of juggling numerous roles like a duck to water.
“I enjoy the challenge and I think it is a really rich experience. Since the beginning I have tried to do as much as I could and get as many valuable experiences as possible and just too learn as much as I can because there are obviously different demands from each age group, so it takes different skills to manage these different roles.”
His rise in coaching and data analytics in such a short amount of time is remarkable but the Benfica fan is yet to come to a conclusive decision regarding which career option he would most likely pursue in the future.
He went on to say: “I’m doing a masters at the University Campus of Football Business and I have just handed in my dissertation in coaching and analysis because I wasn’t exactly sure what to choose, and honestly I thought at this point I would have an idea of which one I wanted to do in my mind.”
“I’m really enjoying doing both so I currently have the best of both worlds, I spend time with the U19s on the grass in the week and after the matchday I’m doing the analysis, so I can currently do both and it’s my ideal role at the moment.”
One area Magalhaes is set on however is the locations where he would like to continue his rapid progression in the footballing world. The Portuguese said: “I had a talk with my family and the UK is probably the first option, I think that’s the one with the best balance between the opportunities and the quality of coaching and obviously I want to be working with the best possible. I would say Portugal will be my second option, you know if the right role appeared I would consider going back there and the other one that actually quite excites me is the USA, I think it would be a really big challenge and opportunity.”
With his current trajectory in the sport, the world is Antonio Magalhaes’s oyster and whenever the day comes where he decides between coaching and analysis, there will no doubt be a long career ahead for the 31-year-old.