Jobs4Football meets Colum Curtis
From playing Football Manager as a child to achieving cup glory in the Cambodian capital aged just 31 – Colum Curtis’s first stint in management is certainly one he will remember.
The Belfast born Curtis took over Visakha FC located in the capital city of Phnom Penh in December 2019 and steered the club to their first ever trophy in his first season, the Hun Sen Cup, and a top-five finish in the league.
The now 32-year-old said: “I will always be grateful to the club; they gave me my first opportunity and I was able to repay them with the clubs first trophy in its history so I’m happy about that.”
When discussing his reasons for wanting to get into managing at such an early age, Curtis said: “I remember I was very young and my older brother used to always be playing like Football Manager and I remember at eight or nine years old I would have been big into that, looking at the organisational side of things, the idea of managing people always appealed to me. Coaching and then management was always the goal.”
In his second season with the club, Visakha FC were top of the league with only one defeat all season and were the favourites for many to win the league and cup double. However, to the surprise of many involved with the club, including the players themselves, Curtis was relieved of his managerial duty in September.
“A lot of the players actually thought it was me, they were calling thinking it was me that walked out, and I just told the lads I will come in and speak to them and explain what has happened. I thanked them for their efforts and wished them the best of luck for the remaining games.”
“We were winning a lot of games at the time, the week prior we inflicted defeat on a team called Boeung Ket FC, we beat them 5-1 away and that’s the biggest defeat in their history in the league. We won my final game in charge 1-0 against a strong Nagaworld team, we dominated the game and for me it was one of the most convincing wins since I took charge.”
“There was a meeting after the Nagaworld game and the club wanted to go in a different direction, it was definitely surprising because it was clear we were firm favourites to go on to win the double, which is obviously disappointing for me and disappointing for the players. But I know this can happen in football. I hope they can go on and get the job done.”
Boeung Ket and Nagaworld are both regarded as one of the ‘Big Five’ in Cambodian football alongside Visakha FC, Phnom Penh Crown and the reigning champions and club where Curtis had spent four months as assistant manager before taking the head coach role at Visakha, Svay Rieng.
When discussing his time at Sven Rieng the Irishman went on to say: “It’s always a bonus to get to know the league, the players and the culture as well. It was a bonus to to get in and get that couple of months working with Conor Nestor at Svay Rieng. A lot of things need to be adapted in terms of coaching due to the heat and expectations of the players. Svay Rieng put me in really good stead before the manager job with Visakha.”
When taking over the club, Curtis had to make big changes to how the club operated if they were going to be successful, changes that weren’t common in Cambodian football at the time. He said: “The first thing I did was hire an old school friend of mine Stephen Corner who had over 10 years’ experience working in Europe, India and Thailand. He is very highly qualified in medical science and strength & conditioning. This combined with understanding of players in that part of the world was vital to our success in the first season.”
“I was open and transparent with the players at the beginning that if they wanted to be successful, they would have to make a lot of sacrifices on and off the training pitch. They were aware the squad was too big and it would be trimmed prior to the beginning of the season. The majority of the squad really bought into our ideas and were excited with the new training methods and principles of play.”
Cambodia may have been where Curtis got his first taste of management and success, but the former semi-professional has previous experience of coaching abroad in the USA and China in 2015.
“I used to go in the summers to America to coach summer camps and then in 2015, I went from America to back home, then on to Edinburgh to collect my visa and then straight to China. In terms of expectations within the club it was exactly what I needed at that stage of my development. I was out into a full-time environment to fine tune my on pitch coaching whilst managing a team of 16 full time coaches from all parts of the world. I learnt a lot from my colleagues and had a great mentor in Alex Arnold who’s now heading up Liverpool FC within Asia.”
“There was a lot of hurdles to overcome in terms of the language, I had to get in and learn Chinese as soon as possible. It’s obviously a different culture as well that I had to get used to which was challenging, but it was good learning for me to adapt both on and off the pitch and overall helped me to become a better coach and manager.”
“You just have to go into these things with an open mind, it is always going to be a little bit out of your comfort zone, but the language is always the difficult bit and because of this, it’s always something I would try to get stuck into straight away and learn the basics. It helps build relationships from early on which is the most important part of the job.”
It is without doubt that Colum Curtis will be a wanted man after his successful time in Cambodia, alongside his experience in the USA, China and Northern Ireland. Having only just recently turned 32 and currently completing the UEFA Pro Licence, the young coach looks set for a long and successful career in management.