Page 1 of 2.

John Herdman has been playing soccer (or football, as he calls it) since the day he could walk. This is hardly surprising really, since he comes from the north east of England where football seems to run in the genes.

His interest in coaching began at the age of 16, when John chose it as part of his Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award activities. “I wanted to gain some basic experience, so I started coaching a team of 11-year-old boys from a local football team and found that I absolutely loved it,” said John.

And with that John’s passion for coaching was born. A year later, at the age of 17, John had gained a formal coaching qualification through the Football Association. After five years of coaching at grass-roots level, John wanted to take it to another level, so he started up his own coaching school, which was incredibly successful. 

One of the techniques John used in his skills training was to introduce music as part of the sessions, and found that girls in particular responded really well to this. “I used it for the rhythm in skills training and girls were really into it,” says John. He was so impressed with the agility and skills the girls were showing that he set up a separate ‘girls only’ strand at his coaching school, which led to the town’s first-ever all girls football team.

Word soon got around the north east of England that John was a fantastic coach with some great ideas and coaching skills. So much so, that he was head-hunted by the Sunderland Football Club to coach in the youth academy for 8-16 year olds. He stayed there for three years.

John moved to New Zealand in 2002 to take on the position of Director of Football for the Soccer South Region. “Although I’d only dabbled in coaching girls and women, I was keen to get more involved. Coaching women seems to suit my philosophy and approach so I wanted to get more experience,” John explains. In his role as Director of Football, John found he became heavily involved in the national women’s league which led to a promotion to the Regional/National Academy for girls and women. This gave him the opportunity to work all over the country, where he identified many talented players spread around the regions.