How many of us get to see inside a training session at one of the biggest clubs in the world? How many of us get to spend a day learning from one of football's greatest managers? Well, Hout Bay United Football Community's Xolela Ndude has lived that dream! The Cape Town-based club's U18 head coach and senior team's assistant manager recently travelled abroad to see how Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp work behind the scenes, and has sat down with Soccer Laduma to detail his jaw-dropping experience.
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Kurt Buckerfield: Did you ever think, when you first started coaching, that you would one day get to see inside of a Liverpool training session? You got to see them train and spend time with Klopp. Tell us how this came about.
Xolela Ndude: Mark Kosicke, who is one of the sponsors of the club (HBUFC), is Klopp's agent and he happens to be my agent as well now.
KB: Amazing, wow…
XN: He was here in January on holiday and we, me and Jeremy, went to play Fives at Clifton and after that we went out for drinks, and we then asked, you know, trying your luck, and he said he'd organise the trip! It would have happened much earlier, but at the time I was still busy with my season, so we said we'd do it this time, which was good for everyone, and it was organised. I had quite a difficult time obtaining my UK visa, but in the end, I got it. Thank you to a few people who pulled strings and thank you to HBUFC for helping me through the whole process. And again, Mark facilitated the whole opportunity and I cannot have enough words to thank him. I've always watched football and lived football as a young boy from an informal settlement. Everyone watches football and dreams of being in the Premier League, either playing or coaching. For me, getting the chance to meet Klopp at Liverpool… it was just unbelievable.
KB: We can imagine!
XN: Just the trip going into Liverpool's training centre, Melwood, you just… don't know if you are yourself or if you're dreaming. Even just entering the building was shocking. It shows it is a small world, but you just must meet the right people and apply yourself.
KB: What is going through your mind when you're kitting up? You're at Liverpool, one of the biggest clubs in the world. And you're with Klopp, one of the biggest managers in the world, and you're around all these top, top players.
XN: You get there, they throw you a big bag of everything, of the attire, and you get told you're joining the session. I was still processing being in the building, being in the office and then I'm told I'm joining the session so I'm like 'wow, okay!' so from that point I was thinking about how to apply myself in this situation because I am going to try and learn from the session, but at the same time I'm seeing Mohamed Salah, (Virgil) van Dijk, (Harvey) Elliot, (Alexis) Mac Allister, just to name a few, I'm surrounded by these players. And you know, when you do your pre-training talk, and you huddle around and I'm looking at their faces. And you can see them asking 'Okay, who is this?' but they were very friendly guys. They come around and shake hands and ask questions. So, it was a very interesting situation, but at the same time I was trying to be 50% a student and 50% a young boy who is living a dream.
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KB: And how did Klopp interact with the players?
XN: It was very surprising, in the sense that he is like a dad. He is like a family man. You know how you see him in interviews, he is exactly like that. He is a normal person. He treats everyone very cautiously, he understands that people go through daily situations, and he tries to inspire them and motivate them to perform at their maximum, and guys respond to that very well. Even his coaching team, they have the same character he has. Everyone, from the receptionist to the groundsmen, is very polite, very welcoming. And the character that Jurgen has, it's something I want to have working in that world. Because, before, I would think he would be bossy behind closed doors, but he is totally the opposite. He greets you, he welcomes you, he makes sure everyone is right from the security man at the gate to last person. One rule I actually think he introduced at Liverpool is everyone eats at the same canteen. There are no double standards. Everyone is in the same family.
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