Jermain Defoe, a top 10 all-time scorer in the Premier League and former England World Cup player, has shared his dreams of moving into management. However, he insists that he wants to earn this position because of his skills, not just because he is black. The ex-West Ham and Tottenham striker recognises that management can be a tough game, but all he asks for is a fair shot.
Defoe says: "I like to think doors are opening. There's been changes, there's been managers recently who have had jobs and lost jobs, which is part and parcel. You're never going to be a manager that never loses his job at some point."
He adds: "You're going to get sacked, that's just facts. Every manager gets sacked, it doesn't matter how good you are. But I like to think that I will get a chance."
Defoe also acknowledges the lack of diversity in management, saying: "I don't think the numbers are great, in terms of black managers. There could be more, a lot more.
"When I've spoken to players that have finished playing, players that I've played with, and they've spoken about their journey and the struggles they've had, I start to think 'well, if you've had those struggles then I'm probably going to get the same struggles'.
"But I understand everyone's journey is different, and I don't want a job just because I'm black... you want a job because you're good enough."
"The numbers could be better, everyone knows that, numbers don't lie. But I like to think that at some stage I'll get a chance."
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Defoe, who is the focus of a one-night-only documentary in UK cinemas on February 29, knew he wanted to transition into coaching after deciding to retire from playing football.
The 41-year-old is currently an academy coach at his old club Tottenham, having learned from experienced managers like Harry Redknapp and Sam Allardyce during his lengthy career. However, it was at Rangers where he first experienced coaching, thanks to his former England teammate Steven Gerrard.
When Gerrard left for Aston Villa in 2021, Defoe briefly joined the management team at Ibrox. Now, as he embarks on his own coaching journey, he has nothing but admiration for the man who gave him his first opportunity.
"We won the league, and I finished the season quite strong in terms of goals and stuff, and that next season I was offered the player-coach role," Defoe recalls about his time at Rangers. "At the time I still wanted to play. But when you're that age, the way the game's going, Stevie and the staff looked at it and they probably felt like at least they could give me a taste of what it was like to be a coach.
"Realistically I was only going to play for another year there, so they were trying to help me to make that transition into coaching.
"I had that experience of player-coach at Rangers, and when Stevie left I was part of the coaching staff for a game, which was good, just to get that experience of the other side - to see what it's like in the coaches' room and how they prepare, training sessions and build-up to games."
He is still in contact with Gerrard, who went from international teammate to boss in a matter of years. The former Rangers manager is now in Saudi Arabia after a short-lived stint as Aston Villa boss, and Defoe says "he looks like he's enjoying himself and that's the most important thing".
Defoe maintains it's "important to be yourself" in the dugout, but there are things he has picked up from his former managers, be that Gerrard at Rangers or Redknapp at West Ham, Portsmouth and Tottenham, and even one of his earliest role models, Bertie Knight, who coached Defoe while at Senrab as a child.
A number of Premier League and EFL players got their start at the East London club, including John Terry, Bobby Zamora and Knight's own son - former Chelsea striker Leon.
"[Bertie] was special for me as a kid," Defoe explains. "He took a lot of pressure off my mum and my stepdad, who had come into my life when I was seven - he came over from St Lucia, so it was all new to him.
"But Bertie took so much pressure off my mum. He always used to get me all the boots I needed, shin pads, tracksuits, literally everything. He did that for me and Leon - we were like twins, so if he bought Leon something he'd buy me exactly the same thing. When you're young, you don't really understand it until you get older and look back and think 'wow'.
"Even sometimes when I see pictures floating about of me and Leon, we're just like twins. Bags, tracksuits, anything, you name it, I had - everything was from Bertie. And he was a good manager as well.
"I was lucky I played in a good Senrab team that won everything, even at that age it was so professional, the way we were training and everything, and obviously that came from Bertie.
Defoe also acknowledges that you can have all the footballing pedigree and have worked under top coaches, but it is no guarantee of success in the dugout. He has seen Gerrard last under a year at Aston Villa, while his former West Ham and England colleague Frank Lampard found things tough during a similar-length spell in the Everton dugout.
"When you come out of the game there's no guarantee you're going to be top managers," he says. "You have to put the work in, and you can go through tough times.
"You do it as a player, really. It's no different to when you're at a youth team and get into the first team and it goes well - all of a sudden you might have a little dip and then you have to go through that experience to become good again."
For Defoe, that chance to shine started with Redknapp at West Ham, where he joined the first-team at just 16 years old. He scored in his first game for the Hammers just before turning 18, following in the footsteps of stars like Lampard and Rio Ferdinand who also made their way up from the youth teams.
Defoe loves working with young players now that he's back at Spurs. He knows when he becomes a boss, he'll think back to the opportunities he got when he was young.
"I said to someone about Harry [Redknapp], I remember at Chadwell Heath, 11 o'clock kick-offs, he would actually come and watch the [youth team] games and then go to Upton Park and be with the first team," Defoe remembered. "It's quite unusual.
"I've heard managers over the years who have done that, apparently Alex Ferguson used to watch from the under-8s all the way through and knew everyone's name and their parents and everything.
"Hopefully one day, when I'm a manager, I'll be the same."