Relentlessness, Recognition and Replacing Rafa – TalkingWigan with Shadab Iftikhar (Part 1/2)

Calling Shadab Iftikhar’s story unique would feel like I was doing it the ultimate disservice. This is a man who came from humble beginnings in Preston and has put his heart and soul into forging a career for himself in the game that he loves, and studies in outrageously detail.

From Preston to Pakistan, from Samoa to Skelmersdale, and from Manchester to Mongolia, the man has experienced a life unlike any other coach in the world. I think I can be pretty confident in saying that!

A recent winner of the ‘Professional Coach Award’ at the Asian Football Awards, he is flying the flag for greater representation of his, and other, communities in the game, delivering the message that with talent and hard work you can and will achieve your goals regardless of colour or creed.

And in an exclusive interview with TalkingWigan.com, Shadab went into detail about his early coaching background, his adoration for Roberto Martinez and how the game took him around the world before he returned ‘home’ to Wigan Athletic. He was extremely generous with his time, and the stories that he told were as intriguing as they were amazing.

I hope you enjoy both articles, and are able to share them to a wider audience. Shadab’s story is one that everyone deserves to hear and be inspired by. There will also be a full-length video version of the interview posted on YouTube in the near future too!

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First things first, I had to ask about the origins of his coaching career. While Shadab was coaching junior and school teams from a young age, the virtual world of management took him on his first journey overseas, to then-La Liga champions Valencia.

With a smirk, Shadab began: “It was Rafa Benitez’s side, I’m obviously a big fan of Rafa, and he was their manager at the time. I inherited a good team shall we say! Aimar, Ayala, and it was just a great time. We won a few La Liga’s, a Copa Del Rey, and it’s a period of my life that I look back on with great memories.

“That time period between high school and college where it feels like you’ve got all the time in the world, those many sleepless nights and dodgy phone calls to college saying I wasn’t well, it was all worth it.”

Q – And is it true you once take a week off college just to play FM?

“It is, it was during a difficult time in the season,” he admitted, with full sincerity. “I couldn’t have managed between Football Manager and college so one of them had to be sacrificed, and it was college!

“My brother loved football, and he’s the one that got me involved (with Football Manager) and he’s the one that I looked up to. I blame him for it now even though he won’t take any responsibility, but we played night and day together.

“He was older than me so he’s the one that started me on Championship Manager and Football Manager, so he’s to blame, he deserves all the blame.”

Unfortunately, although not unsurprisingly, sinking hours upon hours into the game is a luxury Shadab has not been able to live for quite some time.

“When I decided this was what I wanted to do as a career I set my own team up and really focused on that, because it made sense for me to focus on doing management in reality rather than on a game.

“The last time I played it would probably have been when I was about 17, because I knew very quickly that if I wanted to be successful as a coach I had to give up what I loved to do something else that I loved. That was something very clear in my mind, I knew I had to really do it.”

Now the first team coach at a League One club, it could have been easy for the 35-year-old to forget about the journey that led him to his current position. There is absolutely no danger of that happening though...

“I wrote to every local club, every local grassroots club and then I set my own team up,” Shadab recalled. “It was a great time, I was young, I had a load of energy, I was writing (about football) and coaching. I got involved with Hesketh Bank under 12s I think it was, my old team, and then a friend of mine actually set up a team for me as part of a Mosque organisation.

“He’s my best mate and he was brilliant; he knew I wanted to coach an older group of players, so he set up an under 15s team for me.

“It was a fantastic time for me.”

Help from the close group of family and friends around him proved vital in the early stages of Shadab’s career, and he made sure to heap the credit on those people for helping him reach the heights he has done.

“It’s massive, and I think one of the biggest things is I’ve had good people around me; not people who are going to say what I want to hear, but be honest with me, and that’s been brilliant.”

“There are four or five people that are really close with me and will always tell me the truth, they’ll always be honest and won’t ever sugar coat anything,” Shadab explained. “I do think that’s a really important thing, and probably the best thing I’ve got going for me.

“I remember managing in Sunday league and one of my friends gave me his club to manage. I was only 19 managing adults on a Sunday, which when I look back on it is crazy.

“I did it, I made a lot of mistakes which I’m sure the players will tell you as well, but it was priceless. What an experience to be in a changing room on a Sunday with adults when you’re 19 years of age – that experience is vital.

“You have to love what you do, and Dave Sutton is one of the people that deserves a mention because he always told me to be enthusiastic and really love what you do.

“Passion is a big, big thing, and enthusiasm. When you do that it rubs off on people.

“I was young I put everything into it, and nothing has changed, I give everything and I think that’s really important.”

If passion and enthusiasm was the key metric in deciding the winner of the Professional Coach Award at the Asian Football Awards night it’s no wonder Shadab was victorious. And when reflecting on the event, which celebrates members of the Asian community who fly their flag on the professional stage, he could not hide his pride, or hunger for further achievements.

“At the time it was amazing to be nominated, I didn’t really think about it too much it was just great to be nominated and go to the event, to see what a great event it was and see the recognition of what was there,” the Latics coach beamed. “The way it was put together was brilliant, and then to win it was special.

“It was really important, the first trophy of the year and hopefully many, many more to come this year! Being at Wembley as well, so hopefully we get to go there and win many more trophies.

“It was nice to look back on 17 or 18 years and see it all as a chapter now, and now we’re writing the next chapter.”

After reflecting on a chapter that consumed more than half of his life, the question on my mind was simple. Those 18-hour work days, the travelling here, there and everywhere, and the days (and weeks) off college. Has it all been worth it?

“Absolutely,” Shadab asserted, without a moments thought. “It continues though, the day I feel like I only want to work 10 or 11 hours is the day I retire for me. It’s massively worth it, and again it comes down to having good people around me. We’re always talking about how I take the next step, how I create that next chapter.”

The Latics coach then went on to exclusively reveal: “I think what many people don’t know is that a couple of years ago I decided to rent an office and study football. There was no job, I had a family, I just rented an office to study football.

“To do that was a big call, because if I did that and nothing came from it then that’s all wasted, and there would have been many implications with that.

“I did it, I’m proud that I did it and I think it helped me lay a strong foundation for any job in the future, just like this one now.”

And so to round off the first half of my chat with the man whose passport has more stamps than a Royal Mail sorting office, I wanted to hear what advice he had for aspiring coaches looking to forge a path in the game.

Unsurprisingly, his answer was filled with thought, wisdom and compassion, and is worth listening to regardless of the industry you are in.

“For me it’s about focusing on yourself and focusing on what you can control.

“Work very hard, be prepared to make yourself the best product that you can be, and don’t worry about networking, make your work your network.

“I think that’s the biggest thing, making sure that you’re putting in as much as you possibly can every single day.”

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I hope you enjoyed the first half of my chat with Wigan Athletic first team coach Shadab Iftikhar. Be sure to come back to TalkingWigan.com tomorrow to read part two, where we discuss all things Latics, Roberto Martinez, and, weirdly, Xavi! It’s worth a read for sure!