Ben Davies has admitted that he wants to get into coaching when he hangs up his boots and that he is now working on his coaching badges.
It perhaps will not come as a surprise for Tottenham fans to learn about Davies’ coaching ambitions, with the defender always being quite tactically astute.
That is demonstrated by the fact that he has thrived in a number of positions for club and country and the fact that he has had a fantastic career at the top level despite not being the most naturally gifted footballer.
The Tottenham man has now admitted that he has now started preparing for life after football and is now close to competing in his UEFA A Licence.
Davies said on ESPN’s The Gab & Juls Show: “Obviously the older I’ve got in the game you have to start thinking about that kind of thing, but I’m one of those guys who likes to plan for all eventualities.
“I’m doing my coaching badges, I’ll hopefully have my A licence within the next month or so. I’d like to finish my pro licence before I finish playing.
“That would be the ideal goal because I think it would be a nice transition to go straight into coaching instead of being that guy who has no qualifications. You then have to take two or three years out just to get the qualifications and then ultimately you’re on the outside of football trying to find your way back in.
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“Whereas I feel I’m in a good position now. I want to play for as long as I can, but it’s always in the back of my mind that you see some players now that was they’re getting older they go to play for a club with an eye on turning into a coach in a year’s time or working with different managers to try to go down that route.
Ben Davies already has one eye on a coaching career
The left-back revealed that he has already dabbled in coaching the youngsters in the Spurs academy and admitted that he quite enjoyed interacting with kids and giving them pointers on the game.
He said about his coaching ambitions: “I think that’s a route I’d like to go down first. As I’ve got older you have to look at what all of these managers are doing and take notes. You see what works and what doesn’t work and then you formulate your own ideas.
“That’s the route I want to go down. When I was injured all the boys were in Dubai, I was doing my rehab and post-session I went to watch the U13s at Spurs’ academy and I’m on the side and even watching that level you can feel there’s an intensity to it.
“There’s the joy in realising you can speak to these kids and they hang on your every word and they will listen. You can actually give them some advice. Who knows? They might think I was talking nonsense, but giving them some advice that might help them in their game. So that was my weekend, watching them, and then that’s my first hope.”
However, Davies would not need to be putting all his eggs into the coaching basket, with the Welshman also having a business economics degree.
The defender stated that he is quite interested in the business side of football and would consider a career in the field if coaching does not prove to be his cup of tea.
He added: “Then I also I have a big interest in the business of sport as well and the business of football. When I was young, I was bit of a nerd and that’s when I decided I was going to do my business economics degree at university level. I finished that when I was 26 and I’ve got that in the back pocket.
“I’m doing my business course with the PFA that they’re running now which is the equivalent of a master’s degree. It is unusual but I grew up with an emphasis on education. It probably goes back to that feeling of ‘what if football doesn’t work out’ when I was younger.
“When I signed for Tottenham I could easily have decided I’d made it but you have to prepare for all eventualities in life and I thought a good use of my time in the afternoons would be to get my head in some books, some economics books. It’s not for everybody but I think it put me in good stead going forward.
“I’m going to see how the coaching stuff goes first. If it’s up my street then great but I think even if I try that first it gives me a better grounding, a better understanding of the whole industry of football from different angles. So if I then want to go on the business side and the office side of football, then I have that option.”
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While having these coaching batches sets up Davies well for a career after football, it would also undoubtedly help make him a better player since he would gain a better understanding of the tactical intricacies of the game.
The 30-year-old would have also learned a lot from the world-class coaches he has worked with at Tottenham, especially given the varied tactical ideas that different managers would have brought with them.
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