Johnny McKinstry looks back on his African
coaching stint
He is one of the youngest people to ever coach a national football team.
Irishman Johnny McKinstry, onetime head coach for Leone Stars of Sierra
Leone now struts his stuff on the tube for ITV Sports as an expert analyst of
African football. He certainly knows a thing or two about the game. And,
given his tour of duty with the Sierra Leone national team, McKinstry has
insider knowledge about what holds for sports administration on the
continent. African Sports Monthly reached out to Mr. McKinstry to find out
what happened with him in Sierra Leone and also what makes his brilliant
football mind tick.
ASM: We know you are now a TV pundit on African football. How is that going?
Johnny: It’s all going very well, if
I am honest. Whilst I have done
a number of previous public
speaking engagements at
events such as SoccerEx, as
well as television and radio for
the likes of Football Focus, Talk
Sport and BBC World Service,
this is the first time I have been
in the analysts chair for live TV
broadcasts. . It is definitely a
much more comfortable position
TV Pundit Johnny McKinstry on set at ITV Studios
to watch a game from compared
during the African Cup of Nations
to the Head Coach’s chair in the
the dugout, which can be quite tense at times depending on how the game is going.
The process of analyzing team performances and disseminating key information is one
that I am well used to as it forms part of my normal pre-match preparations as a Head
Coach, so that my players have the information they need to gain success on the pitch;
so transferring this to informing the general public watching at home about the finer
details of the games they are watching is not to much of a transition.
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