"I knew we could get this style of play (ball possession) with AFC Leopards. Also, we had to create a team that was made of friends. Players, who talk to each other, are like a family to each other” Jan Koops, AFC Leopards coach
By Charles Nyende cnyende@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Friday, April 20 2012 at 22:44
Posted Friday, April 20 2012 at 22:44
IN SUMMARY
- Leopards ‘pensioner’ revives dreams of glory as 13-time champions soar high
The accolades have not come in, yet. In this part of the world a Kenyan Premier League coach gets feted once a season and with just one title – coach of the year.
AFC Leopards’ Jan Koops would easily have been coach of the month 12 times over, new coach of the season, players’ coach of the year, coaches’ coach of the year, even sports writers’ coach of the year.
Leopards have simply been phenomenal under him. Unbeaten in 23 straight league matches dating back to July 28 last year, the club tops the 16-team table with 26 points from 10 matches and are the highest scorers with 20 goals so far.
Slowly and surely Koops is transforming Leopards from the feline sissies of 2009-2010 into the present ferocious leopards that devours anything that crosses their path.
Leopards’ record Sh450,000 signing Eric Masika talks about the “winning mentality” that the Dutchman has instilled in the team. The central defender revealed how Koop “talks to all of us like a father and explains every decision he makes on the team.”
His football knowledge comes from home. Home for Koops is Elburg, a small town in Holland where he was born in 1941. Then it was inhabited by 1,500 people. Now Koops says they are 20,000.
The only sport played was football and by 18 Koops’ scoring touch was good enough to attract Dutch first division side, FC Zwolle, who gave him a professional contract in 1959.
He stayed four eight year before picking up his other passion, trading in photo frames, while playing amateur football.
He did play football until he turned 36 before pursuing a three-year KNVB (Royal Dutch Football Association) coaching course and landing back at his home village to coach his childhood club, Elburg.
He stayed with them until 1990 when he relocated to Germany. Football wise, Koops says the significant team he took charge of was VFL Vichtthl, an amateur side in the German second division.
“They were all part-timers but were paid Sh30,000 for every win. It was a very competitive league I can tell you and it taught me a lot.”
So how did he end up in Kenya? Koops’ eyes twinkle, as he breaks into a smile, the lines on his forehead deepening.
“You know, I actually came to Kenya for the first time in 1980. I will not forgot because I visited a town called Elburgon which sounds so similar to my home town Elburg.”
He liked the county and came back last year for vacation.
“One time I asked my friends ‘I like football. Is there any way you guys can find me a club to coach. It does not have to be a big club, just a small one even in the lower divisions.’ There was one guy, a friend of Leopards who then started the process of engaging me”. That person was former Leopards secretary general Josephat Bukachi.
In fact, the whole process involved a K24 reporter and several Leopards executive members then including Bukachi, assistant secretary Geoffrey Mulanya and assistant treasurer Anthony Walele.
The team had lost six matches in a row and was crying out for help. A desperate situation that required desperate measures. Koops agreed to help on a volunteer basis.
“I had a pension, which is not much but gets me by,” he says smiling.
As the rumour mills in football circles went into overdrive about Leopards turning to a pensioner to deliver them to the promised land the Dutch Septuagenarian quietly went about making a remarkable transformation of the Kenyan glamour club.
“When I first watched AFC Leopards I immediately noticed the fitness of the team was very poor. So we started working on it. When a player is not fit then also in the mind he is not fit.
“Leopards had good players but a lot was wrong with the team. The team had a lot of technical players like Kadenge, Okwemba, Kinje, Baraza but no style of play,” he says.
“Holland play a lot of ball possession. When you have the ball you deny our opponent a chance to play. And you can build and create chances. When you don’t have the ball, you hunt quickly to regain it.
“I knew we could get this style of play with AFC Leopards. Also, we had to create a team that was made of friends. Players, who talk to each other, are like a family to each other.
Concentration
“I also tell my players to concentrate on what instructions I give them and to execute them. They must be disciplined and have the right attitude and an inner mental strength.”
Ebullient Leopards have not lost a league game since the Gor loss on July 24, 2011 and Koops, the coach who just wanted a team to help is now on a full three-year contract.
The rest, as they say is history.
Koops, nicknamed ‘Wepukhulu’ last December by a grateful club, is aware the last time Leopards won the league in their rich past was in 1998. Can they do it again?
“We still have 20 games. We still have a long trip. But the way I am seeing how we are playing and looking at the opposition – and no disrespect to them – we have a good chance of winning the league.”
He talks about a team having emotion and how a coach is part of this; How every coach must know his players beyond the football pitch; About playing with the heart and feelings.
Many remember the Dutchman, overwhelmed with some powerful inner force, falling flat on his back, spread-eagled after Leopards crushed star studded Sofapaka 3-1 last year.
Koops, a divorced father of two, says Kenya is now his second home and, boy, he is enjoying every minute of it.
He has even been spotted with an African female companion on several occasions.
“Yes, there is a Kenyan woman I am seeing. I must admit I love African women. They are very beautiful.”
“Are you married to her?”
“At my age?” he poses smiling. “But she is your girlfriend?” “Whatever you say. I am committed to her.”
The journalist breaks into laughter and the coach joins in. He is such an easy guy and the players have taken to him like spots on a leopard.
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