“I’ve got the Kaizen symbol tattooed on me there,” Kurt Herd showed me whilst pointing to his arm.
“It’s the Japanese philosophy that emphasises gradual improvement and becoming more efficient every day. Every day I want to be a bit better than I was yesterday. I want to learn something new every day, be a better person, a better son and a better uncle. I’ve tried to actively put myself in positions to grow and allow me to get better at all these things, putting myself out of my comfort zone. I get a real buzz from stepping into the unknown.”
It is clear that Kurt’s tattoo is no fashion statement or a vain attempt to look edgy, instead gradual improvement and development is at the forefront of Kurt’s mind. It is an attitude that has allowed him to take the incremental steps to go from studying coaching at HND level to now being assigned the project of unearthing and developing a crop of talent within Southeast Asia from Spanish giants Villareal CF. When you combine his eagerness to improve with his sheer passion for football, it makes sense that he is where he is.
“I was absolutely football daft as a youngster. Literally everything and all my childhood memories revolved around football. I went into play for Dundee United as a youngster and Aberdeen too. Then it unfolded in the common way you hear from others, I got to the age of 16 and realised that realistically I wasn’t going to have a career playing football. I could play a pass and go by a player, but I was never the fittest or fastest. My dad said that as soon as a situation required me to move that was me done! I absolutely tried my heart out in every training session or game, but I was a heavy child and adult until roughly 18 or 19.”
Was coaching the natural next best thing for Kurt?
“I didn’t have a clue what else I wanted to do but for me it was always going to be something in football. Coaching? I thought about it and was keen to give it a bash. Even whilst playing at a young age I would probably think about the game more than most would at that age. I was always thinking about how to gain an extra yard of space from a defender or different ways to receive the ball. If you spoke to anyone I played with at that time, I’d like to think they would say there were certain attributes I had that would help give me a coaching career in the game.”
First however, courtesy of some timely advice, one of the major priorities was to take his own health more seriously. Advice, Kurt said, proved a major turning point in how he wished to carry himself and live his life as a coach.
“I remember having a conversation with the ex-Dundee United and Inverness manager Craig Brewster, who is friends with my dad. He phoned me one night because I was getting quite big and had sort of lost my way with football a little bit. He said if I was serious about giving the coaching a go, I need to look more like a football coach. People won’t take you seriously and you won’t have a career in the game. That was a turning point for me.”
Whilst growing up Kurt was never drawn to education and is still somewhat sceptical of its benefits for certain personality types, he soon realised that if he was going to progress as a coach then he would need to find a way to value the classroom more than he previously had.
“I went through my coaching badges early because I knew that was the direction that I wanted to go. Then I left school, didn’t have a job so went and studied my HND. At the end of that year, there was an Erasmus programme, ran by Austin MacPhee, Scotland’s current assistant coach, where we got to go over to Sweden.”
Attending the project aged just 16, visiting Sweden’s high-tech facility the Svenska Fotbollsakademin and being exposed to names like Henrik Larsson who was doing his coaching qualifications at the time, it opened Kurt’s eyes to the endless possibilities of football across the world.
“I went along to that and thought this is a bit of me. It opened my eyes to a different lifestyle, different coaching styles and different cultures.
“’I’d always had an interest in football abroad really. As far back as I can remember, I’d sit down on a Saturday and Sunday night and watch Italian football or Spanish football as opposed to just the Premier League in England and Scottish football. As my determination to be a football coach grew, I stepped into this even more and would watch, for example, games in Argentina or Brazil at 1am.
“I’ve just got this fascination with travel and the different sporting, social and food cultures that exist. I’ve always been really open to them and had the fearlessness to act on it.”
Fearlessness is certainly one word that comes to you when speaking to Kurt about his career so far. A clear example of this came following the completion of his HND. Although Kurt went on to gain a degree in the subject, his initial thought was to go out into the world of football and gain some experience out-with his comfort zone.
“In my head I was thinking why should I waste a few years at university when I could go start coaching now and get a head start. I was speaking with a coach in Brisbane who said if I fly in then he’ll meet with me the following week, but the coach never got back in touch with me. Then I got in touch with Adem Poric who played for Sheffield Wednesday, he owned a club called Magic United on the Gold Coast and I worked there for eight months before coming back.”
It couldn’t have been so easy to have been demotivated or to come home and question whether coaching was a realistic option, for Kurt this wasn’t on the agenda.
“There’s never been anything else for me. It’s always been football or nothing. I didn’t really have any other skills that I could’ve at the time fell back on because I was only 18 at the time. I just had determination to make it work and even felt motivated at some people thinking it was a bit too bold to be going away without having ever worked. I gained a lot from going over the the Gold Coast, it matured me so much.”
After what was a hugely beneficial eight months in the land down under, Kurt returned to Scotland and has consistently continued to slowly build upon his connections and his experience. This led to leading Abertay University to their first ever title, analysis at Arbroath FC before an opportunity arose in Malaysia coaching at FC Kuala Lumpur in 2019. Gaining further experience of football abroad, this lead to a natural comparison between the cultural differences between Scotland and Malaysia.
“I’ve never met a more respectful nation. The people over here have been incredible. Every player comes up to you and either shakes your hand or places their forehead on your hand. If that happened in Dundee you’d get a boot in the balls! That level of respect you get over here as a coach is amazing, it’s not an egotistical thing but I just love the respect they give you. The openness and willingness to learn is fantastic. I’ve always had umpteen offers to come round to people’s houses for Christmas even though they don’t celebrate it, but they know that I do and want me to feel as welcome and at home as possible.
“In terms of the football over here, the players are really open to asking questions. If a player asks me a question then I know they’re engaged, want to learn and I can work with them. Nobody really wants to ask questions in Scotland because the environment back home can be so brutal. I’ve sat in a changing room, somebody will ask the coach a question and everyone turns and sighs. Asking questions is the sort of culture you want to encourage in a team, but it’s so difficult to do back home because it can be seen as being busy or doing too much.”
Having thrived in his coaching role in Kuala Lumpur, alongside taking the initiative to learn Spanish, this led to his current role with LaLiga side Villareal.
“Villareal were looking to bring in a technical director who had experience working in Malaysia. Previously, I’d always worked really hard to learn Spanish so it almost seemed the perfect fit. I’ve been in the door six weeks now and it has been fantastic so far. I’ve been tasked with trying to bring over the methodology and curriculum from the club in Spain, whilst working with coaches in terms of workshops and trying to develop their coaching journey too.
“The end goal of the project is to create a central hub in Southeast Asia where we attract the best players from Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. The club is really invested in it, I’m on the phone to them every day and it’s clear that they see the Southeast Asia market as being huge, as soon as you get a player the money just rolls in. It’s been a real honour for me to be trusted with it.”
Whilst the respect and willingness to learn is certainly there, the main challenge Kurt has found has been motivating the youngsters and their families to bump football up higher on the priority list.
“To be honest, there’s a lot of people who don’t see football as a career, they see it as a hobby so trying to motivate them can be a difficult one. The kids get pressure from parents where if they are seen as taking their football too seriously they are told to rein it back for exams or if they’ve been playing football four nights in one week. There’s also not a lot of knowledge and education on nutrition, rest and recovery. I feel like the coaches here have been in the environment for so long that it’s just accepted if a kid doesn’t want to train that night or if he can’t play in a game at the weekend because he’s got something else. We’ve been trying to find ways to motivate them, give them incentives and educate them so they can know this is a viable pathway.
“I’ve tried to bring in a few different things that I’ve used back home with the likes of Dundee United, things like player development plans, individual development plans and even coaching development plans so they can feel like they’re progressing too.”
Whilst Kurt is showing clear determination for the youngsters and coaching staff around him to bring out the best in themselves, what does his own individual development plan over the next few years look like?
“I’m just trying to do small goal setting here at the minute. If we have the development plans and curriculum in place and the coaches know what is expected of them, that’ll be a success for me. From January onwards, I’d love for it to be a programme that runs itself, a programme where I can trust the coaches to have the freedom to play with the curriculum.
“In this role, for me to be successful I need to make myself redundant, which might sound a bit strange. Ultimately I want to put things in place where these guys can do it all for themselves. Additionally, if we can get a few youngsters over to the academy in Spain, the academy had four last year, then that would be brilliant. If I can keep that going and have 2 or 4 players sent to Villareal then that’s a success for me and shows the programme is running well.”
He is somewhat relaxed in terms of where his career pathway is going himself, instead of a rigid timescale of how he wants his career to go, focussing on being as present and committed to his current role.
“In football you can try be proactive and say you’re going to do this, but the reality is you rarely get the chance to map out your career or where you want to be. Putting a time stamp on things in football is a dangerous thing. Can I get a job in Thailand as a first team coach? An assistant manager role in South Korea? I’m not saying that’s what I want to do, but if I end up doing that, heading back home or if I’m in this role for the next five years I’m happy regardless. I’m very grateful to be where I am.
“I know where I want to go and what I want to do, but I need to hit the KPI’s in this job first. I want to make sure this is going to be a better place when I leave than when I first arrived,” Kurt says, in typical Kaizen style.
Quick-fire Questions:
Describe yourself in three words: Driven, fearless and caring.
How would your friends and family describe you in three words? Caring, funny and outgoing.
Are you more introverted or extroverted? Extroverted.
What is your biggest personality strength? Driven.
What is your biggest personality weakness? I guess emotional balance sometimes. The highs can be high and the lows can be low.
Most challenging moment of your life/career? A couple of times where I couldn’t see a future in football for myself and it took a lot of conversations with friends to keep me on the straight and narrow which I’ll be forever grateful for.
Best moment of your life/career? Dundee United’s Scottish Cup win at Hampden in May 2010 was definitely up there! In terms of my career then winning the league with Abertay University was great, they’d never won anything and it was my first year coaching in men’s football.
What’s your death row meal?
Starter: My mum’s broccoli soup.
Dinner: Anything with pasta
Dessert: Eaton mess
Drink: It’s got to be Irn Bru!
Best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? Don’t be scared of failure, the only failure is never to try.
