Alistair Heath: My Experience Managing in Cambodia
Alistair Heath is a young, dynamic and driven British coach who was an academy coach at Leicester City, a position he held at the club for seven years. It was a role he took a massive amount of pride in but he wanted more – he wanted to fulfil his dream and become a football manager.
In 2021, a club called Angkor Tiger from Cambodia gave him the opportunity to become their first team manager. It didn’t phase Heath in the slightest that it was in a country he’d never been to before – there was no hesitation but for him to say yes to the job.
Speaking on the ScotScore Podcast, the 39-year-old detailed what his experience was like adapting to the Cambodian culture: “I have been in South Korea and Thailand in the past, and I kind of had the core skills to understand how to adapt to a different culture and learn a new way of living, a new way life but it was difficult.
“Cambodia I would say is slightly different to other countries in Asia. Great people, great country, I have to say that straight away but it did take me a while, on my own going into a real tough job, tough in many ways.”
“It wasn’t one of the top clubs in the Premier League and being in that country on my own whilst also having to do my best to successfully stamp my authority as a first-time manager.”
In terms of the standard of football in the Cambodian Premier League, Heath was thoroughly impressed with it: “The standard of football was really good and what people don’t realise is you’re training and playing in matches in 35 degrees minimum. It was technically good, physically good, mentally good, but tactically they need to learn those parts of the game.
“But as a whole, I was really impressed with the motivation and enthusiasm of the country for football and they love football just as much as we all do. So it was really good to see and really good to get into, and appreciate another country’s passion for football.
“It was also great for me to test myself in a challenging environment for many reasons but what a place to learn to become a manager and I’m not going into that country as a long-term seasoned professional manager with ten clubs on my CV, and as a first-time manager – what a way to learn.”
After two years in charge, and working under the constraints with the smallest budget in the league, Heath departed the club in 2023 after a tough start to the season: “We were four games into the second season, we had won one and lost three. We built a pretty newish squad for that season and we hadn’t really got the squad fully fit as I would have liked and that was coming.
“The owner of the club decided it was best for the club’s future for us to part ways. I ideally wanted to stay there and carry on the work that I knew had to be done and we had done so many good things in that second season in pre-season.”
“We brought in a couple more academy players and got the base that I was looking for. In terms of the structure of the team and just waiting for a little bit more consistency to creep in, which I’m convinced it would have done, with the players that I had signed and got to full fitness and understanding of how we are going to play because in the four games that we had played, certainly in the first two, we could have walked away with three points.”
“The last game we weren’t fantastic but overall, there was a great base to work with but the owner decided that was going to be that. I don’t hold any grudges towards anyone, it’s a great club, the people were great and I got fantastic support during my time there and I would have liked to have stayed on longer to finish a job that I knew how to do but it wasn’t to be.”
Since taking a break out of the game, Heath is now feeling fresh and motivated to make a return to the dugout as a manager: “I see myself as a head coach. I see myself as the decision-maker. I see myself as that person whose success or failure stands by me. The winning or losing stands by me and I am very clear on accepting responsibility for positive and negative situations.”
“I like to be at the forefront of a team, leading a team and making sure whatever happens I am that first person in line to be there to take the compliments or take the criticism. I fully believe that is where I am supposed to be.”
By: Scott Bradley / @ScottBradleyX
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / @angkortigerfootballclub