The former Tottenham defender and midfielder has begun taking the opening steps into his coaching career with help from the PFA
Former Tottenham star Eric Dier has begun his coaching journey as he works towards his UEFA B Licence within Monaco’s academy.
Dier played 365 games for Tottenham, starting off in midfield under Mauricio Pochettino before settling as a centre-back, during almost a decade at the north London club. He then spent 18 months at Bayern Munich, winning the Bundesliga with former Spurs team-mate Harry Kane, before making a free agent move to Ligue 1 side Monaco last summer.
Now, with the help of the Professional Footballers’ Association, the 32-year-old England international has taken the first steps towards his post-playing career and is now completing the final stage of his UEFA B Coaching Licence through the organisation.
The PFA have released a YouTube video following Dier as he went through two days’ worth of sessions with Monaco’s under-17s before a final presentation required to complete the course. Despite having only been in the country for a year, the multilingual former Spurs man could be seen coaching the academy players in their native French.
“When I first started it was ‘who knows what the future might bring’. Now I look at it in a more serious way than I did,” said Dier, who has played at two World Cups. “Why coaching? It has become a passion to me and I think that’s the most important thing. Being a passion it allows me to put the time into it and work hard at it and that’s the most important thing for me.”
He added: “I can give you a detailed report of every manager I’ve ever had because I’ve always paid a lot attention to everything. I’ve got quite a detailed database of exercises now so I go through them and find the ones that I want to do and match what I want to achieve from the session.
“Part of it is trying to remember the messaging you were receiving when you were doing them yourself and then trusting your intuition to see the right things that you want to improve.”
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Dier speaks Portuguese, Spanish and now ever-improving French and he is indebted to his football career for opening up that within himself.
“My French gets better because I just ask the boys if I don’t know a word. Languages is one of the best things that football has given me,” he said. “Moving to Portugal [as a youngster] completely changed my life. It’s changed the relationships that I’ve had, the people that I’ve met and the dynamics that I’ve had. It’s completely different and I’ve always appreciated it.
“At Tottenham when players came and really made an effort to learn English I always appreciated that and I see it as respectful as something to do when you’re in a country. I just do Duolingo every day and keep that streak!”
Dier admitted in his presentation for his B Licence that his next steps if he passes are to go for his A Licence, then Pro Licence before trying to become a manager and with managers like Pochettino, Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte and Vincent Kompany to draw upon he could go far.
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