The head of Leicester Amanandine Miquel on the rise from the goalkeeper to the coach
When Williams was present at his first large tournament for England in 2005, Miquel was already enrolled in coaching courses and aspired to reach a world cup as manager – an ambition that he still has today.
“When I said ‘ok, I can no longer do the world cup as a player, I will still find a job that will bring me anyway’,” he said.
“Then I looked at my skills and thought I will try to go for coaching.”
At the same time, he started studying to be a teacher, taking on his parents whose careers brought them and their young family all over the world – from the Indian Ocean island of Reunion in North America, England and Spain.
“My grandmother says I am a teacher and that I teach football. Rassicura,” Miquel said.
“It’s a bit like when you tell your parents you want to be a singer. It is a sale when you are a woman to say that you will become a player or a professional coach. Any reasonable parent will say” No, you have to get a real job “. But I hope it is becoming a real job and more than us I am at a good level, so we can do our daily job.”
He was on the islands of Reunion and Mayotte – two French territories that lying outside Madagascar – where Miquel obtained his first coaching experiences.
So he went to build a career that he manages in the most low championships of French football with Bergerac and Northetis before being appointed head of Reims – a club that took from the danger of relegation to the second division to the largest promotion of France and the Brink of Champions League Football Qualification, in eight years.
“What was funny is that from the first season at the end of the eighth, we never dropped, we have always finished higher with results or points. We never went back,” he said.
“This really pushes you, to have this every season to be better. And maybe that’s why I started because I wasn’t sure I could do it a ninth time.”
What reached in the Champagne region with one of the smallest budgets in the French top flight is what has attracted it to Leicester’s attention in the female Super League.
