captain Leicester to the Premier League
title. My brother often says that could
have been me, but while I was happy
at Leicester, I needed regular football.
There was no fall-out with Nigel, who
I respect. In fact, I’ll let you into a little
secret – I nearly joined him at Bristol
City before signing for Middlesbrough.
Sicily was your next port of call, but
you only played once for Palermo. Did
the Mafia stop you playing?!
Ha! Maybe. In Italy, it tends to be the
president or sporting director who signs
the players. Throughout my career, I’d
always wanted to chat to the manager
before making a decision on my future,
but at Palermo the president said, “You
don’t need to – it’s my club, I sign who
I like.” I turned up for training and the
manager said, “Who are you?” I knew
I was in trouble straight away.
You’ve spent the last six years of your
career in Britain with Leeds, Cardiff
and now Boro. Are you settled?
I moved to Leeds because the Palermo
president knew [United chief] Massimo
Cellino and wanted to help me out –
but despite it being another deal done
in the boardroom, I was lucky that the
gaffer, Neil Redfearn, already knew me.
Leeds are a great club – I wish I’d been
there when they finally won promotion.
After that, I came close to returning to
France until Neil Warnock phoned me;
he’d tried to take me to Crystal Palace
and Leeds. He ended up having a row
with Nigel Pearson about me – after
a Leicester match, he walked onto the
pitch and asked me if I fancied a move
to Elland Road. It didn’t go down well!
Your stint at Cardiff went pretty well.
How was that experience?
Going up with Cardiff in 2017-18 and
being an ever-present that season has
to be my career highlight. Although we
went straight back down and I missed
much of the Premier League campaign
through injury, there were some terrific
memories. No one expected us to win
promotion and everyone thought we’d
struggle the next year, but we did well.
Neil Warnock, then. Big fan?
Absolutely. He lets you express yourself
and has that knack of getting the very
best out of players. But our relationship
transcends football. I love the man and
he’s helped me a lot, especially when
I had cancer. He couldn’t do enough for
my family. When I was out of contract
this year and living in Leeds, I asked if
I could train at Boro. He said yes... and
then gave me a one-year deal. I’m 36
now and accept that I won’t be playing
regularly, but it’s great to have a foot
on the first rung of the coaching ladder,
at a club with some of the best facilities
I’ve ever known, under someone I like
and respect so much.
It’s unusual for a coach to admit
that one of their proudest moments
is a heavy defeat. But Lewes’ new
head of performance Kelly Lindsey
is far from a regulation hire.
The ex-USA international has landed
at the ambitious non-league club to
mentor, advise and assist the men’s,
women’s and youth sides, and arrives
less than two years after a spell in
charge of the Afghanistan women’s
national team.
Lindsey, who was head coach of
the Afghans from 2016-20, is happy
to reveal that one of her crowning
glories was a 5-0 annihilation at the
hands of Jordan.
“Before we took over, many of the
results were 11-0, 15-0 or 20-0 – we
saw a lot of big scorelines but it was
very unfair,” the 42-year-old tells FFT.
“The team was being trained on
a seven-a-side pitch or sometimes
a concrete slab, and there was no
tactical development. The technical
staff weren’t preparing them to play
11-a-side international football.
“We faced Jordan before they went
into the World Cup qualifiers and had
three days to prepare, so we thought,
‘If we can keep this under 10-0, we’ll
feel quite good about ourselves’. By
the middle of the match we had theJordanian fans cheering for us, asking
how we were so good and organised.”
It’s a mark of how difficult the task
Lindsey took on was that the defeat
stands out. But in a nation divided by
war and where women’s rights are
traditionally scarce, mobilising a side
to compete at that level was a huge
achievement. Her job was about far
more than just football, as she helped
to unite players from Afghanistan’s
global diaspora with those living in
the Asian country. Not that they were
able to gather in Afghanistan, due to
a ban on refugees returning home.
Lindsey discovered a group that
had to be taught to trust each other,
and needed football as a reason to
show “women can leave their home,
and can have their own thoughts and
ideas”. She even had to confront an
abuse scandal from within her own
federation during her time in charge.
“We set up a leadership committee
and 90 per cent of the conversations
concerned life and being a woman,
while 10 per cent was about football,”
explains Lindsey. “We really wanted
to help the players communicate the
complicated things. I’m not a woman
from Afghanistan, so it’s not right for
me to tell them how to live their lives
in Afghanistan. But when they spokeabout complex issues we could think
about solutions, and how they could
be applied in Afghan culture.”
The team soon bonded thanks to
a passion for their nation and to prove
that “nationalism trumps sexism” by
being successful on the pitch, laying
groundwork for their long-term goal
of World Cup qualification.
After completing that cycle at the
end of 2020, Lindsey had a short stint
with Morocco’s female national team
before taking her developmental role
at Lewes, who in 2017 became the
first – and still only – club in the world
to pay their men and women equally.
With the Sussex club’s next target
to become fully professional, Lindsey
is enthusiastic about what’s to come
in the future. But how will her tenure
with Afghanistan help her?
“I’m 100 per cent a better person,”
she beams. “Living the international
lifestyle humbles you, because it’s
important to realise that it doesn’t
matter what you know or how much
you do – everywhere you go is a new
start and a new project.”
No matter where that takes her,
though, Afghanistan will always hold
a special place in the American’s
heart – not least that 5-0 tonking.
Chris EvansAFGHAnISTAn TO LEWES
Former United States defender Kelly Lindsey has rocked up at The Dripping Pan
after an illuminating – if incredibly challenging – spell in international football...nOn-LEagUE nEWS
AROUnD THE
GROUnDS