Interview with Thomas Vandenbussche: Business Manager, MBP School of Coaches
I can honestly say, that I have enjoyed each and every interview I have been a part of for Jobs in Football, whether it has been for the Career Insights Project, or for the Football Education Hub area of the platform. Each participant has been insightful and engaging about their role and their experience within the football industry and so I don’t know why I was surprised that Thomas Vandenbussche was so welcoming and open about his role with MBP School of Coaches.
Due to start at 7pm, the first 15 minutes of the interview were spent discussing the lockdown measures in place around Europe due to Covid-19. We then moved on to my disappointment at having not visited Belgium (Thomas’ home country) or Barcelona (Thomas’ current home city), before I finally realised that, the questions I had noted for discussion were quite clearly going to be a minor guideline at best; this was going to be a free-flowing conversation for sure.
Thomas thankfully, took the lead and opened the interview with the experiences that led him to MBP School of Coaches and what his current role entails…
“MBP School of Coaches was founded in 2011 so we are celebrating our 10th birthday. It would have been a very special event had it not been for Covid but this cannot be helped. I came to the company in 2016, under an internship through university (in Belgium). However, I was also coaching at Club Brugge and I had to go back to Belgium after the internship as I was still under contract with them. MBP School at that point, were not at the level they are at now; the company has been growing a lot over the last few years. That growth is not just in terms of economical revenue either, it’s growth in terms of visibility.
“It was back in November 2018 when they called me and asked if I wanted to come back so in January 2019, I returned to Barcelona to work within the business department. Right now, I am the Commercial Director for the B2B and B2C departments. When I joined in January, we had a team of 7 in the office and now, we are a team of 22. Within two years, we have tripled the number of staff and opened 4 offices: a franchise in Switzerland, one in Brazil, a local office in Boston and an office in India too.”
What is most striking about this opener – aside from the impressive growth MBP School has seen in such a short space of time – is the passion in which Thomas talks about his role and how proud he is to be a part of a company that has seen such growth. He is open about how he was eager to return to the company and equally, appreciative that his reporting line was just as keen to have him back in Barcelona.
As we move on to talk about MBP School of Coaches in more depth, one key question I want to ask Thomas is, what makes the company unique? Football is global, we all know that and the ambition to work in the industry is apparent worldwide. With such interest and demand, education providers are manoeuvring in a competitive and full market; it is difficult to stand out in an ever-growing industry.
“What makes us unique is how we have spent so much time on the product we have; it’s really good. We’ve never had a customer say they think it’s bad.
“Before we created MBP School, we created a methodology and we started by looking at the influence of Barcelona and Catalonian football in general; it has been dominant for the last 15 years. We then looked at the success of the Spanish national team. What we noticed was that, they have seen such a high level of success and we wondered how we could get to that success; there is no manual for that. However, one of our founders (Albert) approached the task of creating our methodology by focusing on thinking, analysing and looking at scientific research on how can we make smarter players; we look at every stage of a player or athlete’s life. So what makes us unique, is that our methodology and focus on the product means we are creating players who have an amazing understanding of the game.
“Our method is patented – we are the only company in the world using this – and it is both theoretical and practical. We are also actively applying our methodology; it’s not just sat there in a book. We are delivering the education we have created and our unique methodology is helping players.
“We are almost like a consultancy agency because we are also helping clubs and federations. In terms of players, we are working with players of top clubs: Juventus, the USA national team, Espanyol, Real Madrid and other La Liga teams. We are helping them to improve their tactical performance; to understand their own game better.
“What we do with clubs is help them create their own methodology. Is it a copy of the MBP methodology? No, not at all. There are aspects coming from our methodology of course but you cannot use the same methodology and also, you cannot use the same methodology for Chelsea, for example as you would for Arsenal; every club has its own identity and everything comes together from that identity. We are also consulting for federations, for official licences. So ultimately, we can educate players, coaches, clubs and federations; all the key stakeholders in football have access to the right course with MBP School.
“Another reason we are unique is that we have strong values and we believe them; we don’t just have them written down because we need to have them. Everybody at MBP School respects the values and believes them. A mission statement is not just a piece of paper for us; we do everything with genuine passion and love so we can build an MBP family with our students. Students who graduated 6 years ago still speak with us and that is something we want to keep seeing and something we value. We want to create a community and I believe that this is what makes us unique; our students tell us that too.”
It’s again another answer that shows the passion that Thomas has for MBP School of Coaches and it seems as though that passion extends throughout the office in Barcelona and probably, through their franchises that Thomas mentioned at the beginning of our discussion. There is a real sense that MBP School isn’t just a job or a way of working in football; it has created a real purpose for itself and its students.
I look down at my notes and see the next question is the smart little tool that MBP School has on its website; it’s like a mini quiz which identifies the right course for each interested student. Thomas admits it’s in its infancy but for someone who has a love for football but not an ambition to be a coach, I still enjoyed using the tool and the moment of suspense as though I was looking at the website as a prospective student. It brings me onto the programmes themselves, of which there are many. I suspect that the next question is going to be a tough one but regardless, I have to ask Thomas to speak about a couple of the courses that for whatever reason, stand out as the ones to speak about.
“It’s a difficult question because we have a lot of programmes! I have to mention our Master in High Performance Programme though because it is a high-level course. It costs around 9,000 euros and we are expensive; I agree on that. But in saying that, the reason we have so many programmes is to make the coaching career path accessible and affordable for as many people as possible. For example, there are two programmes to study ahead of the Master Programme which are more economical in terms of time and money. We want MBP School of Coaches to be scalable and therefore, we open our programmes to as many people as possible. We don’t encourage everyone to apply for the Master Programme either and sometimes, we have to turn down a candidate because it’s just not right for them. Of course, from a financial perspective, it’s a horrible decision to say no to somebody but sometimes, we know that some of the programmes are too much of a high level for someone at that stage in their education or career; we don’t want to take money from somebody if the course is not right for them. That’s why we have a ‘jungle’ of programmes.
“The most popular programme is the Master Programme though, which is strange because it is the most expensive one! 80-90% of the students enrolled on this course want to be a first division coach like Pep Guardiola or Jose Mourinho. This programme gives you all the tools to do that but still, this is not an easy goal to achieve! We have coaches from Premier League clubs studying it, as are several coaches in Belgium and Spain too.
“The other programme which is popular, especially in Spain and the UK, is the Scouting and Game Analysis Course. This programme has a much wider reach in terms of the variety of people who choose to study it; people from different career paths.
“But all our courses are great and it’s down to each person to identify what they want to do in their coaching career and therefore, what they should study to achieve their objectives.”
Much like many businesses around the world, MBP School were affected by the pandemic and the restriction on travel and cancellation of on-campus classes meant that their strategy was to move to online learning. But how difficult has that been? What have students gained or lost from continuing or starting their courses from home, rather than in Barcelona surrounded by fellow students?
“The big difference is the overall experience and once lockdown levels are the same worldwide, we will be able to open up those on-campus programmes again. When we made the decision to convert to online – and thank goodness we did - we didn’t want to have a boring presentation with somebody standing there at a board, at the same time every week; we dislike this type of learning. We don’t judge those who do educate in that way but for us, it doesn’t work with what we want to achieve. Also, it’s not possible for everybody to join us at the same time; we have students from all over the world. We have students in Peru which is one time difference, then we have students in Japan, which is another time difference… how can we ever connect with everyone when we are working on Barcelona time?
“In terms of content, the online programme is the same as the campus programmes but we cannot offer the additional experiences that we can on campus, such as visits to Camp Nou. However, we do our best to give a more interactive experience than traditional online learning. As an example, the online Master course is studied in the comfort of your home for 8 months but on campus, it’s 4 months with an experience of Camp Nou, being able to interact with classmates and your teacher, playing football together etc. So that lack of social and additional experiences is the biggest difference.”
I suspect the next item I want to discuss may have restrictions due to confidentiality and Thomas will be unable to say too much about the students and clubs participating in the MBP School of Coaches courses; the success stories of how MBP School has played a part in the journey to success. Still, I’m hoping Thomas can share something on this topic…
“Yes, we have some successful cases but we try to respect the privacy of our students. I am also not comfortable saying that students have success because of MBP School. Are some of their opportunities possible because of us? I think if you ask the students, they will say yes but it’s not 100% down to us that they achieve success. We help students gain knowledge but we also give them the necessary confidence and it’s up to them to carry that confidence forward; we can’t determine the mentality of the student.
“I will tell you about one Uruguayan/Mexican student, who was working in Cancun as a journalist and analyst for the Mexican League. He’s always had an ambition to dedicate his life to football; he is crazy about football! His course was interrupted by Covid so he finished it from home. We were contacted by Club America, who asked us for some good students to recommend and we sent out his profile – we send out all profiles fairly by the way – and he got contracted with them; he’s living his dream right now. It’s great because it is just the start for him and he has a good career ahead of him. Such stories are really nice and we are pleased we can play a part in students achieving this success.
“We have positive stories from all around the world and our mission is to help coaches to achieve their objectives. That’s the philosophical part of our values: to inspire confidence so coaches can achieve their objectives.”
I’ve been quite honest with Thomas that my experience with coaching is zero and my capability to be a coach is pretty much at zero too. However, if I were keen to start my journey into being a football coach and I am looking to MBP School of Coaches to help me with that, what would Thomas advise?
“Coaching doesn’t always play out in practice as you see it in your head and you need to work out what it is you want to do in coaching. Do you want to dedicate the upcoming years to the younger football players, or do you want to go straight to the older age groups? Or do you want to be an analyst maybe? Work out what it is you want to do but also remember to try to ‘stand out’ from all the other coaches. Not everyone has a dream to be a big coach at Chelsea for example, and some people want to stay local and that’s okay; just work out your main objective and start there. Sometimes, you see that coaches at the local level develop this hunger to progress that they didn’t expect and they then go on to look for experience at higher levels.
“But just find your way and seek good education to achieve your goal, whether that’s with MBP School or another provider. There is triple the number of courses now than there were before Covid so make sure you find something that gives quality because if it’s not going to lead to achieving your objective, I don’t think it serves you any benefit.
“For younger coaches especially, they need to find their way and they need to find somebody they trust too.”
We appear to have covered the key items I wanted to discuss with Thomas and the last note I have on my list is to uncover the long-term goal(s) for MBP School. What do they want to achieve in the short and long-term? Having had such growth in just a few years has been great but how do they continue the trajectory? Have the goalposts moved (excuse the pun) and they now have a much larger objective than they perhaps had initially identified?
“We want to become leaders in football coaching and player education. When we started 10 years ago, that was the objective and it’s still the same objective today. I am here because I love the mission of MBP School and we believe we are capable of being leaders. It’s an ambitious goal but the countries we identified as those we want to be active in is something we are close to achieving. In Mexico, I would say we are probably in the top 3 providers and that’s what we want to achieve across Europe too.
“We also want to find a way to ensure our students find a job. It’s a question we receive all the time: ‘Does the certificate give me a job?’ No, it doesn’t but we are trying to do this and it is something we want to develop, to open up the professional world to our students.
“Overall, we want to help in improving the industry and not just in men’s football either; we are really interested in women’s football and we have just signed an agreement with one of the biggest agencies in Europe. Women’s football is important to us.”
I couldn’t leave the interview without asking Thomas about the team he supports and he laughs and tells me it’s the most difficult question of the evening. I had a suspicion it would be as you can tell from speaking with Thomas, that football is more than one team and being ‘a supporter’; the interest and experience he has goes far deeper than that.
“I was an Anderlecht fan as a child and their biggest rival is Club Brugge. However, when I was studying in Bruges and had the opportunity to coach at the club, it changed things for me a little bit! But I don’t have a favourite team, aside from the Belgium national team. I like what Anderlecht is doing right now though; it has a great project in working with the younger players. But I also love watching Leicester City play and I really like N’Golo Kante so I like watching him play for Chelsea. It’s relaxing for me to be like that, to enjoy lots of teams and players.”
Much like the start of the interview, the end of it was a general discussion too. Thomas was shocked to learn I was contemplating not renewing my season ticket. We also went back and forth on THAT European Super League idea and Thomas’ opinion of, ‘If I had to choose between Harry Kane or Romelu Lukaku, I would pick Lukaku…because he’s Belgian’, opened a whole can of worms. It was interesting, funny and the epitome of how football is universal; if you love the game, a conversation will come from anywhere and can last a lifetime. Finishing our discussion with how we have an affection for Leeds United and Thomas telling me I should watch more La Liga fixtures then I have, it was time to close an enjoyable hour.
I was slightly (definitely more than slightly) concerned that the brief of finding out about MBP School of Coaches had not quite been fulfilled but equally, I enjoyed my discussion with Thomas – even if we do have differing opinions about the European Super League and La Liga!
Interviewer: Sascha Gustard-Brown
Sascha is highly experienced within the area of Supporter Engagement, having held the positions of Head of Supporter Engagement at Luton Town Football Club and Supporter Liaison Officer at West Ham United. She is currently working on small supporter engagement projects in sport and freelance writing in football.