‘Family is used to me leaving early or not coming at all’

NOS Football•today, 08:02

Four more games to go and then Alex Pastoor’s coaching career is over, at least for the time being. “I am incredibly happy that I made the decision. I feel a lot of independence and freedom in my head because of it.”

The current coach of Almere City explains his choice in detail in the stands of the training accommodation. “It’s mainly my fault,” Pastoor said. “I am someone who loves football very much, who is completely absorbed in it and who is also completely independent. By that I mean: I give everything I have, with all my strengths and all my weaknesses.”

According to Pastoor, this unobstructed view places great demands on himself and his family. “My family is used to me leaving early or not coming at all.”

Pastor considers himself rücksichtlose: ‘Makes great demands on myself and my family’

“We started dating on January 31, our son was born on August 31. These are things we always celebrate, but it is also always the last day of a transfer window. So on those days when you go out for dinner or just together are off the table again.”

He always hears the comment: “That is also part of your job.” Pastor: “The question is whether you want to do that to yourself permanently.”

The self-described introverted and sensitive Pastor believes that there are many great things about the coaching profession, but that a lot has also been added over the years. “If you lose three times in a row, a lot of people panic, even though they have no idea what you do all day.”

“I don’t think opportunism is ever useful in making policy for a company. But also the manifestation that it has… Partly due to the arrival of the internet, it has taken on a very ugly face. If it doesn’t kill my brother already had, then certainly now.”

According to Pastoor, a lot of things can be done differently. “At the beginning of your coaching career you often suffer from perfectionism. If things don’t go your way or the results are not good, your first reflex is always to put in more hours.”

“That’s simply not possible and it doesn’t have to be,” says Pastoor. “When people are properly supervised, you can discuss a lot of these kinds of things, which I think gives you time and energy to put the profession into perspective and to practice it better.”

The Almere City coach mainly thinks of “some kind of mentorship“, a role that would suit him well. “Guiding people who are starting out in the profession and saving them from the series of mistakes I made along the way.”

But he also does not completely rule out a short-term return as a trainer in the future. “If I were to sign somewhere, it wouldn’t be longer than a year.” Pastoor is referring, for example, to temporarily helping a club out if a trainer has left and someone is needed for a bridging period.

“There are a lot of things I could do.” At the same time, Pastoor would really like to do something completely different. “Even if only to give myself the space to discover whether there is indeed more to it than just football.”

“We’ll see what it brings me. And maybe it won’t bring anything in the end,” Pastoor is already thinking ahead. “But in the Netherlands you can always do something. I don’t feel too big for anything. If I have to fill boxes to pay the mortgage, then I will do that. If that continues to give me that freedom in my head, that’s exactly it what I am going to do.”