Lionel Djagba's journey from academy heartbreak to coaching success

From across his desk, Liverpool’s Head of Academy Rodolfo Borrell (below) looked into the eyes of Lionel Djagba and delivered the first of two lines that would change the course of the 19-year-old’s life forever.

“Leo, football for you (here at Liverpool, not the end of his playing career) is finished.”

Until he followed it up with a very, very important but…

“…Have you ever tried coaching?” asked the Spaniard, who later went on to work as Pep Guardiola’s assistant at Manchester City, before becoming Austin FC’s sporting director.

They were devastating words, and certainly not words that Djagba, who had recently become a father, wanted to hear after asking if he could train with Liverpool’s Under-18s in a bid to sharpen up for a tilt at earning a pro contract elsewhere.

Three years earlier, the Togo-born teenager had been released from Liverpool’s Academy, narrowly missing out on a scholarship having progressed through the age groups between 2005 and 2010.

A talented young winger called Raheem Sterling had ultimately been favoured in his preferred position.

Trials at Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers came and went without the offer of a contract, leaving Djagba hovering in the footballing wilderness.

Obsessed by the game, but unsure of how he was going to be a part of it moving forwards, Borrell’s honest assessment was a shattering blow.

"Best advice I have ever received"

Taking up the tale a decade on, Djagba, now 29, says, “Rodolfo said ‘if you start right now, by the time you are 30 can you imagine how much you are going to know?’

“My face lit up and he said ‘go and get your level one qualification, come back in and I will get you some experience working with our Foundation Phase players in the Academy.

“That was the single piece of best advice I have ever received in my life. And I loved it from day one.”

Working at Liverpool’s Academy part-time provided Djagba with a new purpose, and he soon built up a passion for developing his coaching skillset.

He set up his own company, putting on grassroots coaching courses during the school holidays, and the youngster also put on sessions at after-school clubs.

“Sitting down with headteachers as a 20-year-old trying to convince them to trust me to put on quality coaching after school was sometimes challenging, but the whole experience taught me so much,” he reflects.

“Those sessions and holiday camps were a great learning curve. Every day there was a different issue to resolve, but it gave me so much resilience.”

While his work in schools and at Liverpool’s Academy were tremendously rewarding, Djagba needed full-time employment, so at the age of 26 he accepted a position as Head of Football at Scarisbrick Hall Private School in Ormskirk.

“I had to live in the real world, and this was a great job that gave me an opportunity to further enhance my development,” he recalls. “It wasn’t just about being good out on the grass. I had to focus more on time management and managing other people too. I was learning everything from scratch, as it was a world away from the life I lived in Togo.

“I was fine dealing with people,” he adds. “I used to watch my dad, who was a chef, and I could remember how he dealt with customers. I drew on his approach, and it helped me so much.”

Big break

Despite enjoying his role at the school, Djagba still harboured dreams of one day returning to coach at an Academy.

Then, out of the blue his big break arrived.

“When my son was eight years old, he was scouted by Everton and enrolled into a development centre. One day they invited him to Finch Farm and while I was there, I bumped into a scout I used to know.

“He asked if I was still coaching, I told him my story, and after a quick chat I agreed to help out at a development centre!

“I was helping players who were outside of the main group. It was mainly technical work that was designed to give them a platform to make that step up, and I loved it. Within a month I was leading that programme. Juggling it with my work at Scaribrick Hall was tough, but I knew it was an amazing opportunity.”

Before long, Djagba’s reputation as a highly promising young coach was recognised by the club. Head of Coaching for the Foundation Phase Tom Kearney (now head of the YDP Phase) asked if he’d be interested in assisting with the Under 14s, and this was the crossroads moment he had been waiting for.

“It was just after the COVID-19 pandemic, and it meant I would have to take a large pay cut, but intuition told me I was doing the right thing by agreeing to join Everton full-time,” he says with a beaming smile.

“In life you have to take risks sometimes, but this felt like a calculated gamble. I backed myself and thankfully it seems to have paid off.”

Djagba, is currently lead coach for Everton Under-10s, but is able to work across most of younger age groups.

“You have got to have a certain energy about you to work in the foundation phase as well as a lot of patience. It helps that I've got a nine-year-old at home, so I can relate to them and have that empathy.

"They're so young, and these children must know you care for them. I just want to give them the tools to go out and express themselves.

“Working in schools also helped me understand how to handle kids of this age,” he adds. “On my journey, I feel like every step has guided me and helped to place me where I am at the moment.”  

Djagba is now on the Premier League’s Coach Inclusion and Diversity Scheme (CIDS). Launched in 2020/21, the 23-month programme has increased the number of Black, Asian and mixed heritage coaches working in the professional game.

As part of CIDS, he has worked on a project studying the nature of how children learn.

See: Learn more about the Coach Inclusion and Diversity Scheme

It has been eye-opening and beneficial to his work, according to the Toffees coach, who says, “The cognitive load theory shows us we must not give kids of this age too much information at once. As coaches we must first ensure they are processing what we tell them.

“Whether it’s visual, audible, kinaesthetic or tactile methods of teaching, we have to be careful about overloading them.”

Looking back on his spell at Liverpool’s Academy from 11 to 16, Djagba is self-aware when it comes to assessing how he slipped away from the top end of his age group prior to his release.

He hopes that experience will make him a more understanding coach. “At a younger age I was physically dominant, and this helped me stand out, but from 14 onwards things levelled out,” he admits.

“It is so important to look beyond power and pace. These players also need to sharpen up their technique and all-round tools, as in the long run they may not be able to rely on physicality.

“If I had worked harder on my core technique, I’d have been a better footballer. Now, when I see big, fast, strong boys I always make sure they don’t neglect other areas.”

Liverpool journey

When Djagba joined his mother in Liverpool during August 2005, he did not speak a word of English.

However, within a month, Liverpool scout John McNab had identified his potential and invited the French-speaking youngster for a six-week trial. Within a fortnight he had signed a deal until the end of the season.

“I have so many brilliant memories of my five years at the Academy,” says Djagba. “For the first three years I was right up there, but when Sterling joined us from QPR I quickly realised how difficult it was going to be to make it.

“We got on well. He was on the left wing, I was on the right, but Raheem’s level was above everyone else tactically, technically, and physically. He was a freak!”

At Under-15 level, Djagba’s head coach was Mike Marsh, now assistant manager at Preston North End.

In his final season at the club, former Nottingham Forest head coach Steve Cooper (below) was his manager.

“Watching Mike Marsh, Steve Cooper and also Pep Lijnders (now Jurgen Klopp’s assistant) at work was an education. They were all brilliant for different reasons and I have tried to take bits from each of them into my own coaching.

“I loved the way Marshy relates to players. He used to make me feel 10 feet tall. He could tell right away if a player wasn’t feeling right, and consistently made a point of making that player feel better within a session.

“Sometimes we’re all guilty of focusing too much on the tactical stuff but we're dealing with human beings who all have ups and downs. Being able to identify that, and to show empathy, is a key skill for a coach.

“Marshy loved working on transitions too, and that’s something else I like to bring into my sessions. He taught me the value of doing opposed work in game-like situations, with and without the ball.”

Being a mentor

Mentoring players, who arrive at Everton from differing backgrounds, is another part of the job that appeals to Djagba and he already has one success story to report.

“I was speaking to the Under 11s coach recently about a Nigerian boy that’s joined his group. He told me David was shy and that his true personality wasn’t coming out,” he explains.

“We had a great conversation about my experiences at the outset with Liverpool, and how you can’t compare the lifestyle, upbringing, home life and values of a local-born player brought up on Merseyside with somebody like David of African origin.

“I know that David will have found it overwhelming at first, which is why he found it hard to express himself. We have to dig deeper and understand the reasons behind the characters and traits of our players.

“Since our chat the Under-11s coach hasn’t thought about David in the same way, which is great. From now on he is taking the time to speak to him more, finding out about his family life and interests outside of the Academy.

“Different types of boys will always come through the doors, and not all will speak English as their first language. I am always happy to mentor lads that have followed a similar pathway to myself. I want to be relatable and help in any way I can.”

Future aspirations 

Moving forward, Djagba aspires to become a first-team head coach, but for now he is content absorbing as much education as possible.

On the advice of Liverpool’s Academy Director Alex Inglethorpe and his colleagues at Everton, he is determined to gain all the education he needs to thrive as an elite head coach.

Busy going through his UEFA qualifications, tasting great experiences via the Premier League’s Coach Inclusion Diversity Scheme, and leading Everton’s under-10s, spare time is infrequent but he would not have it any other way.

“I don’t hold any regrets around my playing days, but sometimes I wonder how things might have been different had I knew all that I do now, back then,” he says.

“But I am truly focused on coaching now. I want to keep on learning, developing and growing. There are loads of inspirations out there too, as so many of today’s top coaches didn’t make it as professional players.

“It will take dedication and sacrifice, but my aim is to go as far as my ability will allow me to go in the world of coaching.”

Also in this series

Coaching insights part 2: Ed Brand
Coaching insights part 3: Unai Emery
Coaching insights part 4: Added time