Australian Matt Ross has endured a painstaking path in the world of coaching and the South Korea assistant speaks to aleagues.com.au’s Sacha Pisani about his journey.
Imagine you and your wife packed your bags, left steady jobs and everything behind, and jetted off to a country where you didn’t speak the language nor had a CV that stacked up in a different vocation? All this for your husband to pursue his ultimate dream abroad.
Coaching careers are difficult, even at the best of times. Throw in the fact you’re an unproven Australian without any real meaningful playing experience looking to make it overseas and it’s an uphill battle. And it makes this story even more remarkable.
Matt Ross and his wife, both teachers, risked it all.
But that didn’t deter the linesman-turned-teacher-turned-bus driver-turned-coach, who’s gone on to celebrate Champions League glory, coach in Germany and Sweden, while helping South Korea conquer his native Australia at the Women’s Asian Cup.
Speaking to KEEPUP, the South Korea assistant coach – who worked as a teacher for 17 years before landing his first full-time coaching role in 2018 – said: “The achievements and steps I’ve made, personally are very rewarding, even the fact I could walk into the school in Frankfurt and say I’m not going to teach anymore because I have a full-time job in Sweden.
“It was this huge leap and something very rewarding. From the outside, coach gets a job in the first division women’s club in Sweden, it’s not such a big deal, there’s thousands of coaches like that. But I think the coaches with the way I’ve developed through, we don’t know any other way. We know we don’t have a reputation to rely on. We know we don’t have trophies as a player in the bag.
“I’ve seen it when I’ve worked at clubs, that only buys you four-six weeks, you come in as a top player and if the players don’t feel you’ve got it as a coach, you’ll be out the door anyway. It helps get the foot in the door but doesn’t guarantee any longevity in the game.”
2002 World Cup dreams dashed
A Hunter Valley native, Ross didn’t have much of a playing career and became a referee aged 13 – working his way up the state leagues before running the lines in the NSL as Ange Postecoglou was winning the league with South Melbourne.
Coaching was never on Ross’ radar until he became disillusioned with the profession – his dream of working at the 2002 World Cup dashed after being overlooked without explanation at the end of the 1999-00 season.
Ross didn’t even watch that showpiece FIFA event in South Korea-Japan, such was his frustration. He then tore his ACL during a brief return to the playing field. With officiating and playing out of the question, the 44-year-old turned to coaching.
However, Ross never expected coaching to be more than a hobby away from teaching.
“Coaching was an area I was starting at the bottom, I needed to learn the basics but I was a teacher and a lot of the skills are transferable – communication (is) not a problem, being organised and prepared, feedback from students/players,” he said.
“It was kind of logical but never really ‘this is going to be my career’. I always thought I’d be a teacher and coach part-time just to be in the game. It was only 2010-11 … I did a C license in Singapore and B license in Cambodia, where I was on courses with ex-national team players and high-profile coaches in that region. I could feel my sessions were well planned and structured, and the information I was giving the players were as good as somebody who was doing it full-time.
“I thought maybe this is somewhere where it could be a career. Maybe I’m not too bad at this and it ran from there.”
Ross added: “That was the initial push to go to Europe where the heart of football is and learn more about the game. It progressed from there.
“I was teaching full-time basically for 17 years until I moved to Sweden. That was the first full-time pro job I had. Even with Frankfurt, we got to the semi-finals of the Champions League and I was teaching 30 hours a week, the bell goes at three and then you’re off to coach in the Champions League and Bundesliga.
“It was hard to juggle but just one of those things I had to get through it, work hard to get the chance and then have success when you do get the chance, with the dream that one day you’ll get that offer that you can say this is my full-time job and that didn’t happen until 2018. It was a long journey.
“I can emphasise with coaches in Australia who are juggling full-time jobs and part-time coaching; all I can say is if you can get through that phase, like me now, I’m a full-time coach and I have my whole day to plan sessions, to review sessions, to talk to players etc. It’s much easier now in a sense while the pressure is more, the actual coaching – you have more time to do it properly. It was a difficult time to get through it but it was important to get through it and not stop.”
‘Dark days’: Driving a bus in Frankfurt with no coaching offers
After coaching children in the Northern Territory while teaching, Ross decided to take the plunge and relocate to Europe to pursue his dream of becoming a full-time professional coach.
He and his wife – also a teacher – sacrificed stable jobs, renting out their apartment and selling their car to fund Matt’s dream abroad.
Ross landed in Germany without knowing the language and with a CV and qualifications that didn’t hold up. While juggling life as the school bus driver in Frankfurt, he volunteered his services to more than 100 clubs in the region, but the response was always the same – silence.
It left Ross in a dark place, though his belief never wavered, even on those mornings driving a school bus through the German snow. He knew he had no option but to succeed.
“There were lots of dark days,” Ross said. “When I first moved to Germany, I was really fortunate that my wife was also a teacher. She was working full-time and I had the job as the school bus driver. I landed in Germany, couldn’t speak German and had a job that was difficult in itself. It was the morning and evening bus run with lots of things in between. So the opportunities to coach were zero.
“Travelling to clubs all around Frankfurt/Hessen area with zero responses. At least 100 clubs I knocked on the door and said I’m coach – I had my UEFA B license at the time and had a minimal CV in terms of what I’d done in Australia, which they didn’t even look at. I had an Asian B license and they said we basically don’t care about that. You don’t speak the language, you don’t have any experience in Europe. That was sort of a dark year.
“It was 12 months where I couldn’t even get a foot in the door to coach. I went from the boy’s nationals at Coffs Harbour 2011 and I didn’t get back on a pitch to coach until July 2013. That was a period where you’d gone to Europe to see if you could make it as a coach and really making any headway at all was really difficult. It was months and months of trying to make connections and networks, trying to learn the language to even get someone to talk to you.
“I came to a point about six months in, okay I have to reinvent myself here. I’m not going to get a gig as a coach. Okay, I’ll become a video analyst. Bought a MacBook, bought a video camera, taught myself sports code because I felt that was a way, I’ll just volunteer at a club just to get into the environment. Also, it didn’t mean the language problem would be so great. Frankfurt were the first club that said yeah we’ll let you come in as a volunteer video analyst and you can watch our next opponent, cut some clips, give us some advice on what they’re going do.
“That was the first step in. Once I got that, I had this feeling okay, you’re in at the bottom of the club, unpaid, not really in the coaching stuff but at least you’re in and around it. Maybe 18 months or a bit less of dark days where you didn’t know how it was going to run. We’d sacrificed a lot to do that. We quit really good jobs in Darwin. We had a really good lifestyle, I was with FNT [Football Northern Territory]. I could’ve stayed there. We rented out the apartment, sold the car, We did a lot of things to take this gamble for me. So I felt pressure that this can’t fail, I have to succeed.
“In those dark days, it just drove me. Even those days, I’m driving a bus in the snow at six in the morning, what is this? But there was something deep inside, this will work if I just keep going and it will be small steps and I’ll make mistakes where people aren’t really looking. You see players go straight into coaching and it’s high profile, whether it be NPL or A-Leagues and you’re failing or making mistakes on national TV, where there’s media and scrutiny. I was making mistakes and coaching in the amateur leagues, the fourth division – where you could get away with it, not get away with but learn and the consequences weren’t so great.”
Re-invented and a Champions League winner
Once he got that foot in the door at Bundesliga women’s outfit FFC Frankfurt (now known as Eintracht Frankfurt), Ross never looked back.
Still juggling life as a teacher, bus driver and an upaid volunteer analyst, Ross worked his way up at Frankfurt and was part of the backroom staff when the club won the Women’s Champions League in 2015.
It was a “complete whirlwind” period for Ross, who quickly went from analyst to assistant and then head coach at Frankfurt, where he worked with Matildas star Emily van Egmond.
“That season [Frankfurt won the Champions League] I was video analyst and opposition scout. I’d be flying around Europe to watch the next opponent in the Champions League. Even that in itself was a huge thing, I’m scouting European teams,” Ross said.
“At that point, I was coaching the U17s, and working and doing an A license. It was crazy in itself. The Champions League final was unbelievable. Capacity stadium in Berlin against PSG and win it in the last minute. It’s one of those things, it’s a once-in-a-life-time experience. The next step, at the end of the season, the head coach had asked me to join as assistant. I was then coming in from the 17s to then my first real experience in a professional environment… Emily van Egmond was there at the time and all the German superstars, legends of German football. It was such a steep learning curve.”
Started from the bottom, now we’re here
Ross was thrust into the hotseat the following season when head coach Colin Bell departed for Avaldsnes IL.
Initially caretaker, Ross earned the full-time job thanks to a 4-1 Bundesliga rout of Hoffenheim in February 2016.
“Nine games in, it was a rocky start to the season, Colin Bell said he was going to Norway and said if I wanted to take over. I said yeah,” Ross recalled. “The owner said to take over for the three games before the winter break. Won the first two games and lost the last one. There was no time to reflect, it was this treadmill of sessions, players, matches, winning games, it was just relentless.
“After the winter break, it was all up in the air, I was just the caretaker coach but I noticed in the media there was nothing in the media about who might come in. I thought maybe I have a chance to get this properly. The first game after the break, the owner just said win this game and we’ll give you the deal until the end of the season. So played Hoffenheim and won 4-1. In the press conference and you’re announced as the head coach of Frankfurt. I never really appreciated it until we had the 2020 lockdown and had the time to reflect.”
As head coach, Ross guided Frankfurt to the Champions League semi-finals, eliminated by powerhouse Wolfsburg. He was in charge for almost two years before being relieved of his duties three games into the new season in 2017.
“The feeling of disappointment was huge [after losing in the semis] because you won it the year before and wanted to win it again. It’s not until a year or two ago that you look back, semi-finals of the Champions League, it’s an out-of-body experience,” he said.
Behind the Matildas’ demise
Ross briefly joined Swedish outfit Vittsjo GIK and became coach of China’s Under-15 women’s national team in 2019. Since 2020, he has been working as South Korea’s assistant, reuniting with Bell.
Continuing to walk his own path and break down barriers, Ross has helped galvanise a promising nation, while taking down his own country.
South Korea sent shockwaves through women’s football when they upstaged Asian Cup favourites the Matildas in the quarter-finals.
It was a remarkable tournament for South Korea, who not only reached the final but qualified for next year’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
What was it like conquering the country of his birth?
“I was just beyond delighted,” Ross said. “That’s not an anti-Matildas comment, that was World Cup qualification for us, my contract – that was the clause in the contract, the extension – make the World Cup and you can stay. There was so much riding on that game personally and as a team.
“I’ve grown up watching the Socceroos and Matildas as an Australian fan but there was a part of it that was extra sweet too. To beat the Matildas, they’re one of the top teams in women’s football. Obviously coached Emily and had a few little connections around the place… Even the small point. I’m a foreign coach in Korea but the Matildas have a foreign coach [Tony Gustavsson], so there were lots of little things that made it special.
“It was interesting even after the game, the staff from our team and some players said, ‘Oh Matt, are you okay, you beat Australia? Are you alright?’. I said I feel fantastic. Semi-finals, we’ve made the World Cup. Don’t worry about how I feel. I’m more than fine to beat the Matildas.
“We needed it as a national team because we lost Olympic qualifiers to China. We needed a scalp against a top team. As a coaching staff we know how good the players are but we doubted that they actually believed it. We had a draw against Japan which was good, but we just needed to come off the pitch as a winner against a top team. So to beat the Matildas, hopefully a real catalyst for us to push on and believe we can beat these top teams. Really sweet on a lot of levels, personally very sweet.”
Stajcic fuelling Matt’s desire
Ross and South Korea have a World Cup to look forward to, and preparations are well underway.
While the 2023 tournament is at the forefront, Ross is thinking about his next move as he eyes a return to head coaching and he’s open to working closer to home – the Matildas.
“It’s impossible to predict,” Ross said when asked about his future. “In the next few weeks the UEFA Pro license will be finished.
“At the end of the World Cup, I’d have three years as an assistant with a national team. For me, it would be time to look at going back into head coach of a national team or top club, be that men’s or women’s football. The journey has taken me into women’s football just by whatever factor. Sliding doors moment with Frankfurt taking me on. There’s a part of me, a curiosity can I work in men’s football? I’m confident I can but until you do it.
“Like you see [Philippines head coach and former Matildas boss Alen] Stajcic with Central Coast Mariners, it was just brilliant, which I hope has broken down this idea that he’s just a women’s football coach because he did such a good job with the Mariners. Football is too big, too wide, I don’t have a fixed point. International football I love.”
