Johnny Mckinstry has been the head coach of the national team Amavubi since March 2015. He has 15 years of coaching experience and is the first coach to take the national team to the Quarter finals of the African Nations Championship. He talked to Sharon Kantengwa about his coaching experience and Rwanda’s performance on the CHAN games.

Tell us about yourself.

I am originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom. At 18, I left to go to University in England where I studied sports science in Newcastle and I moved to full time football at the age of 21. I worked in New York for three years for the New York Red Bulls which has had famous players like Thierry Henry and former Australia captain Tim Cahill. I later on got an opportunity to come to Africa but the key reason was to set up a football academy in Sierra Leone for Welsh former footballer Craig Bellamy. I was in Sierra Leone for 5 years before I coached the national team. We did well in Sierra Leone which led to the opportunity here in Rwanda.

How do you find the Rwandan culture and the environment?

I have been in 18 different African countries over the last 6 years and Rwanda in many ways is unique. I don’t think there is any city in Africa that is as organised as Kigali. People who have come to visit me in Rwanda say it doesn’t seem like Africa to them because traffic, power cuts, lack of water, insanitation, are not really a problem here.

Have you tried Rwandan beers?

The malt beers that are made here are quite good and there is a range. Virunga is quite strong but some of the others like Skol and Primus are good.

How has your experience working with Amavubi been like?

There have been so many ups and downs but the major disappointment was existing early in the world cup qualifiers to Libya. That was a game that we feel we underperformed but outside of that, I think everything has been positive. Some people look at some of the friendly results where we lost a few friendly games but they need to understand that friendly games are there to develop the team. It is more important that we take this team to tournaments and get them qualified for major tournaments and give opportunity to the young players. Overall we won our first competitive game against Mozambique, against Ghana-one of the super powers of African football and we did so well to go to the finals CECAFA and then to go to the quarter finals as CHAN. We have been taking steps in the right direction and it’s an advanced stage in Rwandan football far than has been in recent years. Our big target is now to qualify for the CAN (African cup of nations) competition in Gabon next year and I am very confident that we have the qualities.

How did you feel about the tremendous turn up of fans for the tournament?

Sometimes people talk negative about the Amavubi and it’s easy for the supporters to buy into it, but they came out into numbers and packed the stadium not only for the Rwandan games but also for other games which is unusual for other CHAN games where as soon as the host game is out, the support goes down. That was a really important thing for the players to feel the love and affection from the Rwandan people and they gave it back and I think that the supporters could see that the players gave their best because they weren’t playing just for themselves but for everyone in Rwanda. The support was fantastic and gave a good image about Rwanda to the outside world.

What’s your take on soccer being branded a macho game?

Physically football is the most demanding sport but it doesn’t require one to have a macho image but physical strength and mental toughness. This is because there are so many demands on football and to cope with a lot of pressures, you need to be mentally tough.

Any tips for the aspiring soccer coaches?

Coaching is a bit of a thankless job because if the team wins, alot of credit is given to the players and if it loses, it’s the coach to blame. I do it because I love doing it and give someone an extra skill that they didn’t have previously. The people who want to do coaching have to make sure they are passionate about it and not for money or attention and it also takes time to perfect it.