Simplicity Is The Key, That’s Annie’s Secret (Annie Zaidi interview)

Annie Zaidi, who coaches the Under-11s at Leicester City’s Girls’ Centre of Excellence and chairs the Black and Asian Coaches Association, explains that she used to play but that in her traditional Asian-Muslim-Pakistani community women’s football was taboo, raising a few eyebrows. She reasoned that if they took her boots and ball away, the one thing they could not tamper with was her passion, and that coaching was the next best thing. Working towards her UEFA B licence with FA bursary support, she describes coaching as teaching on the pitch and credits BACA co-founder Wallace Hermitt for seeing potential in her when national and local organisations would not take her seriously. Told to become a student of the game rather than a player of it, she reads widely.