By Staff Reporter
Silver Strikers Football Club head coach Hendrikus Pieter de Jongh has today formally released for sale a book that tells a story about his football coaching career.
According to De Jongh, the book which is titled “The Champ” also has some chronicles of his experience with Malawi football.
The title of the book comes from the nickname ‘The Champ’ which is a short form for The Champion which he earned while in Zimbabwe due to the numerous silverwares he won during his stay in the country.
According to De Jongh, he was inspired to write the book to reflect on his journey and achievements during his coaching career as well responding to several well known authors who contacted and encouraged him to document his life as a football coach
“One time an author flew all the way from Europe to my house in Kenya asking me to write a book about my coaching journey.
“So i have bowed down to pressure from him as well as thousands of social media followers who acknowledge my influence in the beautiful game of football. I am a big influencer back in Holland. I am a Tik-Taka kind of football coach, i have included that in the book. So far i have already sold a lot of copies through pre-orders,”he said.
On the inclusion of Malawi in some pages of his book, De Jongh said regardless of the fact that he has had a short stay in the country he has seen a few interesting things that were worth noting and including in his book.
“I came here and observed a lot of things about the game and how it is played over here. I have written about the fans, the weather this side and everything to do with how football is run in this country,” he added.
The book which is currently in Dutch is expected to be translated into the queens language for the English audience. Currently, about 6000 copies have already been sold online.
Meanwhile, a documentary highlighting his coaching career is also in the offing for the world to see.
The Dutch who holds a UEFA A coaching license has had a coaching career spanning from the early 1990’s as a Youth team coach until now. De Jongh has been a coach for Botswana and Somali national football teams, Director of football at the Rwandan Football Association, head coach for clubs such as FC Platinum and Highlanders Fc in Zimbabwe as well as AFC Leopards in Kenya among others.
During his tenure in Zimbabwe, he managed to win the Chibuku Super Cup in 2019 for Highlanders FC before moving to FC Platinum where he guided them to win the Castle Challenge Cup.
He came to Malawi in February this year to take up the Head Coach role at Silver Strikers ahead of the 2023 football season.
