Should Liam Rosenior achieve success at Chelsea, it could pave the way for more black coaches to manage in elite leagues… and the KickOff international team explains why.
When Rosenior was appointed as Blues boss in January, replacing Enzo Maresca, he became only the club’s second black manager after Dutch football legend Ruud Gullit, who managed the club between 1996-1998 as a player-manager.
The latter was the first-ever black person to manage in the Premier League and Rosenior becomes the 10th.
Despite black players accounting for 43% of Premier League footballers, a 2022 report published by the Black Footballers Partnership found that only 4.4% of the managerial positions by former players was occupied by black applicants.
An African manager is yet to coach a club in the English Premier League, although Dakar-born Frenchman Patrick Viera previously managed Crystal Palace between 2021-2023.
While there is no shortage of diversity in Europe’s top five leagues and in English football on the pitch, the lack of diversity in management points to a reluctance and perhaps even discrimination when it comes to achieving diversity in the boardroom of clubs.
There will be heavy expectations on Rosenior, and he is the first black manager to be in charge of a club in the English top-flight, which is in a good position to challenge for and win trophies.
Given that he took charge midway through the campaign, a top four finish this season would lay a good platform for next term.
The former fullback is also armed with the knowledge and experience required to succeed. As a player, he featured for England at youth level and had a respectable playing career, mainly featuring in the English Championship between two stints in the Premier League with Fulham and Hull City.
With that said, Rosenior does have a big task on his hands to fully win over the Blues fanbase given that he has not previously managed an elite club or had a playing career in the most prestigious competitions, with most of the club’s former managers having achieved one of the two.
One thing that works in his favour is that he has done the hard yards and was not parachuted into a top job. Before taking charge of the Blues, he had spells at Derby County, Hull City and most recently Strasbourg, who are also owned by BlueCo — the parent company of Chelsea.
A student of the game, he was always destined for management, so much so that at the age of 10, he drew a picture of himself as a football manager, not as a player.
“Not as a player,” he told the Athletic in 2022. “As a manager. That’s why, to me, it feels like my calling, my goal in life. And not just to be a manager, but a successful manager.”
Source: KickOff
