A combination of hard work, preparation and self-belief are key for any managerial career but in the case of Johnathan McKinstry, the ability to adapt and take risks have been equally fundamental.
In 2013, the Northern Irishman – then aged 27 - brought a meticulously researched dossier into an interview for his first senior managerial role and by the end of the selection process, Sierra Leone confirmed him as the youngest manager in international football.
McKinstry had moved to the Western African nation three years earlier, being appointed technical director of the Craig Bellamy academy after being an academy coach with the New York Red Bulls.
He immersed himself in the culture of Sierra Leone, spoke Creole and watched its football and players religiously, so when Lars-Olof Mattson resigned as the nation’s head coach – McKinstry was well-placed to secure his first managerial break.
“It was the case of being in the right place at the right time,” he recalled to Mirror Football.
“I was living and working in the country, I knew the language and had been following the team and the players closely – so there were minimal logistical costs for the FA to say yes to me.
“For a coach you always need that little bit of luck for your first break, but you never know when these opportunities will crop up and you have to be prepared to accept them when they arise.
“Sometimes you think you would be much better suited to the job in one or two years, but you have to realise this chance might never come again – so you need to be ready to say yes and adapt to that.
“Over 60 per cent of managers only ever have one job – so you need to start winning straight away and if you don’t, then you might not get another chance.
“I was fortunate enough to have a great coaching team behind me and the way we approached the situation and prepared for games allowed us to enjoy some good results and success.”
Under McKinstry, the Leone Stars broke into the top 50 of the FIFA World Rankings for the first time but just as timing had provided the Lisburn-native with his first big break, it would later derail his early coaching career.
A devastating outbreak of Ebola paralysed the nation and heavily disrupted the national team’s preparations as they were forced to play all their matches in neighbouring nations.
Sierra Leone found opposition players who refused to shake their hands, hotels who refused to accommodate them, governments who reluctantly allowed them entry – while they were also subject to cruel chants from opposition fans about the virus in their homeland.
McKinstry refused to walk away as he believed he had a duty of care to the players but in September 2014, 19 months after his appointment, he received an email to notify him of his dismissal after results had, inevitably, slowed.
Yet McKinstry left a legacy in the nation far beyond the short-term successes thanks to his role at the Craig Bellamy Academy, which brought kids playing street football into a structured coaching environment.
One such player was Mustapha Bundu, who started all three matches at this year’s AFCON for Sierra Leone – having not been born the last time they qualified 26 years ago.
The striker is currently on loan at Danish club Aarhus from Belgian giants Anderlecht and is one of the multiple success stories that McKinstry and other coaches oversaw.
McKinstry's work in Sierra Leone did not go unnoticed and within six months he had landed the managerial position at Rwanda.
Again, the results were immediate: in his first competitive match, McKinstry guided Rwanda to their first away win in four years with a 1–0 victory over Mozambique in the opening round of 2017 African Nations Cup qualifying.
In the 2015 CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup, McKinstry was named Coach of the Tournament after masterminding Rwanda’s wins over hosts Ethiopia, alongside previous finalists Kenya and Sudan before being edged out in the final by Uganda.
The following year, McKinstry oversaw Rwanda’s progress to the knockout stages of a major tournament for the first time ever as they reached the quarter-finals of the African Nations Championship before being edged out by their big neighbours DR Congo.
Despite being handed a contract extension through to 2018 and enjoying a 44 per cent win rate from his 25 games in charge, McKinstry was dismissed in August 2016.
“Every environment presents its own unique set of challenges, and if you are going into a foreign setting then you need to be able to adapt quickly,” McKinstry added.
He went on to coach Lithuanian outfit Kauno Zalgiris before spending a year at Bangladeshi side Saif SC, continuing his Globe-trotting reputation.
He continued: “Having the jobs are remarkable rewarding; to be working with young professionals who have big aspirations and helping them to reach their goals.
“For the vast majority of players and coaches, you are privileged to have a job that you actually enjoy and thrive at – those are what keeps pushing you on.
“When you have success in football, it is remarkable how quickly your mind turns to the next challenge and to thinking about how you can maintain that level.”
In 2019, McKinstry fought off competition from 136 other applicants to land another notable African position – boss of Uganda.
The Cranes won all six of their matches at the CECAFA Cup as McKinstry landed his first piece of managerial silverware and his 12 victories from 18 matches at the helm, before departing last year.
McKinstry began coaching aged just 15 and insisted to his career teachers in school that football coaching was his ambition: it was what he excelled at and was what he set his heart on.
Three years later, he left his home in Northern Ireland to study sports science at Northumbria University but spent much of his spare time building contacts in coaching and studying various methods.
The next step in McKinstry’s career path is unclear, but he will not rush into any decision and insists that any move will be based on the scope and potential of any project.
“Manager and club relationships are a bit like food recipes, you need to get the right ingredients if the combination is going to work,” he explained.
“That is the same as building a squad of players or even a coaching team, they need to be able to be a good fit for the environment they are in.
“If you look at David Moyes, he might not have been a good fit at Manchester United or in Spain with Real Sociedad but he was the perfect fit at Everton and now again at West Ham.
“I always hear about ‘bad’ managers and ‘bad’ players, but the truth is almost always that they just are not in the right environment.
“Angel di Maria did not work at Manchester United, but he was a great fit at Paris Saint-Germain.
“From my perspective, I present to clubs or FAs who I am and what I can bring to that club so we need to find out if that is the right ingredient for who they are and what they need.
“Coaches will have positions come up that are a great fit for them, but there are plenty of bad jobs or bad relationships that you can encounter – and that can damage your reputation or your self-belief.”
McKinstry is currently in Spain, where he has set down roots as a base for between coaching roles or to relax – it is the first non-work dependent location since leaving education.
Working on improving his Spanish, McKinstry hopes this will open the doors not only for roles within the country but also in Central America or South America.
McKinstry - who is a member of Juan Mata’s Common Goal initiative - has been utilising his time away from the pressures of day-to-day management to improve his knowledge and understanding of player welfare and emotional wellbeing.
“When I did my pro license, the Irish FA put a big emphasis on mental health – which is to their credit,” he said.
“But that was more focused on how coaches deal with their own pressures rather than how you can manage the players in that sense.
“The personal aspects undoubtedly have an impact on the professional side of things and that is something that more people are starting to realise.
“I have had experiences where a player has had a newborn child that passed away, which is obviously a traumatic experience for anyone.
“But because of their cultural background they saw themselves as the breadwinner of the family, so even though they were offered and encouraged to return home for a few weeks by us - because we felt it was important for them to recuperate.
“That is something that for many people, including from a UK background, find it difficult to empathise with or understand – but depending on your cultural expectation, players have different norms.”
A boyhood fan of Newcastle United, McKinstry dreams of one day coaching the Magpies or his native Northern Ireland.
Hard work and aspirations are one thing but the Ulsterman knows as well as anyone that timing and circumstances are everything in football, with his eclectic coaching career having many chapters still left to be written.
