Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Doha: AFC-groomed coach Wisam Shamil Kamil of Iraq is making great strides in his football coaching career and is thankful to the AFC for all the coaching experience and knowledge he has gained.
The 29-year-old (pictured) is now happily coaching the U-15 team of El Jaish SC in Qatar since June this year, the same team he has been managing since last year when they were the U-14 team.
His side won the youth league last year, reached the semi-finals of the Qatar (U-14) Cup and experienced European football having had training camps in Spain and Italy.
In December 2012, Shamil received an English FA advanced international coaching certificate and later in January this year was awarded the AFC ‘A’ Coaching Certificate, a step away from the highest coaching credential in the continent, the AFC Professional Coaching Diploma, commonly known as the Pro Diploma.
All these good things came after finishing his two-year coaching training under the AFC Project Future Coaches programme, where he was a member of Batch 2008.
After two years of hard work and intensive training, Kamil and his batch mates graduated from the AFC programme in 2010 with a ‘B’ Coaching Certificate and in August of 2011 landed his youth coach job with his current employer El Jaish.
And it is not only Kamil who has had a taste of continental things. His club’s senior team itself participated in the continent's flagship club competition, the AFC Champions League, in the round of 16 this year.
“I think all my achievements so far are the results because of the path that I took thanks to the experience in the AFC coaching courses and the AFC Project Future Coaches programme,” Kamil told The-AFC.com.
“The foreign attachment programmes under Project Future Coaches exposed me to the different cultures and philosophies and these help me a lot in my career and motivate me in my coaching journey.
“I think the Project Future Coaches programme gave me and my batch mates new strengths in coaching. It helped me a lot in getting the useful information and knowledge and understanding of football.
“I remember every point that we discussed in the practical sessions or theoretical classes. They are just unforgettable moments,” said Kamil, who also had senior team coaching experience when he handled an Air Force team who played in a military league.
The AFC Project Future Coaches programme has produced a number of new generation quality young coaches who have gone on to a wide array of coaching assignments from coaching clubs locally or overseas to heading a youth team in a national football training development programme.