Good leadership has the potential to fill voids, while poor leadership exposes the cracks. The role of strong leadership is identifiable when it is missing and easily ignored when present. A common mistake made is to replicate examples of strong leadership, which is a mistake. Like everything else in life leadership does not exist in a vacuum and is dependent on its
environment at the time. 

The global political realm appears to be in a time-warp as they attempt to resurrect leadership qualities of old instead of re-imagining and adapting to current society. A longing for the leadership of historical figures such as Albert Luthuli and Abraham Lincoln or the more recent Barack Obama, Xi Jinpin and Paul Kagame still occupy the imagination. As great as they were, when reflecting on their impact the environment and era of their emergence into positions of power should not be ignored. Arguably, the image and style of this type of leader was the singular, ‘strongman’ type. This piece aims to challenge this type of leadership as being outdated, through the unconventional sphere of society, sport, and more specifically soccer or football.

The use of sport as a means to make this point can be easily dismissed but just like politics sport is a representation of society and is extremely political. We have seen the presence of politics in sport throughout history, examples being the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City with the raised fists of Tommie Smith and John Carlos or; both the 1995 and 2019 South African Springbok World Cup winning teams. With that said I will look at the evolution of leadership in football and how the most successful teams have embraced such. I acknowledge that money and size of clubs plays an important role if it is to draw talent and the resources
available to maximise on talent but, leadership in the form of coaching is just as important.

My point of departure is the post-social media footballer versus the pre-social media footballer. To be clear, I am not about to make the all too common and misguided argument that the youth or millennials and Gen-Z(ers) are an impossible, lazy and apathetic bunch and good leaders are aware of that and are able to manipulate this. Instead, the presence of social media and the platforms provided by the internet age (blogs, podcasts etc.) have had a tangible impact which the pre-social media generation did not have. Firstly, the ability to build and/or mobilise around a cause or issue. Racism has been prevalent throughout the history of football, the difference now is that players are able to mobilise and voice their concerns without feeling or being isolated. Secondly, modern footballers arguably represent a more emancipated group than their predecessors, however slight that may be. Due to the
internet and social media age they are able to explore and pursue other means of income  and not solely rely on their respective clubs. And like any other sector the experience of a worker who is exclusively reliant on a salary are also subjected to unequal power dynamics.

I argue that the managers who have been able to adapt and positively react to the current environment that these generation of footballers are living and working appear to have built successful teams. If we consider the winners of the UEFA Champions League of the past 10 years: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Liverpool. The coaches of these teams have been Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Zinedine Zidane, Roberto Di Matteo, Jupp Heynckes, Carlo Ancelotti, Jürgen Klopp and Hansi Flick. Let’s begin by stating the obvious. Yes these are extremely wealthy clubs and therefore have the financial power to attract the best talent, but so are the Manchester teams and PSG but they are nowhere to be seen. Secondly, the tactical genius of the possession-based Tiki Taka style made popular by the 2008 – 12 Barcelona team under Pep Guardiola or the high intensity style played by Klopps
Liverpool of course played a key role in the achievements of their respective teams but let us not under value the leadership exhibited as well.

The image of the imposing, feared and almost dictatorial coach has somewhat disappeared with Alex Ferguson, Arsené Wenger. It can be argued that there are still remnants of this style in José Mourinho or Antonio Conte but both have shown degrees of evolution as their careers have progressed. Instead, modern day managers reveal the value of developing a strong team. Jürgen Klopp has had Peter Kraweitz by his side since his time at Mainz, Pep Guardiola had the late Tito Vilanova from his time as Barcelona B manager throughout his era at Barcelona. And Bayern coach Flick himself was assistant to German manager Joachim
Löw and is credited for masterminding the 7-1 victory over Brazil in the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The ability, humbleness and confidence it takes to accept one’s deficiencies and surround yourself with people with the required capabilities is rare but as we see from their successes rewarding.

This type of leadership that is appreciative of the collective knowledge and ability has shown to be irreplaceable for successful teams. And this is not without recognising that football clubs like other organisations do employ some of the most accomplished in medicine, nutrition and understanding of the game. However, the ability to channel all of these inputs into a vision that correctly positions players to produce their best is leadership exhibited by the abovementioned coaches.

A further dynamic that has emerged out the post-social media era has been player profile eclipsing club profile. The rise of an individual that occupies the imagination of society and eclipses the organisation is not a new occurrence. This was further exhibited in South Africa with President Cyril Ramaphosa, prior to the election he received higher leadership ratings than the African National Congress (ANC). We continue to see this in football through the popularity of players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Mohammed Salah, Lionel Messi and Paul Pogba to name a few. This occurrence of a player growing beyond the game has happened before as was the case with David Beckham but the regularity of this is a thing of this era. The idea of an individual being bigger than the club is often frowned upon due to the negative perceptions associated. 

However, the beforementioned managers have been able to show that this does not need to be a mutually exclusive relationship. Their ability to motivate and make players realise that personal success is connected to club success is immeasurable as it ensures a happy locker-room as well as broader financial success. The relationship building or man management component was captured by Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum, he indicated in an interview that Klopp’s management style was crucial to his decision to join the team. Why does it appear that the political sphere appears
to be more resistant to evolution?

Just like in the world of sport and football the political ecosystem should adapt if it is going to maintain a strong and mutually beneficial relationship with society (aka its players). A dearth in leadership in governance has been touted for some time now and is no better captured than by American President Donald Trump. His refusal to build a team based on capabilities, expertise and diversity in thought and experience has resulted in an erosion in American society and the entrenching of bi-polarity. Global leaders like Trump and many others can learn from the successful European football clubs. Their ability to adapt and recognise that the game today can no longer lean on a single figure as a custodian of knowledge to achieve success. Furthermore, the players can no longer just be viewed as employees. Their input and investment in the project is just as crucial to long-term success
as is world class facilities and expertise. The governance realm would do better to realise that the current era requires a different type of leadership, just like football we are no longer interested in surrendering and being blindly faithful. Invite in society (the players) to participate and engage, provide us with the means to do this and we will also create a winning team.