His profession has never accompanied a conventional route – and now ex-Linfield striker Paul Munster has swapped India for the Pacific Islands as he maintains his worldwide soccer odyssey. The 37-12 months-vintage from Belfast, whose gambling and coaching career has covered spells in Canada, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Germany, has been appointed the country wide team manager of Vanuatu. Currently 163rd within the Fifa international scores and with a population of approximately 276,000 – almost four,000 much less than that in their new supervisor’s home metropolis – it is perhaps unsurprising that Vanuatu turned into not previously on Munster’s managerial radar. “To be sincere, I needed to do a seek on Google to discover exactly wherein the usa is,” Munster admits. “But after I saw the job turned into available and did a few studies, I really preferred the look of it. There were over a hundred and eighty applicants for the location and I had to do Skype interviews with the Vanuatu Football Federation, who’re very bold. “They have given me a totally loose rein to do the process my personal manner and, as I’m also in charge of the below-23 and below-20 teams, I can truly placed my personal stamp on matters.”
Munster took the Vanuatu activity soon after resigning as head teach and technical director of Indian pinnacle-flight membership Minerva Punjab FC, in which he gained two trophies all through seven months in fee.
He has wasted little time in attending to work on gaining knowledge of gamers and could be very clear about the important thing objectives in his new function.
“I see this as a 3-yr assignment with the most important aim being qualification for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar,” the previous Slavia Prague forward defined.
“It’s something the united states has by no means done earlier than so I realise the dimensions of the task, but different smaller nations have achieved it so that you have to consider it can happen.
“I need to growth our Fifa rating to a hundred and fifty or higher and, in the shorter term, we have the Nations Cup to look forward to after some friendlies in June. Our underneath-23s will also have the qualifiers for the 2020 Olympics beginning soon.
“I’ve watched lots of videos to evaluate the squad and we have a few decent players. Eight or 9 of the panel play outdoor Vanuatu, in countries along with Australia and New Zealand, whilst I also plan to introduce some new faces.”
Two flights and a 9,000-mile trip to new ‘domestic’
After resigning from Minerva Punjab in February, Munster had returned to live in Sweden – where he had been a participant and instruct – and it became from here that he made the 9,000-mile journey to the South Pacific. He is unfazed by way of the touring and has found it less complicated to settle in his new surroundings than he did in India, wherein his dislike of highly spiced food turned into a chief venture. “I assume once you’ve got lived in India, you may live anywhere,” Munster stated. “My female friend and I are living in a lovable villa with a pool, that is only a 5-minute walk from the countrywide stadium in Port Vila. The climate is excellent and I’ve already had plenty of pals getting into contact asking if they can come and live with us. “I’ve in no way been afraid to tackle new challenges, which include this one. I see them as an opportunity in place of a hazard and, whilst you don’t forget I’m an worldwide supervisor at the age of 37, it truly is now not too terrible at all.” While he’s a long way from home, Munster targets to instil what he describes as a “Northern Ireland mentality” into his new players. “Developing an ‘us towards the sector’ ethos has helped the Northern Ireland team punch above their weight, and that is what I want to do with Vanuatu.”
