Simon Clifford
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Simon Darcy Clifford | ||
| Date of birth | 1970 (age 46–47) | ||
| Place of birth | Loftus, Middlesbrough, England | ||
| Teams managed | |||
| Years | Team | ||
| 2004–2009 | Garforth Town | ||
| 2012 | Garforth Town | ||
Simon Darcy Clifford is an English football coach, and a businessman known for introducing Brazilian training techniques into the UK with his Brazilian Soccer Schools.
Brought up in Loftus, Redcar and Cleveland, he moved to Leeds to study at the age of eighteen. It was there that he started his teaching career in a primary school. He began training the children of the school using techniques derived from Brazilian football. He soon began an after school club that would become the first of a now worldwide chain of soccer schools. In 1997, he borrowed £5000 from a teachers' union to fund a trip to Brazil, where he spoke with Zico and Rivelino, and watched them coach. Having developed a close friendship with Brazil midfielder Juninho, Clifford used the knowledge he had learned and his own initiative to create a syllabus.
Once back in England, Clifford blended his academic knowledge of coaching and his experience as a teacher to develop his own coaching programme. In 1998, he started a Brazilian-style soccer school for youngsters in Leeds, teaching Brazilian skills as well as introducing his students to futebol de salão, unheard of in England at the time.
Clifford then set out to train his first batch of young footballers with his new methods, with a notably different philosophy, preferring to concentrate on improving ball skills and close control and an even greater emphasis on fitness and physical strength. He has since expanded his "Brazilian Soccer Schools" school franchise to other regions and countries, even expanding overseas to the likes of Hong Kong, Nigeria, South Africa, United States, Australia, the Netherlands, Thailand, Canada, Malaysia, Bermuda, Singapore, Mexico and Poland.
Clifford is well regarded in the football industry; however, he failed to emerge onto the professional scene after being recruited by Sir Clive Woodward in December 2004, to become his assistant coach at Southampton. After falling out with the coaching establishment there, he returned to his own non-league club, Garforth Town, as manager.
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