Alex Clapham was on the brink of taking a role as an assistant manager at a Championship side when the opportunity to work for Borussia Dortmund arrived. The call was so unexpected that his first instinct was to inform his wife that the job would take them to Germany instead of England, a moment he recounts to Sky Sports with a mixture of excitement and disbelief.
Fortunately for the couple, the German adventure turned out to be a rewarding experience. Over the next 18 months Clapham served as Dortmund's set‑piece specialist, learning the ropes at a club that regularly draws the largest crowds in European football. "It was insane to be operating at that level," the 37‑year‑old admits, "and it certainly wasn’t always a smooth ride." He describes a particularly chaotic six‑month spell under interim manager Nuri Şahin, which included a Champions League encounter with Real Madrid.
Dortmund surged to a 2‑0 lead before eventually succumbing 5‑2, an episode that left Clapham with "an atmosphere I have never lived before – the most intense I have seen outside Dortmund itself." The German stint also featured high‑stakes matches against Barcelona and the ever‑looming rivalry with Bayern Munich. Yet for Clapham these fixtures were merely chapters in a broader odyssey that has already taken him from Getafe in Spain to Vasco da Gama in Brazil and on to Genoa in Italy. He now says he is ready for the next challenge, wherever it may be.
How does a young Englishman with no professional playing résumé end up in such elite circles? The answer lies in a decisive choice he made at 23 to abandon a modest playing career and pursue coaching full‑time. Frustrated by the limited coaching courses available in northern England, he travelled to Spain, where he completed every badge despite the high cost. "I was playing on muddy pitches and wasn’t enjoying it, so I switched to coaching but couldn’t get on the courses at home.
I almost gave up, but then I did all my qualifications in Spain – it was an expensive sacrifice, but it paid off," he explains. In Spain he was exposed to a radically different methodology. He recalls watching a Levante coach meticulously tweak players' body positions, all while delivering instructions in a language he was still learning. "The Spanish approach emphasizes psychology and technical detail – it was a whole new world," he says.
While living in Barcelona, Clapham worked full‑time as an English teacher and used the city’s metro to get to training sessions. His dedication paid off when, at just 30, he was appointed head coach of Getafe’s U‑19 side. Influenced by the tactical philosophies of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona and Marcelo Bielsa’s Bilbao, he also learned the importance of defensive solidity from Getafe boss José Bordalás, who favoured a compact shape and capitalised on set‑pieces.
Clapham often lingered after the first‑team training to observe the senior squad’s set‑piece routines. "I absorbed everything the staff did and later applied those concepts when I took a head‑coaching job in Sweden," he says. That Swedish experience opened doors to further collaborations, notably with Ian Burchnall, which eventually led to a stint at Notts County as a set‑piece coach.
From there he moved on to Southampton before becoming a travelling specialist for clubs owned by 777 Partners. In 2022 he arrived in Rio de Janeiro to work with Vasco da Gama, again conducting sessions in Spanish. The Brazilian environment, he says, was "one of the most amazing experiences" because the players were eager to try new ideas.
Head coach Jorginho – a 1994 World Cup winner – gave him complete freedom, and within seven games the team netted five goals from set‑pieces, contributing to their promotion back to the top flight. The celebration, however, was muted; after the final match the squad dispersed at the airport, a sobering reminder of the club’s modest resources despite its historic stature. A short time later Genoa’s sporting director Johannes Spors, now at Southampton, reached out for assistance, and Clapham again played a part in a promotion campaign.
He reflects on the constant movement: "One week I’m at a club, three weeks later I return to find a completely different atmosphere – new results, new pressures. It taught me a lot about club dynamics and staff management." His time at Dortmund proved especially educational because of the caliber of players he worked with. Collaborating with world‑class defender Nico Schlotterbeck forced him to raise his own standards, while the presence of personal analysts for many squad members meant they often approached him with tactical queries: "What do you think about this opponent’s spacing?
Should we block here or screen there?" He says the learning was reciprocal – the players became his teachers. He highlights Pascal Groß, who aspires to coach at the highest level after learning under Roberto De Zerbi, as an example of a teammate who challenged him intellectually. Clapham also forged a close bond with Dortmund’s dynamic winger Karim Adeyemi.
"He is an incredible character and taught me more than anyone because I had to adapt my coaching style to his personality," Clapham notes, adding that it took him until the Christmas break of his first season to fully understand how to communicate with such a high‑profile talent. His background as a classroom teacher now informs his approach to player interaction.
He believes that informal chats – a coffee before a match, a quick word while players lace up – can be more effective than formal meetings. "Players are often reluctant to voice concerns in front of the whole squad, so those small, private conversations are where real insight emerges," he says. Looking ahead, Clapham is no longer content to remain a set‑piece specialist.
He has been engaging in tactical deep‑dives with João Tralhão, then Dortmund’s assistant and now José Mourinho’s right‑hand man at Benfica, who questioned why Clapham limited himself to set‑pieces. Recent study visits have taken him to Como to observe Cesc Fàbregas’s coaching setup, and he admires Elche manager Eder Sarabia, whom he believes could one day lead Barcelona. He also follows the work of Kim Hellberg at Middlesbrough and Kieran McKenna at Ipswich, constantly seeking new ideas.
When asked about his next career move, Clapham says the assistant‑manager role feels like the logical step. "A manager may need distance from the players, but an assistant must be close to them. That’s where I see myself for the next five years," he explains over coffee in Madrid. The exact destination remains uncertain; the world is now his playground.
Yet with strong ties to both Spain and England, he is poised to return home with a portfolio of experiences few coaches can match, ready to apply the lessons learned from the stadiums of Dortmund, the beaches of Rio, and the tactical labs of Italy and Sweden.