Alex Clapham was on the brink of taking a role as an assistant manager at a Championship side when the German giants Borussia Dortmund rang his doorbell. The offer was so compelling that he had to abandon his current plans in an instant. "The first thing I did was call my wife to tell her we were heading to Germany instead of staying in England," he recalls in an interview with Sky Sports. Fortunately, his partner embraced the adventure, and Clapham quickly discovered how much there was to learn during his 18‑month stint as the club’s set‑piece specialist – a position at a stadium that regularly draws the largest crowds in all of Europe.
"Working at that level was absolutely mental," says the 37‑year‑old, "but it wasn’t always a smooth ride either." He endured what he describes as "six turbulent months" under the short‑lived stewardship of Nuri Şahin. One of the most vivid memories is a Champions League night against Real Madrid when Dortmund surged ahead 2‑0 only to be undone by a 5‑2 defeat.
"The atmosphere in that stadium was unlike anything I had ever experienced – the most intense I have seen outside Dortmund itself," he notes. The season also featured high‑stakes encounters with Barcelona, the fierce Bayern Munich rivalry, and a series of away trips that tested his resolve.
For Clapham, each match was a stepping stone on a journey that has already taken him to Getafe in Spain, Vasco da Gama in Brazil, and Genoa in Italy, and he now eyes his next destination, wherever that may be. How does a young coach with no professional playing résumé end up on such a path? The answer goes back to a pivotal decision he made at the age of 23 to abandon a modest playing career in favour of coaching.
His love for Spanish football and the lack of opportunities in England forced him to look abroad. "I was slogging away on muddy pitches in the north of England and I wasn’t enjoying it," he explains.
"I wanted to coach, but the courses in England were out of reach. I almost gave up, but then I decided to chase my badges in Spain – an expensive gamble, but one that paid off." He recounts a formative moment watching a Levante coach run a session, noting the meticulous attention given to tweaking players' body positions, all delivered in a language he was still mastering. "The Spanish methodology, the focus on psychology, was a completely different world," he says.
While studying in Barcelona, Clapham worked full‑time as an English teacher, hopping on the metro to attend training sessions in his spare hours. Persistence paid off when, at just 30, he was appointed head coach of Getafe’s under‑19 side.
Although he grew up idolising Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona and Marcelo Bielsa’s Bilbao, it was the pragmatic, hard‑working ethos of José Bordalás’s Getafe that left a lasting impression. "They stayed compact, defended as a unit, and then struck from set‑pieces – a formula that resonated with me," he explains. He would often linger after the senior team’s training to observe their set‑piece routines, absorbing ideas from the first‑team staff and later adapting them in his own coaching roles.
That habit proved valuable when he moved to Sweden, where a chance meeting with Ian Burchnall led to a brief spell as a set‑piece coach at Notts County, followed by a position at Southampton. From there, he became something of a travelling specialist for clubs owned by 777 Partners, offering his expertise wherever it was needed. In 2022, Clapham landed in Rio de Janeiro to work with Vasco da Gama, communicating entirely in Portuguese. "Living in Rio was an unforgettable experience – the players were incredibly receptive to new ideas," he says.
The head coach, former World Cup winner Jorginho, gave him complete freedom to implement his strategies. Though his tenure lasted only seven games, his influence was tangible: Vasco scored five goals from set‑pieces during that period and ultimately secured promotion back to Brazil’s top flight. "I expected a big celebration, but after we flew back everyone just went their separate ways at the airport," he recalls, noting the understated nature of Brazilian football celebrations. A short time later, Genoa’s sporting director Johannes Spors – now at Southampton – reached out for assistance, and Clapham contributed to the Italian side’s promotion push as well.
He describes a nomadic phase in which he moved from club to club, each with its own culture, structure, and mentalities. "One week you’re in a stable environment, three weeks later the atmosphere can be completely different after a couple of defeats," he observes. These rapid changes taught him how to manage staff dynamics and coach other coaches, lessons he later applied at Standard Liège, where a loss of confidence among the staff created a bleak environment that required delicate handling.
Working at Dortmund offered perhaps the most intense learning curve. Collaborating with world‑class defenders like Nico Schlotterbeck forced him to raise his own standards.
"Many players now have personal analysts who come to me with tactical questions – ‘How do we block this space? Should we press here?’ It’s a two‑way street; they teach me as much as I teach them," he says. He cites Pascal Groß as an example of a player transitioning into coaching, having spent considerable time with Roberto De Zerbi and frequently seeking his input.
Clapham also highlights his rapport with Dortmund’s dynamic winger Karim Adeyemi. "He’s a fantastic character and a massive learning source for me as a coach.
It took me until Christmas of my first season to truly understand how to work with his personality," he admits. The subtle art of connecting with players – a coffee before a match, a brief chat while they lace up – became a cornerstone of his approach.
His background as a teacher surfaces repeatedly. "I think I absorbed more teaching techniques than I realised, and that shapes how I communicate with players now," he reflects. His ambitions have broadened beyond set‑piece specialization.
In conversations with João Tralhão – then Dortmund’s assistant, now José Mourinho’s right‑hand man at Benfica – Clapham was asked why he limited himself to set‑pieces. The question sparked a period of intensive study visits: he toured Cesc Fàbregas’s training base in Como, admired Elche’s manager Eder Sarabia (whom he believes could one day lead Barcelona), and kept tabs on rising coaches such as Kim Hellberg at Middlesbrough and Kieran McKenna at Ipswich.
When asked about his next step, Clapham says the assistant‑manager role feels like a natural progression. "A head coach may need distance from the squad, whereas an assistant works closely with the players day‑to‑day. That’s where I see myself for the next five years," he explains over a coffee in Madrid.
Where that appointment will be remains open – the world is now his playground. Yet his recent experiences, from Brazil to Italy, from Spain to Germany, have given him a unique portfolio that few English coaches can match.
If he eventually returns to the UK, he will do so with a wealth of international insight, tactical nuance, and a network that spans continents, ready to contribute to the next chapter of his globe‑trotting career.