Alex Clapham was on the verge of taking an assistant‑manager role at a Championship side when Borussia Dortmund knocked on his door. The opportunity was too compelling to ignore. "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 the 37‑year‑old Englishman spent the next eighteen months as Dortmund's set‑piece specialist, learning from a club that boasts the highest average attendances on the continent.
"Working at that level was insane," he says, "but it also came with its own set of challenges." Clapham describes a particularly chaotic six‑month spell under interim boss Nuri Şahin. He remembers a Champions League night against Real Madrid when Dortmund led 2‑0 only to lose 5‑2.
"The atmosphere was unlike anything I'd ever experienced – the most intense I've seen outside of Dortmund itself," he notes. He also lived through high‑stakes fixtures against Barcelona and the fierce Bayern Munich rivalry.
Yet for Clapham these moments are merely chapters in a larger odyssey that has already taken him from Getafe in Spain to Vasco da Gama in Brazil and to Genoa in Italy, with his next destination still open. How does a man with no professional playing résumé end up on such a path?
The answer lies in a decisive choice he made at the age of 23 to pursue coaching rather than continue as a semi‑professional player on the muddy pitches of northern England. "I loved the game but I wasn't enjoying playing any more, and the coaching courses back home were inaccessible to me," he explains. "I almost gave up, but then I decided to earn my badges in Spain – a costly but ultimately rewarding sacrifice." He recounts watching a Levante coach meticulously tweak players' body positions during a session, all while speaking a language he was still mastering. "The Spanish methodology, with its focus on psychology and minute technical detail, was a revelation," he says.
While studying in Barcelona, Clapham took a full‑time job teaching English to support himself, hopping on the metro to attend training sessions in his spare time. His persistence paid off when, at just 30, he was appointed head coach of Getafe's under‑19 side.
Although he admired Pep Guardiola's Barcelona and Marcelo Bielsa's Bilbao, it was José Bordalás' pragmatic Getafe that left the strongest imprint on his coaching philosophy. "They were compact, defensively disciplined, and relied heavily on set‑pieces to win games," Clapham explains.
He would often linger after the first‑team training to observe their set‑piece routines, absorbing tactics that he later adapted in his own head‑coach role in Sweden. That Swedish stint connected him with Ian Burchnall, leading to a brief spell at Notts County as a set‑piece coach, followed by a move to Southampton. From there, he became a travelling specialist for clubs owned by 777 Partners, offering his expertise wherever it was needed. In 2022 he arrived in Rio de Janeiro to work with Vasco da Gama, conducting sessions in Portuguese and Spanish.
"Living in Rio was extraordinary – the players were eager to try new ideas," he says. The head coach, former World Cup winner Jorginho, gave him complete freedom to implement his routines.
In just seven appearances, his set‑piece work contributed five goals, helping Vasco secure promotion back to Brazil's top tier. Yet the celebration was subdued; after the final match the squad dispersed quietly at the airport, a reminder of the club's modest resources despite its storied history. Soon after, Genoa's sporting director Johannes Spors – now at Southampton – reached out, and Clapham played a part in the Italian side's promotion campaign as well.
He reflects that each club presented a distinct culture, structure, and mentality. "One week you'd be at a club with a calm atmosphere, three weeks later the same place could be in crisis after a string of defeats," he says, noting how those fluctuations taught him valuable lessons about managing staff and coaching colleagues.
His time at Dortmund proved to be a masterclass in learning from elite players. Working alongside world‑class centre‑back Nico Schlotterbeck required him to stay on his toes. "Many players now have personal analysts who bring ideas to me – 'What do you think about this opponent's movement?
Should we block here or screen there?'" he explains. "Those conversations teach you more than any textbook." He also forged a close bond with the club's dynamic winger Karim Adeyemi.
"Adeyemi is a phenomenal character and a huge teacher for me. It took me until Christmas of my first season to truly understand how to communicate with him," Clapham admits.
He learned that while players are fully committed, they often keep their emotions in check around senior figures, so a simple coffee chat before a match can be the most effective way to connect. Clapham believes his background as a teacher underpins his aptitude for these personal interactions. "I probably took more from my teaching days than I realised," he says, adding that his ambitions now extend beyond set‑piece duties. He has been engaging in tactical deep‑dives with Joao Tralhão – then Dortmund's assistant, now José Mourinho's right‑hand man at Benfica – who questioned why Clapham limited himself to set‑pieces.
This sparked a period of study visits: he toured Cesc Fàbregas' coaching setup in Como, admired Elche manager Eder Sarabia (whom he predicts will one day manage Barcelona), and kept tabs on emerging minds like Kim Hellberg at Middlesbrough and Kieran McKenna at Ipswich. 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 squad, but an assistant must be close to the players.
That's where I see myself for the next five years," he explains over a coffee in Madrid. Where that appointment will be remains uncertain – the world is now his playground.
Yet with strong ties to both Spain and England, any future position will benefit from the rich tapestry of experiences he has gathered, experiences few coaches can match.