Alex Clapham was on the verge of accepting an assistant‑manager role at a Championship side when Borussia Dortmund knocked on his door. The offer was so compelling that he had to drop everything and move abroad. "The first thing I did was call my wife to tell her we were heading to Germany, not England," he recounts to Sky Sports.
Fortunately, his partner embraced the adventure, and during his 18‑month stint as Dortmund's set‑piece specialist he absorbed a wealth of knowledge at a club that boasts the highest attendances in European football. "Working at that level was insane," the 37‑year‑old admits, "and it wasn’t always a smooth ride." Clapham describes a particularly chaotic six‑month period under interim manager Nuri Şahin, which included a Champions League night against Real Madrid where Dortmund led 2‑0 before succumbing 5‑2. "The atmosphere was unlike anything I had ever experienced – the most intense I have seen outside of Dortmund itself," he says.
He also witnessed high‑stakes fixtures against Barcelona and the fierce rivalry with Bayern Munich. Yet for Clapham these moments are merely chapters in a broader odyssey that has taken him from Getafe in Spain to Vasco da Gama in Brazil and on to Genoa in Italy. Now he is scouting his next destination, wherever it may be.
How does a young coach with no professional playing résumé reach such heights? The answer lies in a pivotal decision he made at 23 to chase a coaching career, a choice that forced him abroad because of his fascination with Spanish football and a lack of opportunities at home. "I was slogging away on muddy pitches in the north of England and wasn’t enjoying it," he explains.
"I wanted to coach, but I couldn’t get onto the courses in England and almost gave up. I ended up doing every badge in Spain – it was a costly sacrifice, but it paid off." He recalls watching a Levante coach run a session, obsessively tweaking players' body positions, all while speaking a second language. "The Spanish methodology, the focus on psychology – it was a completely different world," he says. While studying in Barcelona, Clapham worked full‑time teaching English and would hop on the metro to attend training sessions.
By the time he turned 30, he had accumulated enough credentials to become the U‑19 coach at Getafe. Although he drew inspiration from Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona and Marcelo Bielsa’s Bilbao, it was Jose Bordalás’s pragmatic Getafe side that left the deepest imprint. "They were compact, defensively solid, and relied on set‑pieces to win games," Clapham notes. He would often linger after the first‑team training to observe set‑piece work, absorbing techniques that he later applied as a head coach in Sweden.
His career then entered a snowball phase. In Sweden he crossed paths with Ian Burchnall, later joining Burchnall at Notts County as a set‑piece coach. From there he moved on to Southampton and eventually became a globetrotting specialist for clubs owned by 777 Partners. In 2022 he arrived in Rio de Janeiro to work with Vasco da Gama, conducting sessions in Portuguese and Spanish.
"Living in Rio was incredible – the players were very receptive to new ideas," he says. The head coach, former World Cup winner Jorginho, gave him complete freedom to implement his concepts.
Clapham’s tenure at Vasco was brief but impactful; the team netted five set‑piece goals in the seven matches he oversaw, contributing to their promotion back to Brazil’s top flight. He recalls the subdued celebration after securing fourth place in the second tier: "We flew back to Rio and everyone just went their separate ways at the airport. It was an eye‑opener – you realise how massive a club Vasco really is." Soon after, Genoa’s sporting director Johannes Spors (now at Southampton) reached out for assistance, and Clapham again played a part in a promotion push. He describes a peripatetic lifestyle: "One week I’m at a club, three weeks later I return and the atmosphere has completely changed – different results, different pressures.
It taught me a lot about club dynamics." His time at Standard Liège, for example, highlighted how quickly fortunes can swing. After a win over Anderlecht, he returned to find the dressing room in gloom, the coach under fire and staff anxious – a stark lesson in managing people under pressure. Working with world‑class defenders such as Nico Schlotterbeck at Dortmund also sharpened his analytical skills. "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. "You learn more from them than they learn from you; they become your teachers." He mentions Pascal Groß, who is on a trajectory to become a top‑level coach after learning under Roberto De Zerbi, and highlights the informal knowledge exchange that occurs daily. One of the most memorable relationships he forged was with Dortmund’s explosive winger Karim Adeyemi. "He’s an incredible character and taught me more than anyone because I had to adapt my coaching style to suit his personality," Clapham says.
"It took me until Christmas of my first season to truly understand how to communicate with him." Clapham believes his background as a teacher aids his ability to connect with players. "I probably took more from teaching than I imagined," he admits, and it also fuels his ambition to move beyond set‑piece specialization.
He recalls in‑depth tactical discussions 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. Over recent months he has been on study visits, observing Cesc Fàbregas’s setup in Como and admiring Elche manager Éder Sarabia, whom he believes is destined for Barcelona. He also follows the work of Kim Hellberg at Middlesbrough and Kieran McKenna at Ipswich, always seeking fresh ideas. When asked about his next step, Clapham says the assistant‑manager role feels like the natural progression.
"A manager may need some 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 says over coffee in Madrid. Where that will be remains uncertain – the world is now open to him.
Yet his foot remains firmly planted in both Spain and England, and if he ever returns home he will do so with a portfolio of experiences that few coaches can match.