Globetrotter Clapham appointed First Team Coach at Dortmund

English coaches are often regarded as reluctant travellers, but Alex Clapham continues to buck that trend.

After gaining his UEFA Pro Licence in Spain, he then coached Getafe's Under-19s and was First Team Coach for Ytterhogdals IK in Sweden. The 35-year-old, who grew up in Yorkshire, has now been appointed as First Team Coach at Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga.

Writing on LinkedIn, Clapham said: “I’m extremely proud to have joined Borussia Dortmund as First team coach. It’s a massive honour to become part of the BVB family and represent this mythical club.”

Clapham's most recent role was as a First Team Coach and Tactical Advisor for the 777 group of clubs (Genoa, Vasco da Gama, Standard Liege, Hertha Berlin and Red Star Paris). He was also Set Piece Coach at Southampton, an Academy coach at Manchester City and First Team Coach at Notts County - as well as running the popular Cano Football website, which saw him go behind the scenes at some of Europe’s biggest clubs.

Indeed, it was for Cano that he interviewed Lars Ricken, the former Germany international who is now the Managing Director for Sport at Dortmund.

Rene Maric, the current Bayern Munich First Team Coach, also ran a football website alongside his coaching - the excellent Spielverlagerung.

Maric told TGG: "Writing articles is like a mirror, it humbles you. It was helpful putting my thoughts down, making them clearer and then being critical about them. That was something that helped me to to improve."

The German side's new Head Coach is their former player Nuri Sahin, who spent the second half of last season as Assistant before being promoted to the top job i the summer. His assistants, along with Clapham, are Joao Tralhao, Ertugrul Arslan and former Dortmund team-mate Lukasz Piszczek.