'People think it's a 2-hour job': This footballer-turned-coach has no off days

Why I Do What I Do is an original AsiaOne series where we showcase people with uncommon professions and what it takes to get there.

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Gavin Lee isn't your regular football fan — it's in his blood.

The 32-year-old head coach of Tampines Rovers tells us that his passion for the game started in his childhood, when he'd help out his dad, who was also a coach.

Now, even when he's overseas, Gavin spends more time sitting in on training sessions than sightseeing.

"I was telling my wife, I've been to Holland, Amsterdam, but she would disagree because all I've seen is football," the mild-mannered coach laughs.

Football or bust

Gavin's love for the sport runs so deep that he decided to go into coaching when it became clear that he didn't have what it takes to be a top athlete — his words, not ours.

Whether it's self-awareness or self-deprecation, he is brutally honest when he tells us that for him, it was a choice between being an average football player and excelling as a coach.

"I grew up in football. I always wanted to be in football. And once I knew I wasn't going to be a player, coaching was really it for me."

Today, Gavin is the Singapore Premier League's youngest head coach. In an industry where the retired-player-to-coach pipeline has been well-trodden, this used to attract a fair share of question marks, he admits.

Other comments from cynics include the assumption that coaching simply consists of showing up and yelling at the players.

"People often think that it's like a two-hour job - you come for training, and then you leave after training," says Gavin. "But there's a lot that goes behind the scenes."

A typical day for him begins at 6am, with a morning workout to relieve stress and "get some dopamine".

Before getting on the pitch, he spends hours planning and reviewing his team's sessions and upcoming games.

Then, of course, he trains with the team before repeating it all again the next day.

"During rest days, off days, there are no real off days," Gavin admits sheepishly. Even when he's off work, he's still planning and reflecting, he says.

"You can ask my wife — I don't think she has had an off day with me, where I'm completely with her in the moment."

Ups and downs

Besides tailoring his team's training regime, keeping morale up is another crucial aspect of the job.

Gavin recalls the Rovers' 2021 AFC Champions League in Uzbekistan, where they got "hammered".

The team had the honour of being the first Singaporean team in a decade to qualify for the group stages of the prestigious regional tournament.

But when the time came for their match against South Korea's Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, their performance left much to be desired.

The team lost 9-0, and one Straits Times report even declared that they'd got "thrashed in Tashkent".

"Everybody was on us. The media was on us. So the pressure was huge, but we were trying our best."

Referring to the league as both his career highlight and low point, Gavin says that what got him through was his sense of responsibility to the team.

"I have a job and I'm responsible for the team, for the club. And I knew that each day I had to be the strongest."

No need for fortune and fame

Besides the pressures of the job, Gavin is candid about the fact that he isn't exactly rolling in the dough.

In an interview with Youthopia, he reveals that he earns a mid-four-figure salary. 

But he counts himself lucky, and tells us that in coaching it is "very, very seldom" that one earns enough to sustain a family. 

At the end of the day, Gavin says it simply makes him happy to be making a living while involved in his favourite sport.

"I get a lot of satisfaction when a team in general does well and when I see the players enjoy doing what they do."

kimberlylim@asiaone.com