Faces of Cambodia: Charlie Pomroy, founder of Next Step FC

The recent restructuring of the Cambodian professional football scene was massive. And amidst all that change has come the addition to the professional ranks of one “start-up” club, Next Step FC.

That addition set Khmer Nights off for a chat with Charlie Pomroy, the head coach and founder of the new side to talk about the club and his own football odyssey.

To read about the new Cambodian Premier League click here. 

Charlie Pomroy – tell us a bit about your background. How did you end up coaching in Cambodia?

I’ve been coaching since I was 18 years old, starting at my local pro football club in England, working through my license in 2010. I left the UK in 2011 and traveled before landing in Cambodia in 2012. I’ve set up programs at all levels of the game here working with almost every organisation I can think of. 

Your split from Soltilo was slightly acrimonious. Care to dish the dirt?

Legally I’m sure I cannot reveal every detail of what happened but what I can say is I went back to the club because I believed what they told me about their vision and the control I would have to deliver it. One month into pre-season the first red flag appeared and I should’ve gone then.

Red flags kept appearing and I was naive in believing that I could change their thinking or methodology. Everything I did was trying to benefit the players or the club, but what I was actually doing was being disrespectful and egotistical apparently. I grew up playing on teams that were successful because we backed each other no matter what. I don’t believe any team can be successful if they spend more time finding someone to blame for failure than they do in celebrating success. 

You’ve bounced back by starting your own football club. How do you go about starting a professional team in Cambodia?

Next Step was started as an academy and the logical next step was to go professional. It wasn’t an easy process and we’ve had to beg, borrow and beg again to get all the documents completed. I’ve got a great group of friends and ex-students, all of whom wanted to help. I’m not sure the FFC were keen to have us in this first year but we’ve managed to hit every benchmark they’ve set so far. 

With 12 teams in the division to compete with, many having higher budgets than yours, what are your realistic hope for the season?

If we broke that top eight of CPL 2 I would consider that a massive achievement. 

You’ve spoken about Next Step FC being different. How is that? What can the fans expect?

What we will do different is put development before success. Our system will be set up in such a way that no player will be at the club longer than 3 years. We will constantly add fresh young talent to the group and work with them. What we want to do is give young players a chance to succeed at higher level, to allow them to make mistakes and learn from them without being punished or blamed for them.

What we have also promised is an interactive experience for our fans where they feel they’re part of the club and can be involved. If they have a skill or talent off the field that they want to develop or improve our club will provide a place for them to do that. If you want to be a great sales person come sell for us. If you want to be a photographer, come do it for us. 

It takes a fair bit of money to run a football club. Feel free to shamelessly pitch to potential sponsors or anything else that could help the club.

To any football fan out there with money who wants to see it used for good and spent on a bigger picture target than the here and now get in touch. To any football fan with money wanting to get involved, but unsure or unable to do so, let us open the door for you. To any business man or women out there excited by innovative ideas and enthusiasm, then please take a look at us. We’re a club built by fans for the fans!! 

And that is the story of Next Step FC so far. You can check out their Facebook page here, their website here and even download their app here.

No one knows quite how this season will play out, but this is no doubt a new dawn for Cambodian football is breaking.