More than 4,000 miles from his native Dundee, Kurt Herd is flying the flag for Scotland in international football. The 34-year-old is manager of Dominica, the Caribbean island, making him the only Scottish manager currently leading an international men’s side. “I’ll be calling my mum and dad with that one,” Herd said.
Herd was appointed permanently in August after a short-term stint. His role is not exactly like the one held by Steve Clarke, or his successor, Sebastien Pocognoli. Herd is not just Dominica’s manager but effectively their analyst, scout, nutritionist and yoga instructor rolled into one, given he is the only full-time member of the setup, players included. “A real whirlwind the last few weeks, but it’s been amazing for me as a coach to go and test myself,” he said. “It’s been the toughest but the greatest three or four weeks of my career so far.”
At 34, Herd has already packed a lot in. The former Dundee United academy coach has worked in Sweden, Australia, Malaysia and Kyrgyzstan. He has met Arsene Wenger and other big football figures along the way, and now his task is to improve the world’s 182nd-best side, made up of largely amateur players from an island population of about 65,000.
Recruitment is a major part of the challenge. Most of Dominica’s players play in their own domestic league, which Herd roughly equates to League 2 in Scotland. While other Caribbean nations like Haiti and Curacao have made use of overseas players in their World Cup efforts, rules in Dominica limit them to six. A rule change in January will allow Herd to begin recruiting players with Dominican grandparents. Former St Mirren and Livingston goalkeeper Shamal George, now at Bromley, is one Herd has been able to identify through social media and the use of talent-spotters.
“I sit on Instagram for two or three hours and I’m just looking at player profiles, trying to see if somebody’s got a little Dominica flag in that bio page,” Herd said. “I’m on the phone constantly. Whether that’s scrolling social media – and it’s not for fun – it’s because I’m looking at players’ profiles and databases. I’ve got people that are doing that for me as well. I’ve got people in the US, Canada, Europe, UK, that their job for me is to contact clubs, contact agents, contact players, come back to me and tell me, yeah, coach, we’ve got one. And those guys have been absolutely priceless to me.”
Recruitment is not the only tool Herd is using. As Dominica compete in the Concacaf Nations League B this autumn, the squad are now performing yoga and other mindfulness techniques, while Herd reinforces dietary and sleep advice to go with his team and one-to-one coaching. He makes sure he is up running every morning and is never seen with a beer at night so he can try to set professional standards in view of his adopted community. “It’s tough, to be honest – it’s relentless,” he admitted. “I’m doing everything at the minute. I’m the full-time member of staff, so it all falls on my shoulders. Everybody else has got jobs. I’ve got one assistant coach that I work with, but he’s a school teacher.”
Herd has been in Dominica for two years now, having worked with youth sides before in his role as a talent coach with FIFA. He says he has “fallen in love” with the country and its people, who consider him one of them now. Life on a beautiful Caribbean island is good, but Herd admits being “obsessed” with football means he cannot always fully enjoy the trappings that come with it.
That drive has taken him from Scotland to Australia without a job after graduating from Abertay University, where he ended up coaching Magic FC, to Kuala Lumpur with Spanish club Villarreal’s Asian arm, and to the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, where goats blocking the road once held up a training session for four hours. He has also played five-a-side against former Portugal striker Nuno Gomes at a FIFA event in Paraguay and nearly lined up alongside Arsene Wenger in Zurich. Wenger, however, retreated to the restaurant when drizzle arrived. “He’s like, ‘no man, the rain, it’s not for me. When I was in London, I have enough’,” Herd recalled. “So we’re soaked through. He’s sitting there with a nice red wine, enjoying himself.”
Missing family events and milestones has not been easy, but working across so many football cultures has been rewarding. Herd is not sure where his coaching journey will take him next, though his ambition is to eventually get into the club game at as high a level as possible. “I want this on a daily basis,” he said. “I want that pressure. I want that day-to-day grind.” For now, it is back to wearing his many hats with Dominica in their quest for Nations League promotion.