Yes-R surprised friend and foe by obtaining his UEFA C Youth license and will work in the main division with the youth of SV Diemen. It is not the first time that a rapper has become involved in national football: his cousin Ali Bouali once worked as an agent and Boef recently expressed his interest in a takeover of AZ. Reporter Mounir Boualin visited Yesser Roshdy at his club and asked the musician about his sporting ambitions for the future and the reason for his career switch.
That the rap scene and football often go hand in hand is not lost on the 34-year-old new trainer: “It strikes me that almost every rapper says that they would rather have become professional football players. In addition, I know many football players who also used to make music or who like to listen to rap. Both me and my cousin Ali broke through as artists at a very young age. When I was seventeen I was already in the Top 40, then it is very difficult to divide your attention and I soon saw that I was just a bit more talented in music.”
Although his dream of becoming a professional football player was lost with his musical career, he is now taking his first steps towards his other great love. After obtaining his license, he can work as a head coach with the youth in the premier league: “It started with my son wanting to play football. He started with the minis and at the beginning couldn’t do anything about it. But he kept getting better. At some point I became an assistant coach and progressed to head coach. Getting the papers also felt like a kind of obligation to the team. That they have a trainer who, in addition to some personal football experience, also understands coaching and knows what he is talking about.”
When asked to dream out loud, Yes-R talks about his favorite Premier League competition and his ultimate ambition to become a coach of the Egyptian national team one day. He understands that this is still a long way off, but despite the often skeptical outside world, he has never been afraid to dream big: “There are always people who encourage you, but also who underestimate you or want to bring you down. That has always triggered me. That was the case when I went into music, but also when I started coaching. Then they said: ‘Ah, that’s another celebrity who wants to be the trainer.’ It’s great if you can prove the opposite by getting your papers and sporting achievements.”
Mounir Boualin is a freelance football vlogger, video journalist and presenter. For Voetbalzone he makes interviews about matches.
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