It occured to me that while the world of professional sports is so heavily focussed on brands, it is interesting that one area has been largely ignored, the coach, with some exceptions.
This idea came to me while thinking of the University of Colorado head coach, Deion Sanders, who prefers to go by term “Prime Time”. While this is a moniker he picked up while playing professionally (in BOTH the NFL and MLB), but since becoming a coach, he has leant into it even more. The result? People think he’s the second coming of Jesus down at UC, despite a 4-8 record.
Across the pond, the same happened with a well dressed, quick talking Portugese called Jose Mourinho. He dubbed himself “The Special One” in a conference many moons ago, and that has stuck. Yes, he has won multiple trophies, and coached the top teams in the world, but his winning percentage of ~64% is significantly lower than that of current Man City manager Pep Guardiola (74%).
In the eyes of the casual fan, coaches with nicknames are usually massively overrated, producing mountains of articles from more informed fans screaming into the void saying “No, just because you call yourself [insert superlative here], doesn’t make it true [insert wall of text as to why which no one ever reads]”.
So, should managers focus more on personal branding? As usual, the answer is “it depends”. Do you have charisma, aka rizz? Are you comfortable with being the centre of attention? Do you accept the upsides and downsides, knowing that wins will be more celebrated, but at the same time millions of people are licking their lips for the “Special One gets sacked” headlines to be released?
For most people, it is a no. But for some, the Special Ones, the answer is a massive yes.
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