It has been quite the year for Jeyhan Bhindi. He has completed his UEFA coaching trifecta, adding a UEFA A License to his B and C licenses, and for the first time in his life, he’s living outside of his native Canada.
Born in the Canadian capital of Ottawa to a Turkish mother and a Ugandan mother, Bhindi quickly became enamored with football. He started off playing in men’s amateur leagues before deciding to hang up his boots at the age of 21 in pursuit of a coaching career. Bhindi balanced his time between working on a volunteer basis for his local side Ottawa Fury, where he served on the coaching staff for the boys’ U-17 and U-19 sides and girls’ U-19 side, as well as an interim video analyst / opposition scout for the first team, with his full-time job in heating and air conditioning. Eventually, however, he decided to quit his 9-5 and put all of his chips on the table in order to pursue his coaching ambitions to the maximum.
“The turning point came in my mid to late 20s, around when I was 26, 27 or 28,” stated Bhindi in an exclusive Joy News interview. “I was aggressive in reaching out to teams and coaches and putting myself out there, and it took a while, it took a couple years for me to get onto something solid. Obviously, COVID really delayed everything in the world, but around 2017-2020, those were the years where I was just thinking ‘Okay, I really gotta be aggressive here, and put myself out there, and keep this day job going, and just be there to pay my stuff, but that was when I became really, really aggressive, and going after it.”
Bhindi departed the Fury in 2017 and joined then-USL Championship side Austin Bold, working remotely as a video analyst and scouting Austin’s potential opponents. However, he soon found himself desperate to return to the training pitch and get a hands-on coaching experience, which is why he decided to take his talents to the newly formed Canadian Premier League. After spending the 2021 season as an assistant coach and video analyst with FC Edmonton, Bhindi made the move to Winnipeg and joined Valour, where he spent three seasons as an assistant coach and video analyst.
“Being able to be a part of the Canadian Premier League was a big personal goal of mine. Being born and raised in Canada, I wanted to work in the football league of my country that has given me so much, and that was a big milestone for me. I remember when it first started in 2019, not being a part of the league yet, and I remember watching the very first game between York and Forge and telling my friend at the time, ‘I’m gonna be there soon.’ There wasn’t really a season in 2020 because of COVID, so 2021 was really the second year of the league, which is when I got in. I saw a crazy improvement, and I’m so glad that I got to be able to be a part of how the league evolved in terms of the quality on the field, the players growing, the tactical level of the league, the quality of the internationals.”
“I worked very closely with the Valour coach Philip Dos Santos on player recruitment, and every year, the quality of the players that we would get sent by agents would grow astronomically. I saw the league form, giving trophies to the league and playoff champion, I saw the league evolve into having the top two teams go to the CONCACAF Champions League. I saw the teams that represented the CanPL go head-to-head and fight with the teams from Liga MX, I saw Canadian Premier League teams knock off MLS teams in the Canadian Championship Cup. That was a really cool thing to be a part of, because, being from Canada, it made me happy to see that this thing is growing at a rapid pace.”
Today, Bhindi is making a name for himself in the United States, having joined USL League 1 side Union Omaha in January. Alongside many others like Cyle Larin and Tesho Akindele, he’s yet another Canadian who’s establishing a reputation for himself south of the border, and he’s relishing his new surroundings in Nebraska. However, the 34-year-old coach hasn’t forgotten his roots in Canada and remains prouder than ever to have played a significant role in the league’s development.
“It’s crazy how fast it’s growing, and I’m really glad that I was able to play a part. I remember one of the games that I was a part of was the 500th Canadian Premier League game, and they made these shirts to celebrate it. I said, ‘Wow, this is cool to be a part of history for Canadian soccer, so that’s been a great experience for me, and then I watch almost 80% of the games still. The only times I can’t watch are when we’re playing at the same time, or when I’m in the air, but I still watch and speak to people that I know in the league, whether it’s coaches or players that I’ve coached before, and I’ve also gotten to see players grow up. I’ve gotten to see players who got their first professional game in the CPL, and now they’re pushing 100 appearances…it’s really cool to see these guys grow and chase their professional dreams.”
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