Paul Ashworth: ‘Fifty young men came in with sticks and baseball bats and held us hostage for five hours’

Paul Ashworth was head coach of Sunshine Stars FC in the Nigerian Premier League. His team was held hostage by 50 men armed with baseball bats for five hours. They were protesting against the government. Ashwor took them to the stand and they were released after four hours in shade. The next day, the gang were in his office and he locked the door and held them hostage for a few hours as a joke. He started his coaching career as youth coach at Cambridge United in 1992. He has also worked in Latvia, Russia and Kazakhstan. In Nigeria, he took the team to top of the league and spent four years working at the Kwara Academy.

Paul Ashworth has worked for England, Asia, Africa and Australasia. He would like to coach in every continent. He has been to five different countries in three different continents.