Like many Brazilians, Rodrigo Iglesias, 39, wanted to be a soccer player when he was younger. He tried it until the age of 15, and then started to consider an academic career in sports. His passion became his fi eld of study: he graduated with a degree in sports science from the University of São Paulo (USP), and has an athletic coach license from the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF). Iglesias worked for the Corinthians’ women’s team and is currently an assistant coach for the Brazilian National Women’s Soccer Team. Before he travelled with the delegation to the Paris Olympic Games, Carla M., age 10, interviewed Iglesias to learn more about his work and the team’s preparation.

What is your background and why did you become interested in coaching?

I have a degree in sports science from USP, and I did some soccer courses and got licenses from the CBF. Why was I interested in becoming a coach? I think it was the classic story that many Brazilians have: when I was a kid, I wanted to be a soccer player. I tried to become a player until about the age of 15, and then I realized that I would rather pursue an academic career. I chose to study physical education and sports at USP because I wanted to work with high-performing athletes.

Is it very demanding to be an assistant coach for the national team? What is the difference between coaching a team and coaching a national team?

The work is highly demanding. We spend at least eight hours a day discussing things, talking, working. One of the differences is that the national team has less games than Corinthians, for example. The national team is called to participate in International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) competitions, which don’t happen all the time. I can organize my schedule better and enjoy weekends with the family. I rarely go to the fi eld; my work is more focused on observing our athletes and preparing them for the games.

What’s the day-to-day like in the Olympics?

The Olympics are an extremely difficult competition because it has very high-level teams, and there is not much time in between each game. So we focus on preparing before the start of the Olympic Games and, after the first match [Brazil vs. Nigeria on July 25th], we start the recovery routine, travel, etc. The day-to-day logistics for each of the games is similar: we get to the stadium two hours before the game, there’s the initial preparation, warm-up on the field, and the match. Then we go back to rest, recover, and train for the next game, alternating this with travel and different schedules.

What are your thoughts on the future for women’s soccer in Brazil?

The sport is already well-established in the country; there’s high-level women’s soccer, especially at big games. In my opinion, the sport is still evolving in terms of more consolidated projects, which would bring a more promising future. We took the opposite route: first the main adult teams were developed, and then the youth teams were formed. But now that is changing. We have teams with increasingly larger youth teams, and this makes the future of women’s soccer better and better.

What do you think of our women’s soccer team?

We have very, very good athletes, who are increasingly encouraged to make things happen, because we have changed what they do. We have had good results in the exhibition matches, but are now going to test this in a competition like the Olympics. We saw favorable scores in the Gold Cup, which was a really cool preparatory competition. We managed to play against the United States, one of the best teams in the world, and that gave us more confidence. We are happy, we want to continue to improve in many aspects, but we are satisfied.

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