Kicking The Habit

Following recent setbacks away from Goodison, Ronald Koeman stresses the importance of learning from defeat, as well as discussing his support for an important anti-smoking initiative.

Coach, let’s begin with the support you are giving to a new anti-smoking campaign, Kick It With Help, which is designed to encourage people aiming to quit the habit to seek advice from healthcare professionals.

I’m working as a manager in football and, if you can support and help people – in this case in quitting smoking – I like to do it. My coach in Barcelona was Johan Cruyff and he suffered a heart attack, underwent surgery and after that he stopped smoking. He had smoked from an early age and even his career in football did not stop him from smoking. He smoked at half-time in games, some of his old teammates once told me. They were different times, of course, and his health suffered later in life.

Now as a coach and manager, I am working every day with young football players and we speak a lot about having a healthy lifestyle to get the best of their careers. If you want a healthy life, you can’t smoke. Out of my position as a manager, if I can help and support a campaign such as this, of course I will do it. If you visit a health care professional, you are four times more likely to be able to quit than by doing so on your own.

Did you ever smoke?