Insider Sport’s Matchday Programme offers a personal look at what sporting moments and figures have inspired industry stakeholders. Through candid reflections, the programme delves into the stories behind the inspirations that have shaped their perspectives and fuelled their passion for sports.
In this edition, Malph Minns, Managing Director of Strive Sponsorship, reflects on the profound impact Jurgen Klopp has had on him. Minns admires Klopp’s positivity, honesty and charisma, which resonated deeply and transformed him from a sceptic into a devoted fan.
Which athlete do you think demonstrated the best winning mentality throughout their career?
Determining the athlete with the best winning mentality is subjective. The truth of the matter is that they all have phenomenal winning mentalities.
I guess the one I didn’t appreciate the scale of until recent times because I’m not a basketball fan, is that of Michael Jordan. I knew he was a big deal in the US, and was aware of the Nike shoes, but it wasn’t until I watched The Last Dance and heard his story did I get a sense of his relentless drive, competitive nature and refusal to accept failure.
Jordan’s mindset was encapsulated in his famous quote, “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.” He consistently used setbacks and challenges as fuel to push himself and his team to greater heights. What is great about him too is that his influence extended beyond the court, inspiring countless athletes across different sports to adopt a similar mentality. Additionally, he has taken the same mindset into business and is succeeding there as well.
Jordan’s talent, hard work and mental toughness make him a standout example.
Who was your childhood sports hero and why? Which of their sporting achievements had the biggest impact on you?
Football was my childhood obsession and Robbie Fowler was my hero. I felt like I had followed his journey after first seeing him play for England in a U17 tournament whilst I was away on holiday. He was the only Liverpool player in the squad, so I paid particular attention to him. Later that year he made his first team debut and ‘God’ became a prolific scorer in generally poor teams. He didn’t look like a footballer in his style, which with his scouse humour probably made him more relatable, but he was clinical in his finishing and scored all sorts of different goals.
I was there when he scored a hat trick in under three minutes at Anfield against Arsenal, my dad’s team (he was also sitting next to me). It was against the run of play and that feat stands out in the memory for me. I think the thing that stood out to me was the joy he took in doing his job and his relentlessness in achieving success week after week. He was so consistent and just loved scoring goals.
What sports team do you follow the closest? Is this a family team or local side etc, and what has been the biggest moment in your history of supporting this club?
I’ve supported Liverpool since I was 7 years old. Living in Cyprus in the days before you could get merchandise internationally, my Mighty Reds supporting godfather came armed with a shirt, hat and scarf. Stash is a powerful persuader for kids and I’ve never looked back, much to my Arsenal-supporting late father’s annoyance.
The standout moment for me as a fan was the 2005 Champions League Final in Istanbul. I’d just been dumped by my Chelsea-supporting then-girlfriend and was hoping our 20-year wait for a European Cup was about to be over. It was a proper old-school European experience with people in a mile-long queue of coaches on an inadequate route disembarking to walk across the dusty plains in twilight to a stadium in the middle of nowhere where the road markings had only been painted on the new tarmac the day before.
3-0 at half time to AC Milan, two goals scored by on-loan Chelsea forward Hernan Crespo, I hit rock bottom. With nothing to lose I invested in hope, and like tens of thousands of other fans there, sang my heart out. It was the first and only time I had ever started chants at a game. The adrenaline rush that gives is like nothing else, especially in an atmosphere like it was that night.
Three Liverpool goals in eight second-half minutes drew us level, and after lots of close calls, it went to penalties, where Liverpool duly won. Pure ecstasy! The feeling will stay with me forever.
Is there a team manager from any sport, whether that be football, rugby, NFL, NBA etc, who you think demonstrated the best leadership qualities?
Jurgen Klopp is the team manager who has made the biggest impression on me. It was his relentless positivity, honesty, energy, charisma, communication skills, etc that resonated with me. He had a clear set of beliefs backed up by behaviours that connected with me on an emotional level like no sports manager has ever before. He turned me from doubter to believer and I’m still very much in mourning at the club’s, city’s and Premier League’s loss. We are all poorer for it.
I think what stood Klopp apart is that even fans of rival teams liked him, some privately and certainly others reluctantly.
What sports tournament do you think consistently provides the biggest thrills? Which moment from this stood out to you the most in recent memory?
Few things rival the Summer Olympics for thrills. There is both a sense of anticipation and an abundance of success and interesting stories.
On Super Saturday I was lucky enough to first be at Dorney Lake as the men’s coxless four and women’s double sculls both won gold in the rowing. Later that day I was in the velodrome as the women’s cycling team won too. Following that, I sat in the Olympic Park and watched on the big screens, with thousands of others, as Ennis-Hill won the heptathlon, Rutherford took gold in the long jump and, finally, Farah stormed home in the 10,000m … all in 44 minutes.
If you could travel back in time to any historic sporting moment to watch it then and now, which would it be and why?
Putting football aside, it would have to be the night of 30 October 1974 at the 20th of May Stadium (now Stade Tata Raphaël) in Kinshasa, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo). That night Muhammed Ali took on George Forman for the heavyweight boxing World Championship.
The fight is best known as the Rumble in the Jungle and is a classic. It was one of the most watched televised events at the time, with sources estimating that the fight was watched by as many as one billion television viewers around the world. It has been called “arguably the greatest sporting event of the 20th century”. Ali was a huge underdog and the fight is famous for Ali’s introduction of the rope-a-dope tactic.
If you watch a recording of the fight you can’t help but be absorbed by the atmosphere the 60,000-person crowd created. It was highly unusual for such a global event to be hosted in Africa and the scenes are electric. Wave after wave of “Ali Bomaye” is chanted throughout the fight. It’s mesmeric. It jumps out of the screen and grabs you.
I’d love to have been there as I think it would have been an incredibly raw experience. Add that to the fact I’ve never been to a live boxing event and the chance to see two legends of the sport at the top of their games, and it’s an obvious candidate.
If you could go out for dinner with any sporting figure, current or historical, who would it be and what would you want to learn from them?
As cliché as it is, I struggle to look past Muhammed Ali. There’d certainly be no awkward silences and with his humour and charisma is bound to make it an entertaining meal!
What would fascinate me is understanding his principled stance and what his reflections are on never allowing his mind to be changed and if he felt there were times he should have changed course. I’d also like to learn how he managed to connect to people, whoever they were, and how he managed to have so much self-belief.
To read last week’s edition of the Matchday Programme, featuring Marc Ramsden, Chief Operating Officer of BKFC UK, who discussed his love for Nat Lofthouse, the legendary Bolton Wanderers and England footballer, click here.
