Brad Friedel has praised Tottenham Hotspur's backroom staff for helping him prosper in his own coaching ambitions.
The former goalkeeper, who made 450 Premier League appearances during his career, revealed that Spurs head of academy John McDermott offered Friedel and other players support with future goals while still playing for the club.
Friedel's New England Revolution side are currently fourth in the MLS Eastern Conference, and the former United States international discussed his rise to the dugout in an interview with Sports Illustrated this week.
"John McDermott, who is arguably the best academy coach in the game, took the likes of myself, Scott Parker, Ledley King and Michael Dawson into his room and explained to us that, as long as we were prepared to take off our ego helmets, he was prepared to help us organise all our thoughts between our ears," said Friedel.
"From that point on, I finished my UEFA B licence, so I would train in the morning and a lot of times go train till the late hours or early evening with the academy kids, from the U13s to the U21s.
"I completed my UEFA A licence, then during my last year as a player I was fortunate enough to get onto UEFA pro license, finished that 21-month course and started coaching with the US Soccer Federation, and it was a lot of long hours and learning.
"I had a lot of help from the likes of Mauricio Pochettino and Miguel D'Agostino and Jesus Perez, and Tony Gimenez on his staff, and John, and I am very thankful for all the help they gave me.
"There are a lot of other individuals along the way, but the way that I view things is that you can't be good at anything unless you put the work in. I tried to do that and I try to do that now. Myself and my staff put in a lot of hours to benefit the players and not just solely to win games.
"So I'm very lucky that I had the help from John and the other members of the staff [at Tottenham]. They didn't have to do that but they did."
Friedel also played for Liverpool, Blackburn Rovers, and Aston Villa in England.
Giuseppe Labellarte
