Kevin Mirallas: The Transition to Technical Director and Memories from Behind the Scenes

2023-11-09 16:10:00

Kevin Mirallas has hung up his crampons. From now on, he is technical director at Aalst, in D2 amateurs. He therefore discovers behind the scenes.

The Liégeois was on “Eleven Insiders” where he came to talk about his new job and his memories.

At the start of the interview, Kevin Mirallas explained that he had arrived in Aalst because they were taken over by a Greek entrepreneur, with whom he had been in contact during his time at Olympiakos. “The train passed and I jumped on it. It’s a new profession that I’m discovering. I wanted to do that. I’m happy to do it in the amateur division because there’s less pressure,” confides -he.

Kevin Mirallas looks back on his non-selection for the 2018 World Cup: “Selfishly, I didn’t want them to win”

“I could have come back to Standard 2-3 times”

If Kevin Mirallas became sports director, he could have done something else. “I had other possibilities. I had an offer to become an attackers coach at Standard. It was something I would have liked to do too. But in the long term, it wasn’t easy because “some coaches don’t want a specific trainer for attackers or don’t listen to them,” he believes.

He also looked back on his ten years spent at Standard. “I was very small. At the end of the season, we never knew if I was going to stay. And then, I exploded around 14-15 years old. I had a click. I grew up and I gained confidence in myself. My whole team except me had been included in the national team except me. I cried in my car. My dad motivated me. He told me: “At the end of the year, there has a big tournament in Turkey, you’re the one who’s going to go.” I worked, finished top scorer in the championship and even in the tournament. Then, the Standard management wanted me to sign a semi-pro contract and I trains with the reserves. But I played in U18. By chance, I arrived in Lille. Claude Puel opened the doors of the training center to me. He said to me: “You follow our path for a year and in a year you’re with me.’ A year later, I was with them,” he says.

Kevin Mirallas could even have returned to Standard several times: “I could have come back two or three times and it never happened. It’s my biggest regret but it never happened. When I left at Antwerp, it was by default. Bruges also wanted me but couldn’t find an agreement with Everton. I told my agent that I wanted to go to Standard but they didn’t want to pay. I also had relations with Vincent Kompany but as a switchboard man, it was complicated.”

“The management of Standard told me that they would not sign me, even if things were going well with the reserves”

This year, a return was always possible. “Réginal Goreux contacted me to play with the youth and was going to contact the management so that I could work with the first team. I knew Carl Hoefkens from the national team. There was contact but nothing happened . I preferred to take several months to think. In October, I called Réginal Goreux to train with the reserve team. There, the management told me that they would not sign me, even if it happened good. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to do. I didn’t come for the money but for the jersey. They could offer me whatever they wanted. When they told me that, it made me “braked up. I went to train but it wasn’t the same anymore.”