Gavin Whyte and Ben Davis weren’t the only international call ups at Oxford United this week.
While Gavin was selected for Northern Ireland and Ben for Thailand there is one more member of the U’s backroom team flying out this week to work at international level
Alexandros Evangelakakis is Lead Foundation Phase Coach within United’s successful Academy, overseeing the U9-11's schoolboy program and helping coach the younger players in the Academy. But this weekend he will fly out with the Iceland Under 21 squad for their game against Portugal. He explains:
“I help with the video analysis for Iceland and will be helping them against Portugal under 21s on a five day trip. My mum is from Iceland, my dad is from Greece and I was born in Luxembourg. As a student my dissertation was about the Iceland national team and things grew from me talking to them about that. At the same time I came in as a student to help Oxford, then got an intern place and it went from there until I was offered a full time place in May.
“I love coaching the players at Oxford in the younger age groups. We are always looking at who is the next scholar in a few years but I also say that the Foundation doesn’t just mean a foundation of football skills for them, it’s a foundation of the club; the youngest players at the start of their journey. They make us smile to see their enthusiasm and there are some really good players.
“I am enjoying it very much. I learned so much from working full time at a football club and am still learning all the time.
"Going away with the Iceland under 21s is an amazing experience and hopefully we can work hard and get a result on Tuesday.”