Jack Stern | From Montreal to the Premier League

“I’ll turn my camera and show you the view,” Jack Stern tells us from his hotel room, moments after our conversation begins with Zoom. He runs. We can see the beautiful beach of Brighton, as well as the pier, this wharf which serves as an amusement park.

“And just on the other side is France!” “, he adds, pointing the camera towards the English Channel. He is smiling like during the whole interview.

The former Montreal Impact goalkeeper coach is back in England, very close to where he lived in his youth. He has signed with Brighton & Hove Albion, a club playing in the Premier League, as assistant goalkeeping coach.

“It’s funny,” he said. It’s a big city, but not that big either. I meet real estate agents and see so many people I know! Two of the people who showed me apartments were people I had played with when I was young.

“I really feel like I’m back home. I was a big Brighton fan when I was younger. »

Stern was goalkeeper coach at the Academy as well as at FC Montreal from 2014 to 2017. In his last year with the club, he was promoted to the first team.

Then he was carried away by the same wave resulting from the dismissal of Mauro Biello.

But the man is still intimately linked to Montreal. His wife is from there. He speaks excellent French, and says he converses a little in the language of Félix Leclerc with his 2-year-old child at home.

“It’s always been important for me to learn French in Montreal, and it’s something that I continue now, he tells us in said language. It’s good for me to talk to the players in French too. We have a few players who speak it here. »

But most of the interview takes place in English.

“You never know in soccer, but there is always the possibility of returning to Montreal one day. We are intimately linked to the region. In fact, my parents own a house now in Montreal! They had never been there before we lived there. »

“I was definitely disappointed”

Stern would have seen himself staying in Montreal despite Biello’s departure.

“The club and I still have a good relationship. It is certain that I was disappointed to leave when Mauro left. But I think it depended a bit on who was going to take his place. »

Rémi Garde took over, and he brought in his friend Joël Bats.

Luckily for Stern, it didn’t take him long to find a job.

He was hired in December 2017 as goalkeeping coach at FC Cincinnati, MLS. He will stay there until last December.

And as with his French learning in Montreal, the Brit has found a way to integrate into the community of this city in the state of Ohio.

“Cincinnati has a major homelessness problem,” he explains. […] We lived in a downtown area called Over-The-Rhine. This is where there is the largest homeless population.

“We were involved in an organization helping the homeless who lived in our neighborhood. So we got to know several homeless people on our street. We felt like we were part of the community there. »

Stern explains that his wife is a psychologist and that she offered her services free of charge to homeless people helped by this organization.

“It’s important to us. It serves our own interests too because it helps us integrate, but it also feels like giving back to the community. »

Then things in Cincinnati “naturally came to an end.” The club was in transition. And there was this job opening in Brighton.

Although he already knew technical director Dan Ashworth, the coach went through a lengthy interview process. “There were a hundred people” who applied, says Stern.

“It was good to go through this process. I wanted to get the job based on my skills as a coach, not because I knew someone. »

And what is his role as assistant goalkeeping coach at Brighton?

“I will oversee the development of our U23 goalkeepers, from the Academy to the first team. This means paying attention to the goalkeepers who leave on loan, and monitoring their integration into their teams.

“I will also train the first team goalkeepers on a daily basis. »

Brighton are a mid-table club in the Premier League this season. Promoted to the English Premier League in 2017, the team’s goal until then was simply to stay there.

But the vision is starting to change.

“As a club, we are getting to a point where we can ask ourselves: what defines success? Is it fair to ensure our survival in the Premier League, or is it to push to stay in the top half of the table? »

Brighton is currently 9^and out of 20, with 33 points. “We’re on our way to having the best season in the club’s history,” notes Stern.

“Our rise has been drastic. When I was young and I followed the club, we were in danger of going bankrupt. We played in the lowest divisions in England. The club has really evolved. »

Pride of Quebec, “a unique aspect”

When we told you that Stern still loved Montreal, we weren’t lying.

He is “impressed by the trajectory” taken by CF Montreal, from the successes of his friend Wilfried Nancy to the introduction of all these Canadian and Quebec players into the line-up, including the identity of the club.

“There are so many things that make Montreal special,” he says. Francophone culture as well as French. It’s good to see the club going in this direction. Wilfried understands this so well.

“This pride in being Quebecois, in coming from Montreal, is a unique aspect specific to this club. No other MLS club has it. […] If he can tap into that and use it in the best possible way, it could be a real advantage in the years to come. »

He also notes Nancy’s playing philosophy, which he recognizes from his time around him.

“It’s no surprise to me to see the way the team is playing and what he asks them to do. Wil has a strong philosophy. The fact that he doesn’t budge makes me happy.

“It’s good to see that the club is showing patience. I really hope he continues this way. That’s what’s happening here in Brighton with Graham Potter. We give him time to establish his game system, his culture and his philosophy. Without that, it’s very difficult to train. »