Michael Johnson: ‘I stopped counting after 42 rejected job applications’

A disillusioned Michael Johnson was ready to quit football when a kick up the backside from a friend and a Brendan Rodgers soundbite changed his life

“I raced home,” Michael Johnson says as he recalls his cocktail of emotions after flying through the door of his Nottinghamshire home in June having just been appointed manager of Guyana. He remembers the overriding relief after a challenging conversation several years earlier that pulled on the heartstrings. It was with Pharrell, the eldest of his three boys.

“I always said: ‘If you work hard in life, the one thing I’ll guarantee you is you’ll get your rewards.’ My son said: ‘You’re going out again?’ I said: ‘Yeah, yeah I’ve got to go. I’ve got this networking meeting.’ He goes: ‘But you haven’t got a job, have you?’ I said: ‘No, no, but it’s coming.’ Then he said: ‘But Dad, you said that if you keep going and working hard, that you’ll get a job you deserve. Why haven’t you got yours?’

Continue reading...