PASCAL'S MISSION

BEN SMITH REPORTS ON PASCAL CHIMBONDA'S ADVENTURE AT SKELMERSDALE UNITED- AND HOW HE HOPES TO INSPIRE OTHER BLACK MANAGERS...

- 

IT'S difficult to know what was going through Pascal Chimbonda's mind as he sat on the bench at the 2006 World Cup final. That 18 years later he would be in the dugout of a ninth-tier West Lancashire club with a Tesco Metro as the backdrop is unlikely.

But as the recently appointed boss of Skelmersdale United it is a setting with which he is becoming familiar.

Chimbonda took the club's reins in October. Since then, it has been a whirlwind sometimes quite literally (his first game was in the middle of a gale).

In four short months, the 44-year-old has been sent off for an on-pitch ruckus, directed his team from a second-floor window, served a touchline ban and used 72 swear words in a single dressing room outburst! Naturally, the tabloids have been lapping up Chimbonda's explosive start to life as a Non-League manager. But beneath the headlines, there is a more serious man and driving force - at play.

Born in Guadeloupe, Chimbonda began his career in France, first at Le Havre and then at Bastia. Soon marked out as an intelligent and energetic right-back, he attracted the attention of Paul Jewell, whose Wigan Athletic side had just won promotion to the Premier League for the first time.

His impact at Wigan was instant, and he was rewarded for an impressive campaign by being included in the PFA Team of the Year and earning a call-up to France's World Cup squad (though he didn't play).

From there, Chimbonda went on to enjoy a further half a dozen years playing in the upper echelons, with stints at Tottenham, Sunderland, Blackburn, QPR and Doncaster.