Interview with Michael Duberry: From Comic to Captain + The Decision that Destroyed a Friendship

Today my guest is ex-professional footballer Michael Duberry. You may remember Michael on those Chelsea teams of the mid-to-late 90s and the Leeds teams of the early 2000s.

He was a big, quick centre-back who played for 8 teams during his 20 year career. He's now the founder of Made Leaders, which provides executive coaching and leadership practices to businesses around the UK.

I wanted to have on Michael on for a couple of reasons. To talk about battling adversity and yes, leadership. In this episode Michael discusses a court case that destroyed his close friendship with Jonathan Woodgate and that could have ruined his life. I wanted to see how that affected him and how he feels about it today. And I also wanted to discuss the different forms of leadership that you see on how football pitch and who some of the leaders he admired in his career.

I really admired the way Michael opened up about very sensitive issues and I hope you respect his vulnerability in this episode. It takes a lot of courage. If you want to reach out to him you can find him on Twitter @Original_Dubes

And check out the new Youtube page we have as well. The page is called This Football Life and you'll get to see video and clips of these interviews. So subscribe to that.

Also, I would love to hear your thoughts on Michael or any other episode. You can email me at joshschneiderweiler@gmail.com.

Listen Here

Timeline

4:45 Pranks at Leeds

17:00 Glenn Hoddle's influence on him

29:43 The trial with Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer

41:57 Captaining Stoke and Leadership

49:45 Choosing business coaching instead of football coaching

Highlights

• It was a hot day, and when we went out there there's about 400 wasps all around the car one the sausage meat - but yes that was a funny little prank that we pulled.

• I got an Arsenal kit and buzzing. I just thought well you go to a trial with a football kit, but I didn’t really associate you are going to West Ham and it's like 'I have got the Arsenal kit.'

And he [Glenn Hoddle] made sure I was grounded he gave me a level of discipline and he gave me a level of grounding.

• I remember being in the stand, and the Clare was asking me a question and I stood up and I stand up now but one thing my mouth was dry but I didn't want to reach for the glass of water because my hand was shaking I didn't want to show everyone that I was shaking.

So leading by example is always the best way. People always follow success.