Fresh wind is blowing through Europe. Young football-minds are creating what could be the next
wave of professional European football. The European League of Football is a place where young and
experienced coaches get together to develop the game. One of these young coaches is Head Coach
of the Wroclaw Panthers: Jakub Samel. Let’s take a look at Europe’s Coach of the year 2020, per
Podyum.
Jakub Samel started playing football in 2008 while the strategic part got more into the focus of the
young player. He first played as a fullback and developed into an offensive lineman because he grew
in size. In his second season as a football player in Katowice in 2009 he won his first Polish
Championship. An injury held him back, but this also showed him another perspective: the one of a
coach. With a small staff he helped the team to grow further and further. First, he coached Flag
Football and then youth teams. He started coaching under Europe’s legendary coach Nick Johansen
as an Offensive Line Coach for the Wroclaw Panthers in 2016. His love for this position group remains
to this day. In 2016 he received his first Championship-Trophy with the Panthers. Then shortly after
in the same year, the IFAF Champions League Trophy was won by the team. Three National
Championships followed in 2017, 2019 and 2020. All this while managing to work as a football intern
at the Troy University in 2018 and West Virginia University in 2019. The 32-year-old is already an
experienced head coach even at his young age. A good resumé to start a new challenge.
Samel’s coaching style is playing physical football with spreading the field vertical and horizontally
and bringing new and fresh details into European football. With Samel as their Head Coach, the
Panthers could be an extremely fun team to watch, considering they were a well-established team in
Poland before. Samel has a strong core of polish players to trust in and a strong team behind his back
that believes in him as well.

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