Martyn Pert has revealed the journey he has taken to end up as assistant coach of MLS club Vancouver Whitecaps.
The 36-year old Englishman was appointed to Carl Robinson's coaching staff last week after stints in the UK, Bahrain and South America.
Pert was given an opportunity by then-Watford manager Aidy Boothroyd after he travelled around Europe picking the brains of coaches from such clubs as AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Ajax.
He has also spent time at Fulham and Cardiff City, was the Bahraini national team assistant, and scouted Brazil and Argentina for the Bluebirds.
Now he finds himself in North America embarking a different journey and is looking forward to being heavily involved in a burgeoning competition.
"I'm excited," Pert told The Province. "You can see the MLS is growing. You see the transfers that are happening."
Of his path into coaching the sports science expert added: "I just wrote letters.
"I was a 23-year-old kid, so they were pretty open about it.
"It got me in the door because I came back and did a report and that got me an introduction to Aidy Boothroyd.
"I don't think it was the content of the report, so much, but that I was proactive."
And despite his lack of MLS knowledge, Pert is confident he can bring plenty of his own ideas to the Whitecaps.
"(MLS) is something I don't know a whole lot about, to be perfectly honest but I obviously know about football, so I'm sure it's pretty transferable," he concluded.
