A stand-up has jetted to Asia to take charge of a second division team
Paul Watson
As career paths go, Charlie Pomroy’s has been an unusual one. Once a comic in sleepy Hertfordshire, he’s now in Siem Reap at the age of 37, coaching and owning a club in Cambodia’s second division.
In his youth, Pomroy was a promising player who worked his way up to Dunstable Town, but quit at 21 to look at coaching. “I was a decent defender and people said I’d be the next Colin Hendry,” he tells FFT with a chuckle. “But I felt my strength was in reading the game, so I was drawn to coaching.”
Pomroy (whose actual name is Darren, confusingly) became the football development officer at local club Stevenage but still felt something was missing, so took the obvious next step: building a budding career as a comedian.
That was until wanderlust took over and he bought a one-way ticket to India, then headed to Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia. There was less demand for a Stevenage-centric stand-up set in southeast Asia – Graham Westley gags probably wouldn’t work – so Pomroy performed various jobs, including sous-chef at a restaurant, before football was his focus again.
He put down roots in Siem Reap, Cambodia’s second city, and launched Next Step FC – a club dedicated to providing pathways for players, such as university and exchange placements. He was then offered his first head coach job at Soltilo Angkor – a Japanese-owned team with ex-Milan man Keisuke Honda as chairman, with a name inspired by local landmark Angkor Wat.
Pomroy spent two spells there, the second ending when he was fired without warning, despite a string of positive results. “To rub it in
