The tiny Caribbean island of Guadeloupe is home to 394,110 habitants, one of whom happens to be one of the most decorated players in European football during the 1990s and early 2000s and current head coach of the Guadeloupe National Team, Jocelyn Angloma.

This is the beauty of Concacaf Nations League Qualifying. At first glance, the normal onlooker might discount the chances of an island like Guadeloupe competing for a top-10 finish and a berth in the 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup due to its small size, but perhaps no team in Concacaf packs a bigger punch on the touchline.

In his day, Angloma played for a who’s who in European football: Olympique Marseille, where he won the 1993 UEFA Champions League; Paris Saint-Germain; Internazionale; plus a final stop at Valencia where he won La Liga and Copa del Rey titles and reached two straight Champions League finals.

Needless to say, Angloma achieved a lot in football, and now the selfless coach wants to return the favor to his native land.

“I like working with the young kids here in Guadeloupe,” said Angloma in an interview with FloFC. “I’m not really interested in returning to Europe to manage. You never know, but for now I’m happy here. I’m helping young players here who want to get better and want to know what it takes to get to the next level.”

For someone who was so accomplished as a player and now serves as the national team coach, Angloma remains refreshingly down-to-earth and approachable to all at home.

“People are always asking me or reminding me about what I did. Young players like to ask for advice and about how I accomplished the things in my career. But honestly, I prefer to not speak about myself, I’m not that type of person,” said Angloma.

Angloma was appointed as Guadeloupe’s head coach in December 2017 and has guided the team to a 1W-1D-1L start in 2019-20 Concacaf Nations League Qualifying, good for 19th place in the 34-team table and still with a chance to qualify for the 2019 Gold Cup.

While Angloma is happy to serve as boss of Les Gwada Boys, he acknowledges that the job comes with its fair share of challenges.

“We’re lacking results. There are difficulties. We are an island and many of our top players play in France and sometimes their clubs do not want to release them for games,” he said. “It is a challenge, but we are trying to work through these issues.”

But once he has his players on the field and is able to work hands-on, Angloma flourishes. Everything that he learned playing in Europe’s top leagues rises to the surface and provides an invaluable opportunity for Guadeloupe’s new generation to learn from a man who was one of the finest defenders in Europe 20 years ago.

“I want my teams to play good football. I had a chance to play against great minds like Pep Guardiola, Phillip Cocu, Fernando Hierro, Zinedine Zidane, and I see how their teams play. I try to model my teams after theirs and try to have my teams enjoy their football,” said Angloma.

After playing for France both at Euro ’92 and Euro ’96, Angloma was able to suit up for Guadeloupe (Guadeloupe is not a FIFA member), and he led the Caribbean island to a memorable semifinal finish at the 2007 Gold Cup in which he scored two goals in four games. 

“It was a wonderful experience. We did it with a group of unknown players and we got better as the tournament went on,” Angloma said. “We won big matches and then barely lost to Mexico 1-0 in the semifinal. Unfortunately, Guadeloupe could not sustain that level, but that’s what we are trying to do now, to bring Guadeloupe back to that level.”

Restoring Guadeloupe as one of the top teams in the Caribbean and a regular Gold Cup participant will take time, but certainly the foundation would be made a lot stronger if Guadeloupe can top rivals Martinique on matchday four of Nations League Qualifying.

“It will be very important for us to win that game,” Angloma said. “The people here know it’s an important game. We have to win no matter what. Making the Gold Cup will be hard. We need to win and hope many others lose to get to the Gold Cup, but winning would keep us in Group B and so that’s a good goal for us.” 

If Angloma’s success rate as a coach mirrors that from his playing days, Guadeloupe won’t have any problems meeting any more future goals.

Arch Bell is a freelance soccer writer who lives in Austin, Texas, and covers all things Concacaf. Follow him on Twitter.