JERMAIN Defoe wants to be the next Sunderland head coach - and has his backroom team prepared and ready to go.

The former England striker - who fell in love with Sunderland and Wearside after joining the club for the first of two spells in 2015 - is desperate for a shot at management and says it would be a "dream" to take charge of the Black Cats.

Defoe has been a player-coach at Rangers and led Tottenham's Under-18s but says he's now ready to step up and become a first team boss and has his own coaching team ready to join him, including former Sunderland midfielder and assistant manager Paul Bracewell.

"If I got a phone call now and they said ‘do you want to be Sunderland manager?’...when you’ve had these dreams [to go into managing] it’d be a dream because I understand it’s a massive club, it’s a Premier League club," the 41-year-old told The Northern Echo, speaking at the launch of the Jermain Defoe Academy at East Durham College

"Even when I was a player, I always used to say I'd love to manage this club.

"If I got an opportunity, I wouldn't shy away from it, let's go. The most important thing is knowing who you'll take with you and I've got that.

"I won't mention names but I know exactly who I'd bring in. When you look at the current squad of young players, I hear people talk about needing experience. My experience is working with young players, understanding what they need and it forces you to coach.

"When you're dealing with young players, if I walk into a first team environment you can sit back and think this is great, but with young players it forces you to coach and it's the detail you have to give them.

"The coaches who I'm working with, one of the coaches has coached in the (Tottenham) academy for 17 years. Another one has managed and coached me here at Sunderland, Paul Bracewell. Me and Brace are so close. He's experienced. I'm getting all these gems from experienced coaches.

"The other one is a young coach who has the same love for the game as me, he's obsessed.

"You have to be obsessed with the game, I say that to young players all the time."

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Defoe scored 33 goals in 74 appearances - included a derby day winner against Newcastle at the Stadium of Light - in his first spell on Wearside between 2015 and 2017. He made a sensational return to the Black Cats in 2022 and although that stint was short-lived before he announced his retirement from playing, he remains a hugely popular figure with supporters and says he loves the club and the area.

He knows the Sunderland job is highly sought-after but believes his experience and skill-set make him a good fit for the role.

"There’s been loads of names linked, and I understand that," he says.

"The crazy thing is everyone is going to want this job, so that tells you that this is such an amazing opportunity. I saw Dwight Yorke talking about it recently – someone who I looked up to. Everyone is going to want this job.

"I speak to Brace all the time, he’ll message me and say ‘JD, get your CV in’ because he knows how much I love football. As part of my (coaching) course I went to Burnley and I sat down with Vincent Kompany for about three hours. I spoke to him about his journey, and about Pep, and I watched the way that he does things, in terms of his training and his recruitment. And recruitment is important.

"You talk about recruitment as just players but I think it’s staff as well because if you get it wrong then you could have problems. All these different experiences will hopefully help me going forward.

"If I got a phone call from Kristjaan (Speakman) or Kyril (Louis-Dreyfus), get me my suit, get me my whistle and let’s go and win games, it’s as simple as that. These are my people. I know."

Defoe was speaking exclusively to The Northern Echo at the launch of The Jermain Defoe Academy at East Durham College. To find out more about the Academy and how to apply before the first course in September 2024, head to www.edc.ac.uk