Martin O'Neill

Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, (born 1 March 1952) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder.

After a brief early career in the Irish League, O'Neill moved to England where he spent most of his playing career with Nottingham Forest.

O'Neill was born in Kilrea, Derry,Northern Ireland, in 1952.

He was the sixth child of nine siblings, and has four brothers and four sisters.

O'Neill's father was a founding member of local GAA club Pádraig Pearse's Kilrea.

His brothers Gerry and Leo played for the club as well as being on the Derry senior team which won the 1958 Ulster Championship and reached that year's All-Ireland Championship final.

He played for both Kilrea and Derry at underage level as well.

He also played Gaelic football while boarding at St Columb's College, Derry, and later at St Malachy's College, Belfast.

While at St Malachy's, he first came to public attention as a football player with local side Rosario and then eventually with Distillery.

This breached the Gaelic Athletic Association prohibition on Gaelic footballers playing "foreign sports".

When St Malachy's reached the 1970 MacRory Cup final, the Antrim GAA County Board refused to allow the game to go ahead at Belfast's Casement Park.

The colleges involved switched the venue to County Tyrone to enable him to play.

St Malachy's won the game.

Before playing for Distillery in the Irish League, O'Neill played for the South Belfast side Rosario.

(Now he also has a conference room dedicated to him in Rosario Football Club's local Youth Club.) While at Distillery, he won the Irish Cup in 1971, scoring twice in a 3–0 win over Derry City in the final.

His second goal was particularly impressive, a mazy run in which he dribbled past three opponents before scoring with a powerful shot.

As a result of winning the cup, Distillery qualified for Europe the following season.

O'Neill scored against Barcelona in the European Cup Winners' Cup in a 3–1 home defeat in September 1971.

During this period he was spotted by a scout for Nottingham Forest.

He signed for Nottingham Forest in October 1971, leaving Distillery and quitting his university studies.

O'Neill went on to play an integral role in Forest's golden era.

He scored on his league debut for the club, a 4–1 win over West Bromwich Albion on 13 November 1971.

He went on to make a total of 17 league appearances that season, scoring twice, but could not prevent his side's relegation from the First Division in 1972.

However, the appointment of Brian Clough as manager in January 1975 was the beginning of a revolution for Nottingham Forest.

He won the First Division title in 1977–78 and the European Cup twice, in 1979 and 1980.

Under Clough's management, O'Neill helped Forest gain promotion to the top flight in 1977, won the league title and League Cup a year later, followed by further League Cup success a year later.

He was dropped to the substitutes bench for Forest's first European Cup victory over Malmö in 1979 after failing to fully recover from an injury, but he played in their 1980 win over Hamburg.

O'Neill signed for Norwich City in February 1981 for £250,000, however, Norwich were relegated on the last day of the season and he activated a release clause which enabled him to sign for Manchester City.

He was capped 64 times for the Northern Ireland national football team, also captaining the side at the 1982 World Cup.

O'Neill has managed Grantham Town, Wycombe Wanderers, Norwich City, Leicester City, Celtic, Aston Villa and Sunderland.

He guided Leicester City to the Football League Cup final three times, winning twice.

Despite a good start, he soon became out of favour with manager John Bond and returned to Norwich in February 1982, where he scored six goals to help them finish third and secure promotion.

After another season at Norwich, he returned to Nottingham to play for Notts County where they had successive relegations.

O'Neill attempted to make a comeback in 1984 with Chesterfield, but only played part of a reserve game before being forced off with a knee injury after 20 minutes.

This was made in an attempt to get fit for Northern Ireland's 1986 World Cup squad.

As Celtic manager between 2000 and 2005, he led that club to seven trophies including three Scottish Premier League titles and the 2003 UEFA Cup Final.

After joining Aston Villa he achieved three consecutive sixth-place finishes in the English Premier League and guided them to the 2010 Football League Cup Final.

He became Republic of Ireland manager in 2013 and led them to qualification for the 2016 UEFA European Championship for the third time in the nation's history, beating the reigning world champions, Germany in the process.

He left the role with assistant Roy Keane by "mutual agreement" in November 2018.

He was appointed as Nottingham Forest manager in January 2019 but left six months later.