Chris Coleman (footballer)

For other people named Chris Coleman, see Chris Coleman (disambiguation).

Chris Coleman

Coleman as manager of Coventry City in 2008
Personal information
Full name	Christopher Coleman
Date of birth	(1970-06-10) 10 June 1970
Place of birth	Swansea, Wales
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Position(s)	Defender
Team information
Current team	Wales (manager)
Youth career
	Manchester City
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1985–1986	Manchester City	0	(0)
1986–1991	Swansea City	196	(3)
1991–1995	Crystal Palace	190	(16)
1995–1997	Blackburn Rovers	33	(0)
1997–2002	Fulham	165	(11)
Total		584	(30)
International career
1992–2002	Wales	36	(4)
Managerial career
2003–2007	Fulham
2007–2008	Real Sociedad
2008–2010	Coventry City
2011–2012	Larissa
2012–	Wales
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Christopher Patrick "Chris" Coleman (born 10 June 1970) is a Welsh football manager and former player who is the current manager of the Wales national football team.

As a player, Coleman usually played in defence, while also occasionally appearing as a forward. He won 32 caps playing for Wales. Coleman's playing career ended at the age of 32, when his leg was broken in a car crash. Following this, Coleman started his coaching career.

In his first full season as manager of Fulham, Coleman guided the club to a respectable ninth place finish in the 2003–04 Premier League. After leaving Fulham, Coleman was appointed manager of Real Sociedad. However, he resigned in January 2008, citing differences with the incoming president. In February 2008, he returned to England to manage Coventry City, but was dismissed in May 2010 following a disastrous run of results. Coleman then managed Greek side Larissa for the first half of the 2011–12 season before resigning due to financial troubles at the club.

In June 2010, Coleman worked as a commentator for ITV at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. He has also worked as a commentator and pundit for Sky Sports.

Personal life

Coleman was born in Swansea in 1970 to a family of two sisters. He started school at St Joseph's Roman Catholic Primary School and then went to Bishop Vaughan RC School. As a child, he grew up a keen supporter of Liverpool – his favourite player being Emlyn Hughes. The first professional team he was contracted to was Manchester City, aged sixteen, although he later left them, citing homesickness as the major reason. He then joined Swansea. He has 4 children with his ex wife Belinda Coleman, the oldest Sonny Coleman is a football agent. And at the age of 21, is already making waves in the world of football.

He is married to Sky Sports News presenter Charlotte Jackson and are due to have a baby together later this year.

Playing career

Swansea City

Coleman made his first professional appearance for his hometown club Swansea City aged 17, in 1987. He made nearly 200 appearances for the south Wales club and helped win the Welsh Cup in 1989 and 1991.

Crystal Palace

After spending four years with Swansea, Coleman was signed by Crystal Palace in 1991 for a transfer fee set by a Football League tribunal at around £270,000, plus a percentage of any future sale. After making 143 appearances, scoring 16 goals in that period – a 1 in 9 record explained by the fact that manager Steve Coppell often used Coleman as a makeshift centre forward. He subsequently moved to Blackburn Rovers. The major lowlight of this period was relegation from the Premier League in 1993, but he did obtain his first cap for Wales while contracted to Crystal Palace.

They accepted a bid of 2.8 Million pounds from Premier League champions Blackburn in 1995, a record transfer fee for palace. Beating their previous by over 3/4 of a million pounds.

In 2005, Palace supporters voted Coleman into their Centenary XI.

Blackburn Rovers

Coleman joined Premier League champions Blackburn Rovers for a fee of £2.8 million. Blackburn did not retain the Premier League title they had won in 1995, and finished seventh. Coleman made 28 league appearances over his season-and-a-half at the club, and when he found himself out of the starting line-up too often (not helped by a persistent Achilles injury), he took the gamble to further his career by dropping two divisions to join Fulham.

He joined Fulham for £2.1m, which is still a League 1 record to this day. Impressive for a defender, but justified as he was frequently touted as the best defender outside the top flight.

Fulham

Fulham, at the time in the Second Division, were financed by wealthy businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed, and were able to spend a record transfer fee for the division and club, of over £2 million for Coleman in late 1997. He quickly became club captain, and led Fulham to promotion under manager Kevin Keegan in 1998–99 to the First Division.

He remained captain and a regular in the team under new manager Jean Tigana in the 2000–01 season as Fulham made a successful start to the campaign. However, Coleman's career was ended midway through the season, after he broke his leg in a car crash, near Bletchingley in Surrey on 2 January 2001, just days before an FA Cup tie against Manchester United. He never recovered from this injury despite playing a reserve fixture in March 2002, a game that only served as an indication that he would never again play at the highest level of English football.

Managerial career

Fulham

Coleman joined Fulham's coaching staff in October 2002 under Tigana. He later succeeded the Frenchman as caretaker manager in April 2003, and steered Fulham away from relegation danger. He was named as Fulham's permanent manager in May 2003, beating the more experienced Klaus Toppmöller and George Burley to the post, and also became the youngest manager in the Premier League.

His first full season in charge saw Fulham finish a surprise ninth place, as many pundits tipped them to struggle and for Coleman to be sacked. Many of Fulham's key players, such as Edwin van der Sar, Louis Saha, Steed Malbranque and Luis Boa Morte, were sold in the following years and Fulham did not repeat their earlier successes under Coleman though he kept them clear of relegation. He was sacked on 10 April 2007, after Fulham went on a seven-game winless run.

Real Sociedad

Coleman moved abroad to manage recently relegated Segunda División side Real Sociedad on 28 June 2007, after being recommended to the club by fellow Welshman and former Real Sociedad manager John Toshack. He was linked with Bolton Wanderers in October 2007 though nothing came of it. With the club in 5th place and having only lost once in its previous eleven games, Coleman resigned as manager on 16 January 2008, citing a divergence in vision for the club with newly elected President Iñaki Badiola.

Coventry City

Coleman was appointed manager of Championship side Coventry City on 19 February 2008, signing a three-and-a-half-year contract. He replaced Iain Dowie, who had been sacked by new owner Ray Ranson.

On 26 August 2008, the BBC reported that Coleman was no longer interested in the international success of Wales. He later denied the allegation, however, telling BBC Radio Wales' Sportstime programme, "I've got to get him [Eastwood] fit for Coventry first and foremost, that's my job. When he is fit, I'd drive him down the motorway myself if I had to for him to play for Wales. I've played for Wales myself and I preferred playing for my country than any club I've played for. I can promise you that I love Wales, I'm very patriotic and that will never change." On 4 May 2010, Coleman was sacked following Coventry's 19th place finish during the 2009–10 season, their lowest league finish in more than 45 years.

Larissa

On 26 May 2011, Coleman was appointed as manager of Greek side Larissa. In January 2012, Coleman announced that because of financial troubles at the club he would be quitting from his position as manager.

During his time in Greece, Coleman only lost 1 game out of 12, only conceding 3 goals and scoring 16. Due to financial and corruption difficulties the season didn't start until late 2011. During pre-season they played 20 games. winning 14, drawing 4 and losing 2. He was adored by the fans, and there were many planned riots and protests when he left citing financial difficulties as the reasons, (having not been paid for 3 months along with many of the players). In the immediate 12 games after Coleman left, Larissa lost 9 out of 12 games, drawing 2 and winning only 1.

Wales

On 19 January 2012, Coleman was appointed team manager of the Welsh national team, as successor to his late friend Gary Speed. His first game in charge was a 2–0 defeat against Mexico in New York on 27 May, after he decided to let assistant manager Osain Roberts take control in the Gary Speed memorial match.

His next game in charge was on 15 August against Bosnia, Wales final match before the World Cup qualifiers started. The game ended in a 2–0 defeat for Wales and finished what was a very disappointing preparation period for Coleman and Wales. The first qualifier against Belgium on 7 September started well for Wales, with their defence holding firm for the first 25 minutes until disaster struck. Referee Stefen Johannesson sent off centre back James Collins for a late lunge on Guillaume Gillet in the 25th minute. This left the Welsh with a tough task, and they ended up losing the game 2–0. The next game was against Serbia 4 days later in Novi Sad which was without numerous of Wales' first choice players. Coleman's Wales lost 6–1 with Gareth Bale scoring their only goal in what was their heaviest defeat in 16 years. On 12 October Coleman picked up his first victory as Wales manager, beating Scotland 2–1 with Bale scoring twice and capping the victory off with a sensational strike in the 88th minute to win the game for Wales. Wales went back to losing ways in their next game however, losing 2–0 to Croatia on 16 October.

Wales started 2013 positively, beating Austria 2–1 on 6 February. On 22 March, Wales did the double over Scotland, beating them 2–1 at Hampden Park and moving into 3rd place in the qualifying group table. Four days later in a qualifier against Croatia, Wales led 1–0 for the majority of the game through a Gareth Bale penalty. Two late goals from Croatia however ended any hopes of qualification.

Career statistics

Player

Club performance			League		Cup		League Cup		Continental		Total
Season	Club	League	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
England			League		FA Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
1987–88	Swansea City	Fourth Division	38	0	2	0	2	0	0	0	42	0
1988–89		Third Division	43	0	3	0	2	0	5	0	53	0
1989–90			46	2	4	0	2	0	2	0	54	2
1990–91			46	0	4	1	2	0	8	0	60	1
1991–92	Crystal Palace	First Division	28	4	1	0	5	0	0	0	34	4
1992–93		Premier League	44	5	1	0	7	2	0	0	52	7
1993–94		First Division	46	3	1	0	4	0	0	0	51	3
1994–95		Premier League	46	1	7	1	6	0	0	0	59	2
1995–96		First Division	25	0	2	0	2	0	0	0	29	0
1995–96	Blackburn Rovers	Premier League	25	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	25	0
1996–97			15	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	16	0
1997–98			0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
1997–98	Fulham	Second Division	29	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	30	1
1998–99			47	4	7	0	5	1	0	0	59	5
1999–2000		First Division	46	3	3	1	7	1	0	0	56	5
2000–01			35	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	36	0
2001–02		FA Premier League	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	England & Wales		559	23	36	3	47	4	15	0	657	30
Career total			559	23	36	3	47	4	15	0	657	30

Manager

As of 16 November 2014.

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
Fulham		17 April 2003	10 April 2007	176	65	43	68	36.93
Real Sociedad		28 June 2007	16 January 2008	21	12	4	5	57.14
Coventry City		19 May 2008	4 May 2010	117	39	35	43	33.33
Larissa		26 May 2011	9 January 2012	11	8	3	0	72.73
Wales		19 January 2012	Present	21	7	5	9	33.33
Total				346	131	90	125	37.86

Honours

Player

Swansea City

• Welsh Cup (2): 1989, 1991

Fulham

• First Division (1): 2000–01

Manager

Coventry City

• Football League Championship Manager of the Month: February 2009

Individual

• Football League Third Division PFA Team of the Year (2): 1988–89, 1990–91
• Football League Second Division PFA Team of the Year (2): 1997–98, 1998–99
• Football League First Division PFA Team of the Year (2): 1999–2000, 2000–01
• Crystal Palace Player of the Year: 1994

External links

• Chris Coleman at Soccerbase
• Chris Coleman management career statistics at Soccerbase