Diarmuid O'Carroll (born 16 March 1987 in
Killarney
Killarney ( ; ga, Cill Airne , meaning 'church of sloes') is a town in County Kerry, southwestern Ireland. The town is on the northeastern shore of Lough Leane, part of Killarney National Park, and is home to St Mary's Cathedral, Ross Castl ...
) is an Irish retired professional
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...
, who is currently assistant manager at
St Mirren. He has worked in various roles in football such as for the Irish Football Association as Club and Community Development Officer within the Football Development Department.
Club career
Diarmuid O'Carroll started his youth career with
Home Farm before joining
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
's Youth Academy, he had featured for Celtic's reserve side for several years, but did not play for the first team. In 2007, he had a loan spell with
Ross County F.C. and, in July 2008, it was announced that O'Carroll had signed a one-year deal with
English League Two side
Morecambe
Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea.
Name
The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), w ...
.
In the summer of 2009 O'Carroll had many trials, including one at
Újpest FC
Újpest Football Club () is a Hungarian professional association football, football club, based in Újpest, Budapest, that competes in Nemzeti Bajnokság I.
Formed in 1885, Újpest reached the first division of the Hungarian League in Nemzeti ...
, but he did not agree a deal with the Hungarian club. He played for
Shamrock Rovers
Shamrock Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairà na Seamróige) is an Irish association football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most su ...
in their win over
Hibernian F.C.
Hibernian Football Club (), commonly known as Hibs, is a professional football club based in the Leith area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The club plays in the Scottish Premiership, the top tier of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL). ...
in July but was not offered a contract One month later he signed a one-year deal with
Airdrie United
Airdrieonians Football Club is a Scottish professional football team in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, who are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in Scottish League One. They were formed in 2002 as Airdrie United ...
. Due to financial cutbacks at the club, he left in May 2010. O'Carroll then went on trial at Raith Rovers. He scored his first goal for Raith as a trialist away to Forfar Athletic in a pre-season friendly on 13 July 2010. On 30 July he signed for Icelandic side Valur where he also worked as a youth coach.
In November 2010, after returning from Iceland O'Carroll signed a pre-contract agreement with
Glenavon
Glenavon Football Club is a Northern Irish semi-professional football club that competes in the NIFL Premiership. Founded in 1889, the club hails from Lurgan and plays its home matches at Mourneview Park. Club colours are blue and white. Gar ...
in Northern Ireland. He became eligible to play from January 2011.
In an Irn-Bru league cup match on 20 September 2011, O'Carroll scored a double hat trick Until this time, he played for amateur side
Dollingstown
Dollingstown is a large village in County Down, Northern Ireland, lying between Lurgan and Magheralin. It is within the Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon district. In the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2011 Census it had a population of 2,126 people.
...
to maintain his match fitness.
He signed for
Cliftonville
Cliftonville is a coastal area of the town of Margate, situated to the east of the main town, in the Thanet district of Kent, South East England, United Kingdom. It also contains the area known as Palm Bay.
The original Palm Bay estate was ...
on 3 January 201
and scored on his debut at Leonida
O'Caroll also worked as a youth coach for the club's academy as well as a consultant for the agency The Copius Group.
[
]
Later career
On 7 May 2014, O'Carroll was confirmed to have left Cliftonville after winning back to back league titles and league cups. He then joined Crusaders F.C., Crusaders, signing a two-year pre-contract for the club. During his time at Crusaders as a semi-professional player, O'Caroll was also appointed manager of Crusaders Newtownabbey Strikers
Crusaders Strikers Football Club is a women's association football club based in North Belfast, Northern Ireland. The club was founded in 1992 as Newtownabbey Strikers and became a member of the Northern Ireland Women's Football Association in 1 ...
in April 2015 (left in January 2017).[Diarmuid O'Carroll profile at LinkedIn]
linkedin.com On the expiration of this contract, Diarmuid had won 4 back to back titles with 2 clubs and then O'Carroll decided to retire from football to focus on coaching.
On 23 November 2018, O'Carroll came out of retirement, signing a short-term deal at Dungannon Swifts.
O’Carroll has completed a number of coaching badges and has a long term ambition of pursuing this area after he retires from playing. On 27 February 2019, he was appointed manager of Glentoran F.C.
Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882.
History
Early history
In 1914, Glentoran won the Vienna Cup, becoming the first United Kingdom team to win a European t ...
's women's team. He left the position in June 2019, to become the Director of Coaching for Downtown Las Vegas Soccer Club.
On 23 September 2019 he took over the role of coach to Motherwell FC
Motherwell Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, which plays in the Scottish Premiership. Motherwell have not dropped out of the top-flight of Scottish football since 1985, and have lif ...
's Under 18s. This was a post that had briefly been filled by Darren O’Dea who had moved on to coach the under 18s with Celtic.
On 7 June 2021, O'Carroll joined Morecambe
Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea.
Name
The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), w ...
as a first-team coach, joining Stephen Robinson
Stephen Kern Robinson (born October 26, 1955) is an American former NASA astronaut.
Education
He was active in the Boy Scouts of America, where he achieved its second-highest rank, Life Scout. Robinson graduated from Campolindo High School, ...
after they had worked together at Motherwell. On 9 January 2022, O’Carroll took charge of Morecambe in a 3-1 FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
defeat to Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...
, after manager Stephen Robinson tested positive for COVID-19 on the eve of the match.
On 22 February 2022, O’Carroll was appointed as Robinson’s assistant manager at St Mirren. On 13 March 2023, O’Carroll joined Michael O’Neill’s backroom staff with the Northern Ireland national team
The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international association football. From 1882 to 1920, all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team, organised by the Irish Foo ...
as a senior coach, whilst remaining in his assistant manager role at St. Mirren.[ ]
International career
O'Carroll has been capped at every youth level and under 21 for Ireland, but has never played for the Republic of Ireland at full international level.
Charity work
O'Carroll started his charity work by running a half-marathon in aid of Suicide Awareness in June 2010 in Belfast and continued that in October of that year by running the Dublin City Marathon for the same cause.
Honours
;Cliftonville
* IFA Premiership
The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northe ...
(2): 2012–13
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
, 2013–14
* Irish League Cup
The Northern Ireland Football League Cup (BetMcLean League Cup for sponsorship purposes), also known colloquially as the Irish League Cup, is a national football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland open to all member clubs of the Nort ...
(2): 2012–13
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
, 2013–14
* Irish Cup
The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Ina ...
(1): 2012–13
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
(runner-up)
;Crusaders
* NIFL Premiership
The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northe ...
(2): 2014–15, 2015–16
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ocarroll, Diarmuid
1987 births
Republic of Ireland association footballers
Republic of Ireland men's under-21 international footballers
Living people
Home Farm F.C. players
Celtic F.C. players
Ross County F.C. players
Morecambe F.C. players
Scottish Football League players
Airdrieonians F.C. players
Glenavon F.C. players
Cliftonville F.C. players
Crusaders F.C. players
NIFL Premiership players
Shamrock Rovers F.C. guest players
Association footballers from County Kerry
Expatriate footballers in Scotland
Republic of Ireland expatriate association footballers
Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers
Men's association football forwards
Motherwell F.C. non-playing staff
Morecambe F.C. non-playing staff
St Mirren F.C. non-playing staff
Dungannon Swifts F.C. players