Fergal Harkin is a former League of Ireland footballer and current "Director of Football" for Standard Liège He is from

Ballyliffin Ballyliffin () is a small village located at the north-western tip of Inishowen, County Donegal, Ireland. The surrounding landscape includes Pollan Strand, Binion Hill and Crockaughrim hill. History Local history of the area is covered in Char ...

in Inishowen, County Donegal in Ireland. Harkin started his amateur football career with his local club Clonmany Shamrocks, who play in the Inishowen Football League. He then signed for

Leicester City F.C. Leicester City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Leicester in the East Midlands of England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home mat ...

while a student at

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when L ...

. He was later released and joined

Bohemian F.C. Bohemian Football Club ( ga, an Cumann Peile Bóihéamach), more commonly referred to as Bohemians or Bohs, is a professional football club from Dublin, Ireland. Bohemians compete in the Premier Division of the League of Ireland, and are the ...

for the 1998/1999 season, however moved to

Finn Harps F.C. Finn Harps Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Chláirsigh na Finne) are an Irish association football, football club that play in the League of Ireland First Division, First Division of the League of Ireland, as of 2023. The club was founded in 195 ...

later that season. He appeared in that season's

FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Extra.ie FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as Derry ...

final for Finn Harps but was on the losing side to Bray Wanderers. He was Finn Harps player of the year in the 1999/2000 season. Harkin re-joined Bohemians in June 2001 and won the first major honour when he played his part in Bohemian's league win of 2002/2003. He was voted "player of the year" at Bohemians in both 2005 and 2006. He retired at the end of the 2007 season due to injury. Harkin has a degree in Physical Education and Sports Science at Loughborough University and a Masters in Business Studies from University College Dublin. After retiring from football, he worked for Nike for 6 years. From 2009 to 2022 he worked for Manchester City Football Club, first a scout and later as "Football Partnerships and Pathways Manager". He was heavily rumoured to be appointed Director of Football at Celtic F.C. in 2021. However, less than a year later, on 17 May 2022, he was appointed by Standard de Liège as their new manager in charge of deploying the sport strategy of the club in the long term. Harkin was the first significant lateral hire of Standard de Liège after the arrival of 777 Partners as new majority shareholder.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harkin, Fergal Manchester City F.C. non-playing staff Loughborough University athletes Association footballers from County Donegal Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Men's association football midfielders Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Bohemian F.C. players Finn Harps F.C. players Standard Liège non-playing staff