Gary Seward (born 1 October 1961) is an English former 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 played in the Football League as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

. He has worked as a scout for a number of clubs including

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

and

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

. Between October 2010 and October 2013 he worked as assistant manager at Forest Green Rovers and had a brief spell in caretaker charge of the club.

Playing career

Seward was born in Paddington, London, and started out playing for

Rutherford School Rutherford School is an independent special school for pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD) aged 3–19 that aims to provide inclusive education to learners whose very special needs are compounded by a high degree of ...

, his secondary school, for whom he was captain. He was later picked for the West London representative schoolboy team, for whom he was also captain, and also represented Inner London schools. He played in the Football League for

, also appearing for

Harrow Borough Harrow Borough Football Club is an English football club based in Harrow, London. They were founded in 1933 and compete in the . Harrow Borough's home ground is Earlsmead Stadium, which has a capacity of 3,070. Harrow Borough moved into Earlsme ...

, Wembley, Kuopion Palloseura, Clapton,

IFK Luleå IFK Luleå is a Swedish football club formed in 1900, located in Luleå. The club merged with Luleå FF and played under the name Luleå FF/IFK from 1986 to 1989. History IFK Luleå was originally founded in the year 1900, but went dormant aft ...

(on loan) and

Kingstonian Kingstonian Football Club is an English semi-professional football club based in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London which currently plays in the Isthmian League Premier Division. The club was founded in 1885 by YMC ...

Coaching and scouting career

Seward was assistant coach at IFK Göteborg before becoming Wimbledon's European

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement **Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, sectio ...

, chief scout, and reserve team manager. From 2004 to 2006 Seward was European scout for

. In September 2006 he was made chief scout/European scout at Crystal Palace, a role he undertook until June 2007. He then left Crystal Palace and followed his former manager Iain Dowie to

in August 2008, joining as European scout/UK scout on a three-year fixed termed contract. He left the club in May 2010. In October 2010, Seward was appointed as assistant manager to

Dave Hockaday David Hockaday (born 9 November 1957) is an English professional footballer who is currently Head of Male Football at South Gloucestershire and Stroud College. He has previously worked as a manager at Leeds United, Forest Green Rovers, Kidde ...

Conference National The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-profes ...

outfit Forest Green Rovers. In October 2013, he was made interim manager at Forest Green after Hockaday departed the club by mutual consent. However, on 29 October 2013, he left when it was confirmed he would not be handed the managerial role at the club on a permanent basis.

References

1961 births Living people English men's footballers Footballers from the City of Westminster People from Paddington Men's association football forwards English Football League players Blackpool F.C. players Wembley F.C. players Clapton F.C. players Harrow Borough F.C. players Kuopion Palloseura players IFK Luleå players Kingstonian F.C. players English football managers Forest Green Rovers F.C. managers English expatriate men's footballers English expatriate sportspeople in Finland Expatriate men's footballers in Finland English expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden {{England-footy-forward-1960s-stub