Mark Bonner (born 23 November 1985) is a

football manager ''Football Manager'' (also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008) is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game bega ...

who is currently the head coach of

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They compete in EFL League one , the 3rd tier of the English football league system. The club is based at the Abbey Stadium on Ne ...

Coaching career

Bonner joined

in June 2011, working in a number of positions in the club's academy. In January 2018, Bonner was named as first team coach, working under manager

Shaun Derry Shaun Peter Derry (born 6 December 1977) is an English former professional footballer and manager. He previously managed Notts County and Cambridge United, and played for Crystal Palace, Leeds United and Queens Park Rangers among other clubs. De ...

and assistant

Joe Dunne Joseph John Dunne (born 25 May 1973) is an Irish Manager (association football), football manager and former association football, footballer who is currently assistant manager of Newport County A.F.C., Newport County. Dunne played as a defen ...

, taking over the role from Mick Halsall. Following the departure of Derry in February 2018, Dunne took over as interim head coach with Bonner serving as his assistant head coach. Dunne and Bonner's roles were made permanent in May of that year following a successful interim spell. As results declined in the first half of the 2018-19 season, Dunne departed the club in December 2018 with Bonner taking over temporary charge of the first team, overseeing a defeat and a draw before

Colin Calderwood Colin Calderwood (born 20 January 1965) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He is the assistant manager at Northampton Town. As a player, he was a centre-back who notably played in the Premier League for Tottenham Hots ...

was appointed later that month, with Bonner returning to his role as assistant head coach. Calderwood's departure in January 2020 again saw Bonner take temporary charge of first team duties, overseeing four wins in his first four matches in charge. In March 2020, Bonner was named permanent head coach of

on a two-year contract until the end of the 2021-22 season. Due to the curtailing of the 2019–20 season caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, Bonner's first match as permanent head coach did not come for six months until Cambridge United knocked

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

side

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Sin ...

out of the first round of the

2020–21 EFL Cup The 2020–21 EFL Cup was the 61st season of the EFL Cup (known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons), the competition is open to all clubs participating in the Premier League and the English Football League. Manchester City were the three ...

. Bonner's first full season as a manager was hugely successful for Cambridge United, both in team and personal honours. In September, he was named League Two Manager of the Month after an unbeaten start saw Cambridge United top of the league with seven points and without conceding a goal. He won his second monthly award in January after an unbeaten month of three wins and two draws saw the U's return to the top of the table. Cambridge United continued their encouraging form into the final stretch of the season and, after spurning two chances to secure promotion with surprise losses to Stevenage and

Harrogate Town Harrogate Town A.F.C. is a professional association football club in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, which competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed the Sulphurites, due to the ...

, a 3–0 win at home to

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...

saw them confirm a second placed finish, and promotion to

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

for the first time since 2002. On 10 May 2021, Bonner signed a new 3-year contract with the club.

Managerial statistics

*initially caretaker and appointed permanently on 9 March 2020

Honours

Manager

Cambridge United *

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

runner-up:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Individual * League Two Manager of the Month: September 2020, January 2021

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonner, Mark Cambridge United F.C. non-playing staff Living people Association football coaches English football managers Cambridge United F.C. managers English Football League managers 1985 births