Marc Stephen John Bircham (born 11 May 1978 in

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

) is a former football player. Born in England, he represented Canada at international level.

Club career

London-born Bircham started his professional career at

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...

and after 6 seasons joined

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

where he became a crowd favorite. Bircham used to be known for his unusual hairstyle – a

dyed Dyeing is the application of dyes or pigments on textile materials such as fibers, yarns, and fabrics with the goal of achieving color with desired color fastness. Dyeing is normally done in a special solution containing dyes and particular ...

blue and white streak down the centre of his hair from when he played for QPR and a red and white streak while playing for

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. QPR fans sang a song to the tune of "

I Love You, Baby I Love You Baby may refer to: * ''I Love You, Baby'' (2000 film), German action thriller film * ''I Love You Baby'' (2001 film), Spanish romantic comedy film * "I Luv U Baby", 1994 song by The Original * " ILY (I Love You Baby)", 2019 song by Sur ...

": ''"We love you, Bircham/ because you got blue hair/ We love you, Bircham/ because you're everywhere/ We love you, Bircham/ because you're Rangers through and through."'' In 2007, he moved to

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

. He scored his first and what turned out to be only goal for Yeovil against Brentford in the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

. After a series of ankle injuries in the 2008–09 season it was revealed that Bircham had quit football and is going to set up a youth coaching camp in Cyprus.

International career

Bircham was eligible to play for Canada because one of his grandfathers was born in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

. He made his debut for

in an April 1999 friendly match against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

. He is the only player to have played for a country without actually visiting it when his first cap – as well as his first and only goal – came. He scored that goal only 8 minutes after coming on as a substitute for another player making his debut,

Davide Xausa Davide Antonio Xausa (born 10 March 1976) is a Canadian former soccer player. Club career Xausa started his career with Metro Ford Wolves before accepting a scholarship with the University of Portland where he was a 3 time All American, 4 time W ...

. Bircham earned 17 caps for his adopted country, representing Canada in two FIFA World Cup qualification matches. His final international was a June 2004 World Cup qualification match against

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

Managerial career

QPR

After becoming a QPR youth coach at the start of the 2009–10 season, he was put in temporary charge with fellow Youth Coach Steve Gallen due to manager Jim Magilton's suspension on 9 December 2009. The duo took charge of a 2–2 draw away to

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

on 14 December 2009.

Waterford

On 12 May 2021, Bircham was named manager of League of Ireland Premier Division side

Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

until the end of the season. With Waterford bottom of the table when Bircham took over, he led his side to 6 wins and a draw from his first 12 league games in charge, taking the club out of the relegation zone and earning a new 2 and a half year contract which was announced in August 2021. On 23 November 2021, Bircham was sacked by

, having learned of the news on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

without being contacted by the club following a text exchange between himself and owner Richard Forrest the previous night in which Forrest suspended Bircham for a week, preventing him from taking charge of the club's crucial Promotion/relegation play-off final against UCD.

Como

In the summer of 2022, he was appointed as first team coach of Italian

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

side

Como Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label= Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Its proximity to Lake Como and to the Alps h ...

under manager Giacomo Gattuso.

Personal life

Bircham has 3 children from a previous marriage. 1 boy, Frankie and 2 girls, Layla & Dolly. He currently regularly appears on Talksport.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Canada's goal tally first.''

Managerial

As of 23 November 2021.

References

External links

* *
archive
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bircham, Marc 1978 births Living people Footballers from Wembley English people of Canadian descent English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Canadian men's soccer players Canadian expatriate men's soccer players Canada men's international soccer players 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup players Millwall F.C. players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Yeovil Town F.C. players English Football League players Queens Park Rangers F.C. non-playing staff Queens Park Rangers F.C. managers Chicago Fire FC non-playing staff Canadian expatriate sportspeople in England English football managers