Patrick Joseph Walker (born 20 December 1959) is an Irish 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 ...

Playing career

He played for Gillingham between 1977 and 1981, making 51 appearances in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

. He also briefly played for

Bohemians Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Beer * National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst * Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...

, before quitting the professional game and moving to Sweden.

International career

Walker earned two

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for the Republic of Ireland U21 side.

Coaching career

Walker was coach of

Varbergs BoIS Varbergs BoIS FC is a Swedish football club located in Varberg, the main town of Varberg Municipality in Halland County. Background The club was formed at a meeting in the Varbergs Folkets Hus on 25 March 1925. The backbone of the new club was ...

GIF Sundsvall Gymnastik- och Idrottsföreningen Sundsvall, more commonly known as GIF Sundsvall (), Giffarna or simply Sundsvall, is a Swedish professional football club based in Sundsvall. The club is affiliated with Medelpads Fotbollförbund and plays its h ...

between 2000 and 2004 and brought them to their highest league finish in the

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...

to date. In 2005, he took over as manager of

Örebro SK Örebro Sportklubb, more commonly known as Örebro SK, Örebro or (especially locally) ÖSK, is a Swedish professional football club based in Örebro. The club are affiliated to Örebro Läns Fotbollförbund and play their home games at Behrn A ...

and helped them gain promotion to the Allsvenskan, before moving to Norway and

Norwegian First Division The Norwegian First Division, also called 1. divisjon and OBOS-ligaen (named sponsor is property developer OBOS), is the second-highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Each year, the top finishing teams in the 1. divisjon are p ...

club

Sandefjord Fotball Sandefjord Fotball, commonly known simply as Sandefjord, is a Norwegian professional football club, founded on 10 September 1998. The club currently competes in Eliteserien, the top tier of the Norwegian football league system. Their home ground ...

. He guided Sandefjord to their best league finish in the history of the club in 2010. On 9 May 2011 he was fired from Sandefjord Fotball after a weak season opening, which included one win, two draws and two defeats in the first five matches. In April 2016 he took over Pars FC Örebro as chairman and renamed the team to Scandinavian Football Club Örebro in order to make the team more professional and attract more players from around the world.

Personal life

He is the father of footballers

Kevin Kevin () is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name (; mga, Caoimhghín ; sga, Cóemgein ; Latinized as ). It is composed of "dear; noble"; Old Irish and ("birth"; Old Irish ). The variant ''Kevan'' is anglicized from , an ...

and

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Pat 1959 births Living people Association footballers from County Carlow Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Republic of Ireland expatriate men's association footballers Gillingham F.C. players English Football League players League of Ireland players Allsvenskan players Bohemian F.C. players Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden Republic of Ireland association football managers Republic of Ireland expatriate association football managers Republic of Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Kalmar FF managers Sandefjord Fotball managers Örebro SK managers GIF Sundsvall managers Irish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate football managers in Norway Expatriate football managers in Sweden Men's association football fullbacks Irish expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Men's association football midfielders Oulun Työväen Palloilijat players