Samuel Edward Troughton (born 27 March 1964 in

Lisburn Lisburn (; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with ...

, Northern Ireland) is a Northern Irish former

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 ...

who played 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 ...

and now a coach.

Playing career

Club

Troughton played for

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882. History Early history In 1914, Glentoran won the Vienna Cup, becoming the first United Kingdom team to win a European t ...

and

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

before coming to South Africa in 1985 to play for Jomo Cosmos,

Mamelodi Sundowns Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club (simply known as Sundowns) is a South African professional football club based in Mamelodi, Pretoria in the Gauteng province that plays in the Premier Soccer League, the first tier of South African football ...

and then

Orlando Pirates Orlando Pirates Football Club (often known as "The Buccaneers") is a South African professional football club based in the Houghton suburb of the city of Johannesburg and plays in the top-tier system of Football in South Africa known as DStv ...

. He was popularly known as "Special Branch" during his playing days in South Africa. In 1986, he briefly played for

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

, playing two league games in two days against Linfield and Glentoran (scoring in the latter) in December 1986.

Management career

After retiring from football, Troughton coached mainly lower league sides like Arcadia Shepherds,

Pretoria University The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was established in 1908 ...

and Durban Stars. He also had a short stint as

coach in 1994 and worked as an assistant coach for

Free State Stars Free State Stars Football club is a South African professional football club based in Bethlehem, Free State that plays in the National First Division. Formerly known as Makwane Computer Stars and Qwa Qwa Stars, their most significant honour i ...

. Troughton was retained as

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was ...

manager for the start of the 2015–16 season. In March 2016, he took charge of

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link E ...

for the rest of the season. On the 8 October 2018, Sammy signed a two-year deal as the Head Coach of Witbank Spurs, but barely two weeks after the joining the club he left for Mpumalanga rivals TS Sporting.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Troughton, Sammy 1964 births Living people Jomo Cosmos F.C. players Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. players Sportspeople from Lisburn Association football forwards Football managers from Northern Ireland Association footballers from Northern Ireland Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Orlando Pirates F.C. players Glentoran F.C. players Crusaders F.C. players British expatriates in South Africa Expatriate soccer players in South Africa Expatriate association footballers from Northern Ireland Expatriate soccer managers in South Africa