Steven John Ball (born 2 September 1969) is an English

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 beg ...

and 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 ...

. Ball is currently Head of Academy Coaching at

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 ...

club

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

. Ball began his career with

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, with whom he won the

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

in 1988, but failed to make a first-team appearance for the club. He made his

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 ...

debut with

, where he had two stints separated by spells with

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

and

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 N ...

. In a career blighted by injury, Ball made 70 Football League appearances between 1987 and 1996. He also spent time in

non-League football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

with Sudbury Town,

Heybridge Swifts Heybridge Swifts Football Club is a football club based in Heybridge, near Maldon, Essex, England. They are currently members of the and play at Scraley Road. History The club was established in 1880 as Heybridge Football Club. After joining t ...

, and briefly

Long Melford Long Melford, colloquially and historically also referred to as Melford, is a large village and civil parish in the Babergh District, Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is on Suffolk's border with Essex, which is marked by ...

. Ball was manager at

Stanway Rovers Stanway Rovers Football Club is a association football, football club based in Stanway, Essex, Stanway, near Colchester, in Essex, England. They are currently members of the and play at the Hawthorns. History The modern club was established on ...

, Clacton Town,

Leiston Leiston ( ) is an English town in the East Suffolk non-metropolitan district of Suffolk, near Saxmundham and Aldeburgh, about from the North Sea coast, north-east of Ipswich and north-east of London. The town had a population of 5,508 at the ...

and Maldon & Tiptree, and was part of the coaching team at Colchester United before being named assistant manager to

David Wright David Allen Wright (born December 20, 1982) is an American former professional baseball third baseman who played his entire 14-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career for the New York Mets. He was drafted by the Mets in 2001 MLB draft and made ...

and

John McGreal John Leslie McGreal (born 2 June 1972) is an English football manager and former professional footballer who is currently an U21s coach at Ipswich Town. He began his career at Tranmere Rovers, making his debut in the 1991–92 season. He becam ...

, and becoming head coach in July 2020. He parted company with Colchester in February 2021.

Playing career

Ball, born in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

, began his career with London-based club

. In 1988, he won the

, but failed to live up to his promise with the club, failing to make a first-team appearance following an ankle-ligament injury. After his release from Arsenal, Ball joined hometown club

and made four appearances during their ill-fated 1989–90 season in which they were relegated from the

to the

Conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

. Ball signed for

after leaving Colchester, managing just two appearances for the club between 1990 and 1992. He briefly signed for

in August 1992 but had left by September to re-sign for Colchester. He had an improved second stint with the U's, accumulating 64 league appearances and scoring seven goals. He had been restricted to signing a rolling monthly contract, struggling with injuries, before leaving to join Sudbury Town in 1996. Ball made 77 appearances and scored 14 goals for Sudbury until 1998. He joined

briefly, before being appointed manager of

. While managing Rovers, Ball worked for a Colchester-based stationery company. He left in 2003 to join

as a player, but was not fit enough to play regularly. He quit in December 2003.

Coaching career

Ball was appointed assistant manager of Clacton Town in 2004, but financial problems in the summer of 2005 led to him leaving the club. He returned in 2006 as manager, but was required to resign after his job based in Colchester was restructured to cover

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

and

the Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

. Ball later returned to Stanway Rovers as assistant manager, before joining

as assistant manager in 2010. In summer 2012, Ball was offered a full-time coaching position with the Colchester United

Academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

at their new training complex based in

Tiptree Tiptree is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the English county of Essex, situated south-west of Colchester and around north-east of London. Surrounding villages include Messing, Essex, Messing, Tolleshunt Knights, Toll ...

. He returned to Leiston as assistant manager to Steve Pitt in October 2013, however, Pitt left the club after just six weeks in the role, leaving Ball in charge. In October 2014, Ball left Leiston to make a return to Colchester United in a full-time coaching role. Ball was appointed as manager of Maldon & Tiptree in December 2015 after former manager and fellow Colchester United coach

was promoted to assistant manager at the U's. Ball continued to combine his coaching role at Colchester with his part-time role managing the Jammers, working with

with the under-21 side. He led his side to a seventh-placed finish in the

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 tea ...

Division One North table. After Colchester United manager

Kevin Keen Kevin Ian Keen (born 25 February 1967) is an English football coach and former player. Keen is currently the coach of West Ham United under-18 team. Keen began his career with Wycombe Wanderers before joining West Ham United in 1983. He spen ...

left the club following their relegation from

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 ...

on 26 April 2016, Ball was named as assistant to newly appointed

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular Manager (association football), manager is dismissed or leaves for a ...

David Wright for the final two games of the season. Ball was then appointed assistant manager to incoming first-team coach John McGreal on 4 May. This meant Ball parted company with Maldon & Tiptree after a successful season in the Isthmian League. With McGreal's role set to commence following Colchester's final game of the season against

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

on 7 May, Ball was named as the club's fifth caretaker manager of the season after David Wright was made unavailable for personal reasons. The game ended 2–1 to Rochdale. After four years as McGreal's assistant, Ball succeeded him as head coach on 28 July 2020. However, following a run of 13 games without a win, Ball parted company with the club on 23 February 2021. Having returned to the club in the role of technical director, Ball was placed in interim charge of the first-team in September 2022 following the sacking of Wayne Brown.

Career statistics

Managerial statistics

Honours

;Arsenal *

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, Steve 1969 births Living people Footballers from Colchester English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Arsenal F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Sudbury Town F.C. players Heybridge Swifts F.C. players Long Melford F.C. players English Football League players English football managers Stanway Rovers F.C. managers F.C. Clacton managers Leiston F.C. managers Maldon & Tiptree F.C. managers Colchester United F.C. managers Colchester United F.C. non-playing staff Association football coaches