Steven Paul Foley (born 21 June 1953 in

Clacton-on-Sea Clacton-on-Sea is a seaside town in the Tendring District in the county of Essex, England. It is located on the Tendring Peninsula and is the largest settlement in the Tendring District with a population of 56,874 (2016). The town is situated a ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

) is an English 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 ...

who made nearly 300 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 ...

playing as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

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 ...

. He spent ten years on the

coaching Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a ''coach'', supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. The learner is sometimes called a ''coa ...

staff of

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 ...

before moving to rivals

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

. Foley began his football career as a trainee with

. He played for Colchester for ten years, scoring 54 goals from 283 games in

, and then played for

Braintree Town Braintree Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Braintree, Essex, England. They are currently members of and play at Cressing Road. History The club was formed on 24 September 1898 as Manor Works, the works team o ...

. He joined the coaching staff at Colchester, working with the young players, and spent several spells as

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 ...

during the 1980s. He also spent time as a youth team coach at

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

. He joined Norwich City in 1996, appointed by manager Mike Walker, who had worked with Foley at Colchester, and had spent ten years with the club in various roles when his coaching contract was terminated with immediate effect in May 2006. Chairman Roger Munby said that, although Foley's input had been "invaluable", it was time to "freshen up the coaching set-up", though the press suggested that Foley was being made the scapegoat for the team's poor performance during the 2005–06 season. Foley then joined the coaching staff at Norwich City's arch rivals

. In February 2019, Foley was inducted into the Colchester United Hall of Fame.

Managerial statistics

References

External links

* 1953 births Living people People from Clacton-on-Sea English footballers Association football midfielders Colchester United F.C. players Braintree Town F.C. players English Football League players English football managers Colchester United F.C. managers Watford F.C. non-playing staff Norwich City F.C. non-playing staff Ipswich Town F.C. non-playing staff Association football coaches {{England-footy-midfielder-1950s-stub