Anthony Gerard Larkin (born 12 January 1956) is an English former

professional footballer Association football is the world's most popular sport and is worth US$600 billion worldwide. By the end of the 20th century it was played by over 250 million players in over 200 countries. Around the world, the sport is played at a professi ...

, and manager and coach of the England blind football team, which is based at the

Royal National College for the Blind The Royal National College for the Blind (RNC) is a co-educational specialist residential college of further education based in the English city of Hereford. Students who attend the college are aged 16 to 25 and blind or partially sighted. T ...

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

. Larkin is also the former head of sport and recreation at the college, as well as Patron of the disability sports charity British Blind Sport.

Career

During a footballing career spanning fifteen years Larkin made over 320 professional appearances for teams including Everton, Wrexham, Shrewsbury Town,

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...

and Hereford United. It was while he was playing for Shrewsbury that he first became involved with the Royal National College after doing some voluntary work there. Impressed with the enthusiasm of the students he returned to RNC to coach sports after finishing his playing career at Hereford United. He then qualified as a mobility instructor and blind football coach, and now runs training sessions for other coaches from around the United Kingdom and throughout Europe. Under Larkin's stewardship the England squad qualified as Great Britain's entry for the

2008 Paralympic Games The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. It wa ...

after finishing runners-up to Spain in the European Championships in 2006. He has also led them to seven European Championship and to four World Championships. The team are currently ranked second in Europe and fifth in the World. Larkin was instrumental in helping to establish the United Kingdom's first football academy for visually impaired players. The Football Academy, which is based at the Royal National College, was officially opened in August 2008 by former England footballer

Sir Trevor Brooking Sir Trevor David Brooking, (born 2 October 1948) is a former England international footballer, manager, pundit and football administrator; he now works as director of football development in England. He spent almost his entire career at West H ...

and offers visually impaired students the opportunity to include football as part of their study programme with a view to playing the game at a national level. The college hosted the 2010 World Blind Football Championships. He coached Britain's Blind Football team for the

2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Summer Paralympic Gam ...

. Larkin became Patron of British Blind Sport in March 2013. Upon his retirement in January 2016 he was Director of Business and Enterprise at RNC. He was appointed an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in the

2016 Birthday Honours The 2016 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as pa ...

for services to Further Education and Disability Sport.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Larkin, Tony 1956 births Living people Footballers from Liverpool English men's footballers People associated with the Royal National College for the Blind English football managers English Football League players Everton F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Carlisle United F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Officers of the Order of the British Empire Men's association football defenders