William John Boland (born 6 August 1975) is an Irish football coach 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 ...

. He notably played in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

for

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

, and 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 ...

for

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

and

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They were founded in 1908 as Hartle ...

and in his native Ireland for

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

. He was capped by both the Republic of Ireland U17 and Republic of Ireland U21 teams. Following his retirement he became a youth coach at

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

before taking up a role as academy director of

. In 2017 he spent a short spell as interim manager of the club.

Playing career

Born in

Ennis Ennis () is the county town of County Clare, in the mid-west of Ireland. The town lies on the River Fergus, north of where the river widens and enters the Shannon Estuary. Ennis is the largest town in County Clare, with a population of 25,27 ...

County Clare County Clare ( ga, Contae an Chláir) is a county in Ireland, in the Southern Region and the province of Munster, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council is the local authority. The county had a population of 118,817 ...

, Boland started his career with

, making over 60 league appearances, before moving to

in 1999. Despite scoring on his debut on 7 August 1999 in a 1–1 draw with

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

, Boland initially struggled to find form in Cardiff, his time not helped by a broken leg early into his second season at the club, sustained in a match against

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) * Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...

. It was not until he recovered from the injury that he began to settle in the side and the following season he was awarded the club's player of the year award due to his performances in a three-man midfield alongside Mark Bonner and

Graham Kavanagh Graham Anthony Kavanagh (born 2 December 1973) is an Irish football manager and former professional player. Kavanagh had a 19-year-long career and played for Middlesbrough, Stoke City, Cardiff City, Wigan Athletic, Sunderland, Sheffield Wednes ...

. After helping the team win promotion to

Division One The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

he gradually fell out of favour under new manager Dave Jones. The Irishman was Cardiff City's longest serving player, having been at the club for seven years and starting over 200 games, before leaving when his contract expired in the summer of 2006. He spent a short unsuccessful time on trial at

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

before in August 2006 signing for

. Boland became Danny Wilson's first signing. His tough-tackling is something that Wilson had been looking to add to the squad and he agreed terms at The Vic after being out of contract at Cardiff in the summer. His leadership skills and experience were another part of the reason that Pools were quick to move for him when he became available. Boland is a hard tackling midfielder with good battling qualities; he has represented his country at Under-21 level. Boland announced his retirement from professional football on 21 October 2009 having not featured in a professional match for 14 months due to knee problems. His last appearance came on 23 August 2008 in a 1–0 defeat to

Stockport County Stockport County Football Club are a professional association football, football club in Stockport, England, who compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, they wer ...

. He scored his only goal for Hartlepool in a 4–2 win over Colchester United on 9 August 2008. Boland came out of retirement in May 2010 to sign for

. Boland made his

League of Ireland The League of Ireland ( ga, Sraith na hÉireann), together with the Football Association of Ireland, is one of the two main governing bodies responsible for organising association football in the Republic of Ireland. The term was originally us ...

debut as a substitute, which turned out to be his only appearance, at Athlone Town on 8 May.

Coaching career

Boland moved into coaching and worked with the

under-14 team as well as working at Hartlepool College. On 5 April 2017, Boland was appointed interim manager of the side following the departure of Martin Russell. He spent one month in charge of the side before the club appointed Neil McDonald as Russell's permanent replacement. Boland is currently the Director of Coaching at UCD and Mount Merrion

Honours

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third ti ...

play-off winner: 1 :: 2002–03 *

FAW Premier Cup The FAW Premier Cup (until 1998 the FAW Invitation Cup) was a Welsh football cup competition, organised annually by the Football Association of Wales from 1997 to 2008. Since the FAW excluded clubs playing in English leagues (including six Welsh c ...

winner: 1 :: 2001–02

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 ...

runners-up: 2006–07

References

External links

Boland's Official Hartlepool United F.C. profile

Vital Hartlepool Profile: Willie Boland
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boland, Willie 1975 births Living people Sportspeople from Ennis Sportspeople from County Clare Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers Republic of Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football midfielders Coventry City F.C. players Cardiff City F.C. players Hartlepool United F.C. players Limerick F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players League of Ireland players Republic of Ireland expatriate men's association footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Wales Irish expatriate sportspeople in Wales Expatriate men's footballers in England Irish expatriate sportspeople in England Republic of Ireland association football managers Limerick F.C. managers League of Ireland managers Hartlepool United F.C. non-playing staff Middlesbrough F.C. non-playing staff Association footballers from County Kildare