Willie Kirk (born 7 June 1978) is a Scottish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

and former player who is currently the manager of

FA WSL The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

club

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

Playing career

Kirk played non-League football for Preston Athletic and agreed to manage the team in the

2014–15 Lowland Football League The 2014–15 Lowland League was the second season of the Lowland Football League, the fifth tier of the Scottish football pyramid system. The season began on 2 August 2014 and ended on 13 May 2015. Spartans were the defending champions. The leagu ...

season.

Managerial career

Livingston FC Academy

Kirk began his managerial career at

Livingston FC Livingston Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in Livingston, West Lothian. Livingston currently play in the Scottish Premiership and were founded in 1943 as Ferranti Thistle, a works team. The club was admitted to the ...

as an assistant academy coach for the club's under-14 team in October 2006. He advanced to head coach of the under-14 team and took over head coaching position for the next age group up to the under-17 team.

Hibernian

In March 2009, Kirk joined the academy coaching staff at

Hibernian F.C. Hibernian Football Club (), commonly known as Hibs, is a professional football club based in the Leith area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The club plays in the Scottish Premiership, the top tier of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL). ...

to coach the under-17 team. Ultimately, Kirk earned the head coaching position of

Hibernian L.F.C. Hibernian Women's Football Club is a Women's association football, women's football team based in Edinburgh that plays in the Scottish Women's Premier League, the top division of women's football in Scotland. They were officially integrated as a ...

His first season in charge of Hibernian led to winning the 2010

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

title, finishing as runners-up in the Scottish Cup, and third position in the table. The 2013 season saw Hibernian finishing second and Kirk earning Scottish Women's Football Manager of the Year award.

Bristol City

In April 2015, Kirk made the move to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and was appointed manager of

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

competing in the

. After a rough season, Bristol City was relegated to WSL 2, finishing in last place after the 2015 season. The relegation was short lived, as Kirk's Bristol City rallied in the

WSL 2 WSL may refer to: Computing * Wide-spectrum language, a kind of programming language * Windows Subsystem for Linux, a part of Microsoft Windows 10 and Windows 11 which allows the installation of Linux distributions. Organisations * Swiss Federa ...

finishing second during the WSL season and earned promotion back to the

FA WSL 1 The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

. Kirk's subsequent seasons would see back-to-back eighth place finishes, maintaining safety in the women's top flight.

Manchester United

In June 2018, Kirk joined the coaching staff at the newly formed Manchester United W.F.C. as an assistant to

Casey Stoney Casey Jean Stoney (born 13 May 1982) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of San Diego Wave FC. A versatile defender, she was capped more than 100 times for the England women's national football te ...

Everton

In December 2018, Kirk was appointed manager of Everton after being offered the number one position of a top flight team. His debut as manager of the Blues was a victory, defeating rivals

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

2–1. Kirk left his position as manager of the Everton Women’s team on 16 October 2021.

Leicester City

In July 2022, Kirk was appointed as

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

. On 3 November 2022, Kirk was appointed as manager following the departure of Lydia Bedford.

Managerial honours

Hibernian L.F.C. *

Scottish Women's Premier League Cup The Scottish Women's Premier League Cup or SWPL Cup is a league cup competition in women's football in Scotland. The Cup is open only to the teams in the Scottish Women's Premier League. There are four rounds, including the final. The competition ...

**Winners (1): 2011 *

Scottish Women's Cup The Scottish Women's Cup is the national knockout cup competition for women's football in Scotland. First held in 1970–71, the competition is owned and managed by Scottish Women's Football (SWF), an affiliated body of the Scottish Football Assoc ...

: **Winners (1): 2010 **Runners-up (1): 2011 Individual *Scottish Women's Football Manager of the Year: 2013

Executive career

In July 2022, Kirk joined

club

as their first-ever

for both the first team and the academy.

References

External links

*
Willie Kirk coach profile
at EvertonFC.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Kirk, Willie Living people Women's Super League managers Scottish football managers 1978 births Sportspeople from Edinburgh Livingston F.C. non-playing staff Bristol City W.F.C. managers Hibernian F.C. non-playing staff Hibernian W.F.C. managers