Yannick Ferrera y Caro (born 24 September 1980) is a Belgian professional

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 bega ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

who is the current manager of Cypriot club Omonia.

Club career

In his early twenties, Ferrera enjoyed a brief career as a professional footballer, playing for Belgian sides

Beveren Beveren () is a municipality in the Belgian province of East Flanders which comprises the towns of Beveren, Doel, Haasdonk, Kallo, Kieldrecht, Melsele, Verrebroek and Vrasene. The port of the Waasland (Dutch: ''Waaslandhaven'') is in Beveren ...

Tubize Tubize (; nl, Tubeke ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. On January 1, 2006 Tubize had a total population of 22,335. The total area is 32.66 km2 which gives a population density ...

, Ternat and Jette.

Managerial career

In 2004, Ferrera was appointed head coach of the Anderlecht youth team, which at that time included

Romelu Lukaku Romelu Lukaku Bolingoli (; born 13 May 1993) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Inter Milan, on loan from club Chelsea, and the Belgium national team. Lukaku began his senior club career playing for Ander ...

and Adnan Januzaj. In 2010, he joined the technical staff of

AA Gent Koninklijke Atletiek Associatie Gent (, English: ''Royal Athletic Association Ghent''), often simply known as Ghent or by their nickname ' ( en, The Buffalos), is a Belgian sports club, based in the city of Ghent, East Flanders. Their football ...

, serving under manager

Michel Preud'homme Michel Georges Jean Ghislain Preud'homme (born 24 January 1959) is a Belgian retired footballer and manager who played as a goalkeeper. Currently, he is vice-president and sports director at Standard Liège. He was considered one of the world's ...

, whom Ferrera later followed to Saudi Arabian club Al-Shabab. In 2012, Ferrera became manager of first league team Charleroi. One year later, he moved to

Sint-Truiden Sint-Truiden (; french: link=no, Saint-Trond ; li, Sintruin ) is a city and municipality located in the province of Limburg, Flemish Region, Belgium, and has over 41,500 inhabitants, which makes it one of the largest cities in Limburg. The mun ...

that was playing in the Belgian Second Division. Under his leadership, STVV gained promotion to the highest level for the 2015–16 season. In September 2015, Ferrera was appointed manager at

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most ...

. In spite of winning the domestic cup that season, he was sacked early into the 2016–17 season due to disputes with the board of directors. Ferrera was replaced by

Aleksandar Janković Aleksandar Janković (Serbian Cyrillic: Александар Јанковић; born 6 May 1972) is a Serbian football coach and former football player. He is currently manager of the China national under-23 football team. Playing career He p ...

. Janković's former club, Mechelen, immediately decided to hire Ferrera for two seasons as a replacement. On 14 October 2019, Ferrera was appointed as the new manager of

Saudi Professional League The Saudi Pro League (SPL for short) ( ar, دوري المحترفين السعودي, link=no, ''Dawriyy al-Muḥtarifayni as-Suʿūdī''), known as the Roshn Saudi League (RSL for short) for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of associat ...

outfit Al-Fateh. He left the club by mutual consent on 9 January 2022. On 21 October 2022, Ferrera was appointed manager of

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus officially ...

club

Omonia Nicosia Athletic Club Omonia Nicosia ( el, Αθλητικός Σύλλογος Oμόνοιας Λευκωσίας, ΑΣΟΛ; ''Athlitikos Sillogos Omonias Lefkosias'', ''ASOL''), commonly known as Omonia Nicosia, or simply Omonia (" Harmony"; also tran ...

Personal life

Ferrera was born in Ukkel to a Spanish father and an Italian mother. He remained his Spanish citizenship until 1992, when he was

naturalised Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the i ...

as a Belgian. His father, Francisco, and his uncles,

Manu Manu may refer to: Geography * Manú Province, a province of Peru, in the Madre de Dios Region **Manú National Park, Peru ** Manú River, in southeastern Peru * Manu River (Tripura), which originates in India and flows into Bangladesh *Manu Tem ...

and

Emilio Ferrera Emilio Ferrera (born 19 June 1967 in Schaerbeek) is a Belgian football manager and former player, who is currently managing the U21 squad of Gent. His last former club was OH Leuven in the Belgian First Division B. Before he also worked at G ...

are all footballing coaches in Belgium.

Honours

Sint-Truiden * Belgian Second Division: 2014–15 Standard Liège *

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (french: link=no, Coupe de Belgique; nl, Beker van België []; german: link=no, Belgischer Fußballpokal) is the main Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in Belgium, run by the Belgia ...

: 2015–16 Belgian Cup, 2015–16 Individual * Saudi Professional League, Saudi Professional League Manager of the Month: October 2020

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrera, Yannick Living people 1980 births People from Uccle Belgian footballers Belgian football managers Belgian expatriate football managers Belgian people of Spanish descent Belgian people of Italian descent K.S.K. Beveren players A.F.C. Tubize players Belgian First Division A players R. Charleroi S.C. managers Standard Liège managers K.V. Mechelen managers Al-Fateh SC managers Expatriate football managers in Saudi Arabia Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Association footballers not categorized by position Saudi Professional League managers Footballers from Brussels