Stephen David Darby (born 15 January 1955) is an English football

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

and former player. He is well known throughout

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

as a pundit for

ESPN Star Sports Fox Sports (formerly ESPN Star Sports) was a pan-Asian pay television network broadcasting in Asia, operated by Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia) Pte. Ltd. It also oversaw a version of Sta ...

Playing career

Darby started out as a goalkeeper for Liverpool Schools and FA Youth Team but never made it professionally and subsequently ended up at

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

before playing for teams in the US and Australia.

Coaching career

Darby obtained his UEFA A Licence in 1979. He became an official FIFA Instructor for the Oceania region in 1981 and was the Technical Director of the Australian Soccer Federation (former name) of governing body Football Federation Australia between 1990 and 1995. He then moved on to coach Johor FA in 1997, where he enjoyed a successful spell, winning the Malaysia FA Cup and a league title. He left the club in 2001 to take charge of the Vietnam women's team, whom he led to a gold medal at the 2001 SEA Games. This was the first ever gold medal for Vietnamese football since reunification. After that, he was appointed as Sheffield Wednesday's youth team coach under Terry Yorath, but remained there only for a season before taking over the reins at Singapore's Home United. In his four-year tenure as Home United manager, Darby led them to a league and cup double in 2003 and a semi-final finish at the 2004 AFC Cup. At the end of his Home United contract, Darby was heavily linked to the vacant India manager's post. However, he did not take up that job, choosing instead to join Perak despite having offers from two other Malaysian clubs and a Vietnamese club. He led Perak to the Super Cup in 2005, a second spot in the league 2006–07 season and to the Malaysia Cup final in 2006 and an AFC quarterfinal. It was the furthest a Malaysian club had gone in Asian Competitions at that time. In October 2008, he became part of the Thailand national team's coaching staff. In 2012, he spent a year as a coaching consultant in Asia for Everton and as a football advisor to the Manipur government in India. In September 2013, Darby was appointed as Kelantan FC's coach. This was the third Malaysian team that he coached, after Johor and Perak. He became the assistant coach of Mumbai City FC in 2014 in the inaugural

Indian Super League The Indian Super League (ISL) is an Indian professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Indian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Organised by the All India Football Federat ...

. At Mumbai, he coached

Nicolas Anelka Nicolas Sébastien Anelka (; born 14 March 1979) is a French professional football manager and retired player who played as a forward. As a player, he regularly featured in his country's national team, often scoring at crucial moments. Known f ...

and

Freddie Ljungberg Karl Fredrik "Freddie" Ljungberg (; born 16 April 1977) is a Swedish former professional footballer and manager who played as a winger. He was most recently a former assistant coach, and interim head coach of Arsenal. He began his career at Hal ...

, who were by then approaching retirement. In 2015, he was appointed as the technical director of the Laos Football Federation and later as the national team's coach for the

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

phase. In this time, Laos obtained their first ever World Cup qualification points and its highest ever FIFA ranking. To date, he has coached in 70 international fixtures and is considered one of the most successful English coaches who worked abroad.

Personal life

Darby holds a Bachelor (Hons) in Physical Education from the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

and Post Graduate qualifications in Sports Administration from the

University of Canberra The University of Canberra (UC) is a public research university with its main campus located in Bruce, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The campus is within walking distance of Westfield Belconnen, and from Canberra's Civic Centre. U ...

. He also holds a TEFL Certificate from

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

. He speaks

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

, French and a little Malay. His daughter, Quinn Elsa Darby, born in 2005, she is a talented Basketball and Lacrosse player. he returned to England in 2018 and is now a Football and media consultant producing many articles for Asian outlets and featuring on numerous podcasts. His biography by Antony Sutton "The Itinerate Coach" was published in October 2021 by Fairplay publishing.

Honours

Johor FA *

Malaysia Premier League The Malaysia Premier League ( ms, Liga Premier) was the second-tier professional football league in Malaysia. The league replaced the former second-tier league, Liga Perdana 2 in the Malaysian football league system. The Malaysia Premier Leag ...

:* Winners (1): 1999 *

Malaysian FA Cup The Malaysia FA Cup ( ms, Piala FA) is an annual national knock-out football (soccer), football tournament in Malaysia. The cup was first held in 1990. The competition was previously managed by Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), before bein ...

:* Winners (1): 1998 Vietnam SEA Games Gold (first ever football gold) 2001 Order of Labour 2001 Home United *

S.League The Singapore Premier League, commonly abbreviated as SPL, officially known as the AIA Singapore Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a men's professional football league sanctioned by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), which re ...

(1): 2003 *

Singapore Cup The Singapore Cup is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic Singaporean football. Established in 1998, it is the foremost football cup competition in the country. It is open to clubs in the Singapore Premier League. Since ...

(2): 2003 2005 AFC Cup semi final 2004 AFC Team of the Year Finalist 2004 AFC Coach of the Year Finalist 2004 Perak FA *

Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Cup Piala Sumbangsih (English: Malaysia Charity Cup), also known as Piala Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah ( en, Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Cup), is the Malaysian super cup competition. It is the curtain raiser match to the new Malaysian football season, pitting ...

:* Winners (1): 2005 AFC Cup Quarter Finals 2006 Laos National team *Highest ever FIFA Ranking *First World Cup Qualifying points

References

External links