Diarmuid O'Carroll (born 16 March 1987) is an Irish retired 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 lea ...
. He has worked in various roles in football such as for the Irish Football Association as Club and Community Development Officer within the Football Development Department.
Club career
Diarmuid O'Carroll started his youth career with
Home Farm before joining
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
*Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Foot ...
's Youth Academy, he had featured for Celtic's reserve side for several years, but did not play for the first team. In 2007, he had a loan spell with
Ross County F.C.
Ross County Football Club is a professional football club based in Dingwall, Scotland. The club currently play in the , being relegated after losing the Scottish Premiership play-offs in the 2024–25 season.
Prior to the 1994–95 seaso ...
and, in July 2008, it was announced that O'Carroll had signed a one-year deal with
English League Two side
Morecambe
Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, on Morecambe Bay, part of the Irish Sea. In 2011 the parish had a population of 34,768.
Name
The first use of the name was by John Whit ...
.
In the summer of 2009 O'Carroll had many trials, including one at
Újpest FC
Újpest Football Club () is a Hungary, Hungarian professional association football, football club based in Újpest, Budapest, that competes in Nemzeti Bajnokság I.
Formed in 1885, Újpest reached the first division of the Hungarian League in ...
, but he did not agree a deal with the Hungarian club. He played for
Shamrock Rovers
Shamrock Rovers Football Club is an Irish professional Association football, football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is List of football clubs by competit ...
in their win over
Hibernian F.C.
Hibernian Football Club (), commonly known as Hibs, is a professional football club in Edinburgh, Scotland. The team competes in the , the top division of Scottish football. The club was founded in 1875 by members of Edinburgh's Irish commu ...
in July but was not offered a contract One month later he signed a one-year deal with
Airdrie United
Airdrieonians Football Club is a Scottish professional football team in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, who are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in the . They were formed in 2002 as Airdrie United Football Clu ...
. Due to financial cutbacks at the club, he left in May 2010. O'Carroll then went on trial at Raith Rovers. He scored his first goal for Raith as a trialist away to Forfar Athletic in a pre-season friendly on 13 July 2010. On 30 July he signed for Icelandic side Valur where he also worked as a youth coach.
In November 2010, after returning from Iceland O'Carroll signed a pre-contract agreement with
Glenavon in Northern Ireland. He became eligible to play from January 2011.
In an Irn-Bru league cup match on 20 September 2011, O'Carroll scored a double hat trick Until this time, he played for amateur side
Dollingstown
Dollingstown is a large village in County Down, Northern Ireland, lying between Lurgan and Magheralin. It is within the Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon district. In the 2011 census it had a population of 2,103 people. Dollingstown is in the to ...
to maintain his match fitness.
He signed for
Cliftonville
Cliftonville is a coastal area of Margate in the Thanet District, Thanet district of Kent, England. It includes the Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay estate, built in the 1930s with wide avenues and detached and semi-detached houses with driveways, gar ...
on 3 January 201
and scored on his debut at Leonida
O'Carroll also worked as a youth coach for the club's academy as well as a consultant for the agency The Copius Group.
[
]
Later career
On 7 May 2014, O'Carroll was confirmed to have left Cliftonville after winning back to back league titles and league cups. He then joined Crusaders F.C., Crusaders, signing a two-year pre-contract for the club. During his time at Crusaders as a semi-professional player, O'Carroll was also appointed manager of Crusaders Newtownabbey Strikers
Crusaders Strikers Football Club is a women's association football club based in North Belfast, Northern Ireland. The club was founded in 1992 as Newtownabbey Strikers and became a member of the Northern Ireland Women's Football Association in ...
in April 2015 (left in January 2017).[Diarmuid O'Carroll profile at LinkedIn]
linkedin.com On the expiration of this contract, Diarmuid had won 4 back to back titles with 2 clubs and then O'Carroll decided to retire from football to focus on coaching.
On 23 November 2018, O'Carroll came out of retirement, signing a short-term deal at Dungannon Swifts.
O'Carroll has completed a number of coaching badges and has a long-term ambition of pursuing this area after he retires from playing. On 27 February 2019, he was appointed manager of Glentoran Women. He left the position in June 2019, to become the Director of Coaching for Downtown Las Vegas Soccer Club.
On 23 September 2019 he took over the role of coach to Motherwell FC
Motherwell Football Club is a Scottish professional association football, football club based in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, which plays in the . Motherwell have not dropped out of the top flight of Scottish football since 1985, and have lif ...
's Under 18s. This was a post that had briefly been filled by Darren O'Dea who had moved on to coach the under 18s with Celtic.
On 7 June 2021, O'Carroll joined Morecambe
Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, on Morecambe Bay, part of the Irish Sea. In 2011 the parish had a population of 34,768.
Name
The first use of the name was by John Whit ...
as a first-team coach, joining Stephen Robinson
Stephen Kern "Steve" Robinson (born October 26, 1955) is an American former NASA astronaut.
Education
He was active in the Boy Scouts of America, where he achieved its second-highest rank, Life Scout. Robinson graduated from Campolindo High ...
after they had worked together at Motherwell. On 9 January 2022, O'Carroll took charge of Morecambe in a 3-1 FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...
defeat to Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...
, after manager Stephen Robinson tested positive for COVID-19 on the eve of the match.
On 22 February 2022, O'Carroll was appointed as Robinson's assistant manager at St Mirren. On 13 March 2023, O'Carroll joined Michael O'Neill's backroom staff with the Northern Ireland national team as a senior coach, whilst remaining in his assistant manager role at St. Mirren.
On 16 June 2025, O'Carroll was appointed as Brian Priske's assistant manager at Sparta Prague
Athletic Club Sparta Praha (), commonly known as Sparta Prague and Sparta Praha, is a professional football club based in Prague.
It is the most successful club in the Czech Republic and one of the most successful in central Europe, winning t ...
.
International career
O'Carroll has been capped at every youth level and under 21 for Ireland, but has never played for the Republic of Ireland at full international level.
Charity work
O'Carroll started his charity work by running a half-marathon in aid of Suicide Awareness in June 2010 in Belfast and continued that in October of that year by running the Dublin City Marathon for the same cause.
Honours
;Cliftonville
* IFA Premiership
The NIFL Premiership, known as the Sports Direct Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and Irish Premiership colloquially, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northern Ireland Football L ...
(2): 2012–13
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...
, 2013–14
* Irish League Cup
The Northern Ireland Football League Cup (known as the BetMcLean Cup for sponsorship purposes, and commonly known as the Irish League Cup) is a national football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland open to all member clubs of the ...
(2): 2012–13
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...
, 2013–14
;Crusaders
* NIFL Premiership
The NIFL Premiership, known as the Sports Direct Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and Irish Premiership colloquially, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northern Ireland Football L ...
(2): 2014–15, 2015–16
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ocarroll, Diarmuid
1987 births
Republic of Ireland men's association footballers
Republic of Ireland men's under-21 international footballers
Living people
Home Farm F.C. players
Celtic F.C. players
Ross County F.C. players
Morecambe F.C. players
Scottish Football League players
Airdrieonians F.C. players
Glenavon F.C. players
Cliftonville F.C. players
Crusaders F.C. players
NIFL Premiership players
Shamrock Rovers F.C. guest players
Association footballers from County Kerry
Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland
Republic of Ireland expatriate men's association footballers
Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers
Men's association football forwards
Motherwell F.C. non-playing staff
Morecambe F.C. non-playing staff
St Mirren F.C. non-playing staff
Dungannon Swifts F.C. players
English Football League players
21st-century Irish sportsmen
AC Sparta Prague non-playing staff