George O'Boyle (born 14 December 1967) is a Northern Irish 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 lea ...

and now manager.

Playing career

Club football

O'Boyle, a striker, began his career in 1984 as a youth-team player with

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

. He was part of the

Maine Road Maine Road was a football stadium in Moss Side, Manchester, England, that was home to Manchester City from 1923 to 2003. It hosted FA Cup semi-finals, the Charity Shield, a League Cup final and England matches. Maine Road's highest attenda ...

club's youth academy before earning a two-year contract."Alex Mills interview with George O'Boyle in Sunday Life"
– Linfield F.C., 30 September 2018 After being released by City when he reached the age of 18, he returned to his native Belfast, finding a home on the Shankill Road, to join

Distillery Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

, then managed by Roy Welsh, in November 1985. The club won the

County Antrim Shield The County Antrim & District Football Association Senior Shield (more commonly known as the County Antrim Shield) is a football competition in Northern Ireland. The competition is open to senior teams who are members of the North East Ulster F ...

in his first season. He moved to Linfield in 1986. O'Boyle left Northern Ireland in 1988 to join French club

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

. He returned to Linfield on loan in 1989. In 1989 he joined Dunfermline Athletic, initially on loan for a year, before signing permanently for £250,000. In 1994, he was signed by St Johnstone manager

Paul Sturrock Paul Whitehead Sturrock (born 10 October 1956) is a Scottish former football coach and former player. As a player, Sturrock spent his entire senior career with Dundee United, making more than five hundred appearances between 1974 and 1989. He w ...

for a tribunal-decided £200,000 fee. He reached both the high and low points of his career during his seven years at

McDiarmid Park McDiarmid Park is a stadium in Perth, Scotland, Perth, Scotland, used mainly for association football. It has been the home ground of Scottish Premiership side St Johnstone F.C., St Johnstone since its opening in 1989. The stadium has an All-seat ...

. However, injury struck again; O'Boyle once more ruptured a cruciate ligament, while he required two operations on a groin problem. O'Boyle played in the 1998 Scottish League Cup final defeat by Rangers. On 5 January 2001, O'Boyle and St Johnstone teammate Kevin Thomas were sacked following drug-taking allegations. The two players, it was alleged, were found using an unidentified white powder (allegedly

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

) at the club's Christmas 2000 party in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

's That Bar. The SPL attempted to overturn the sacking but it was over-ruled by the SFA. After leaving St Johnstone, O'Boyle joined Raith Rovers for four months, before moving on to Brechin City and Queen of the South, with whom he finished his professional career. He returned to Northern Ireland to play for Glenavon and Ards, only to return to Scotland in 2004 to play for junior clubs

Bo'ness Borrowstounness, commonly known as Bo'ness ( ), is a town and former burgh and seaport on the south bank of the Firth of Forth in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Counties of Scotland, Historically part of the county of West Lothian (historic), ...

and Kelty Hearts. He failed to make an appearance for the latter club, due to injury.

International football

O'Boyle's international career spanned four years. In 1996, he scored his only

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

goal in a 1–1 draw with

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in his hometown of Belfast.

Honours

Distillery *

: 1986 Linfield *

NIFL Premier Intermediate League The NIFL Premier Intermediate League (Known as the Playr-Fit NIFL Premier Intermediate League for sponsorship reasons) is the third level of the Northern Ireland Football League, the national association football league in Northern Ireland, and t ...

: 1986–87, 1988–89 * Gold Cup: 1988–89 * Irish League Cup: 1986–87 Dunfermline Athletic *

Scottish Football League First Division The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. It was replaced by the Scottish Championship. History The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 in Scottish footb ...

: 1988–89 * St Johnstone * Scottish Football League First Division: 1996–97

Coaching career

O'Boyle managed Carnoustie Panmure, the final club for which he played. He would leave football altogether until 2015, when he became assistant to manager Colin McIlwaine at

Northern Amateur Football League The Northern Amateur Football League, also known as the Northern Amateur League and often simply as the Amateur League, is an association football league in Northern Ireland. It contains 13 divisions. These comprise four intermediate sections: ...

club Albert Foundry. In the summer of 2016 O'Boyle followed McIlwaine to Lisburn Distillery, again taking up the role of assistant. The duo resigned in April 2019. O'Boyle and McIlwaine became the new joint-managers of NIFL Championship side Harland & Wolff Welders just a couple of days after departing Distillery. They both left the club in December, seven months after their appointments."H&W Welders part company with management team Colin McIlwaine and George O'Boyle"
– BelfastLive, 9 December 2019

References

External links

*

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oboyle, George 1967 births Ards F.C. players Men's association football forwards Bo'ness United F.C. players Brechin City F.C. players Carnoustie Panmure F.C. managers Carnoustie Panmure F.C. players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Expatriate men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Expatriate men's footballers in France FC Girondins de Bordeaux players Association football managers from Northern Ireland Glenavon F.C. players Kelty Hearts F.C. players Linfield F.C. players Lisburn Distillery F.C. players Living people Manchester City F.C. players Northern Ireland men's B international footballers Northern Ireland men's international footballers Queen of the South F.C. players Raith Rovers F.C. players Scottish Football League players Scottish Junior Football Association players Scottish Premier League players Association footballers from Belfast Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland St Johnstone F.C. players Lisburn Distillery F.C. managers NIFL Premiership players