Ruaidhrí Higgins (born 23 October 1984) is a Northern Irish 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 beg ...

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 i ...

. He is the manager of

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 ...

club

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, No ...

Playing career

Higgins, who was born in

Limavady Limavady (; ) is a market town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, with Binevenagh as a backdrop. Lying east of Derry and southwest of Coleraine, Limavady had a population of 11,279 people at the 2021 Census. In the 40 years between 1 ...

, Northern Ireland, began his career at the youth club, Newtown Y.F.C. before being signed by

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

in 1998. Higgins signed for Derry City after being released by Coventry City. He made his debut at home against

Drogheda United Drogheda United Football Club is a professional Irish association football club based in Drogheda, County Louth playing in the League of Ireland Premier Division. They play their home matches at Sullivan & Lambe Park. The current club is the ...

on 14 October 2004. During his time at the

Brandywell The Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium () is a municipal football stadium in Derry, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of League of Ireland team Derry City F.C., (temporarily) NIFL Championship team Institute, and also to NIWFA Championship ...

he won five trophies and played in five European ties. After Derry City's League of Ireland contract was terminated - after the club admitted holding secondary, unofficial contracts with players - the FAI announced all of the club's players could quit the club. Now a free agent, Higgins had a trial with

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

on 30 November 2009 but manager

Mark McGhee Mark Edward McGhee (born 25 May 1957) is a Scottish former professional football player and coach. A former forward, McGhee started his career at Greenock Morton in 1975 and had spells at clubs including Newcastle United, Aberdeen, Hamburg, ...

reneged on his contract. Higgins signed for

Bohemians Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a f ...

in January 2010. After breaking into Pat Fenlon's starting XI, he scored his first league goal for the club on 3 May with the winner against

. However, some poor performances saw him regularly start matches on the substitute's bench and he failed to make an impact as ''Bohs'' relinquished their league title on goal difference. During the close season of 2010, Higgins was linked with a move back to his former club Derry City. Higgins re-signed for Derry City in January 2011. He was released by Derry City at the end of the 2013 season. On 14 January 2014, Higgins completed a move to

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...

which saw him re-united with former manager Stephen Kenny. Higgins then moved to

side

and upon leaving the club in 2017, made the decision to retire and take up a coaching role at

Coaching career

In May 2020, Higgins left

to link up once again with Stephen Kenny, this time with the Republic of Ireland national team as an opposition analyst. On 23 April 2021, Higgins was appointed Derry City manager on a -year contract. On 13 November 2022, Higgins won his first trophy in management when he led Derry City to a record win in the 2022 FAI Cup Final. He followed this up by winning the 2023 President of Ireland's Cup for the first time in the club's history. On 15 November 2024, it was announced that Higgins had left the club by mutual consent after finishing in a disappointing 4th place in the league and losing the

2024 FAI Cup final The 2024 FAI Cup Final, known as the 2024 Sports Direct FAI Cup Final for sponsorship reasons, was the final match of the 2024 FAI Cup, the national association football cup of the Republic of Ireland. The match took place on Sunday 10 November 2 ...

2–0 to 9th placed

. On 2 May 2025, he was appointed as manager

club

.https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cdxg84rzxd5o

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Derry City *

FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Sports Direct FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as D ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

League of Ireland Cup The League of Ireland Cup, also referred to in Ireland as the 'League Cup', was an annual knockout competition in men's football in Ireland. It was contested by League of Ireland clubs and invited clubs from the lower levels of the Irish footb ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Bohemians *

Setanta Sports Cup The Setanta Sports Cup was a club football (soccer), football competition featuring teams from both football associations on the island of Ireland. Inaugurated in 2005, it was a cross-border competition between clubs in the League of Ireland from ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

;Dundalk *

League of Ireland The League of Ireland is a national association football Sports league, league consisting of professional clubs in the Republic of Ireland and Derry, Derry City in Northern Ireland. It is governed by the Football Association of Ireland. It was ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

*League of Ireland Cup:

Manager

Derry City *

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, runner-up

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

President of Ireland's Cup The President of Ireland's Cup, also known simply as the President's Cup, is an association football super cup featuring clubs from the Republic of Ireland football league system. It is a one-off match between the winners of the previous season's ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

References

External links

Ruaidhri Higgins
Derry City FC player profiles. {{DEFAULTSORT:Higgins, Ruaidhri 1984 births Living people Association footballers from County Londonderry Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Northern Ireland men's under-21 international footballers League of Ireland players Coventry City F.C. players Derry City F.C. players Bohemian F.C. players Dundalk F.C. players Coleraine F.C. players People from Limavady League of Ireland XI players Men's association football midfielders Derry City F.C. managers Coleraine F.C. managers Dundalk F.C. non-playing staff 21st-century sportsmen from Northern Ireland