Austin MacPhee

Austin MacPhee (born 11 October 1979) is a Scottish Football Coach who works as assistant coach with the Northern Ireland National Football Team.^[1]

Coaching career

Cupar Hearts

In a remarkable first season as a Head Coach MacPhee guided Cupar Hearts to Fife Cup victory for the first time in 112 years and to the Scottish Cup Final at Hampden Park. At the age of 27 he became the youngest ever Head Coach to lead a team out at Hampden Park, the venue of the 2002 Champions League Final. He resigned after one season in charge to take an assistant coach job with Cowdenbeath.^[2][3]

Cowdenbeath

Head Coach Danny Lennon hired MacPhee after seeing his coaching ability on the UEFA A Licence and noting his success at Cupar Hearts. During his time as part of Lennon’s backroom staff the Club achieved their most successful period in recent history achieving back-to-back promotions moving from Division II to the Championship.^[4][5]

St Mirren

When Lennon joined St Mirren in 2011 MacPhee also departed from Cowdenbeath but only teamed up again with Lennon in 2012 due to increasing growth of his business, AMsportstours. As part of Lennon’s back room staff the Club achieved their highest Premiership finish in 2012 of 8th, followed by winning their first trophy in 27 years in 2013 (the Scottish League Cup) then repeating their 8th-place finish in 2014.^[6]

Isma to St Mirren & League Cup Victory

MacPhee secured one of St Mirren’s most sensational signings in modern times when Esmael Goncalves joined on loan from Rio Ave. “Isma” made a sensational debut scoring after just 8 minutes and in a 3-2 victory over Celtic at Hampden Park. MacPhee was credited with the tactical plan behind the victory in post match comments by Manager Danny Lennon and team captain Steven Thompson. Goncalves went on to score 10 goals in three months, including a goal in the final victory over Hearts. ^[7][8]

Mexico & World Cup 2014

MacPhee was recruited as part of the back room staff of the Mexico National Team for the 2014 World Cup and was responsible for opponent analysis as Mexico recruited both he and Atletico Madrid analyst Antonio Perez for Brazil 2014. MacPhee had impressed the Mexican Technical Staff during an interview for a Head Coach job in the Mexican Championship in early 2014, a job he was offered prior to a Club takeover.^[9]

Northern Ireland

MacPhee resigned from his post at St Mirren in March 2014 to become an assistant coach with the Northern Ireland National Team after being head hunted by Head Coach Michael O'Neill. MacPhee joined the squad for the first time for their game in Montevideo, Uruguay in May 2014 as they prepared for their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign. In his first qualifying campaign working with Northern Ireland, the team made a historic start winning their first three games and going on to maintain their form with excellent performances against Finland, Romania and Hungary. Following their 3–1 home win against Greece, Northern Ireland secured qualification for the European Championships for the first time in history. After the match Head Coach Michael O'Neill praised the efforts of MacPhee and his "obsessive attention to detail" on BBC Radio 5 Live. Northern Ireland went on to secure a draw in Helsinki which secured them as group winners for the first time in national history as they became the first team in history to win a group having being ranked in pot five. Following Northern Ireland defeating Slovenia 1-0 in Belfast the team created history by going 10 games undefeated, former Manchester United keeper Roy Carroll and Head Coach Michael O'Neill both praised MacPhee's work with the players as they prepare for Euro 2016.^{[10][11][12][13]} The team went on to extend their historic unbeaten run to 12 games.^[14]

Euro 2016

Northern Ireland were drawn in a group with Germany, Poland and Ukraine for their first appearance at a major finals and progressed to the knock-out stages after a historic 2-0 win over Ukraine in Lyon.^[15] MacPhee received increased media attention at this time due to being the "only Scot at the Euros"^[16] after all home nations qualified bar Scotland. Northern Ireland were eliminated 1-0 in round of 16 following an own goal from a Gareth Bale cross. The team returned to Belfast to a heroes reception and a crowd of 20,000 at the Titanic Quarter in the city.

Entrepreneur

Austin MacPhee is also the Founder and Managing Director of AMsportstours Limited a successful sports tours company with offices in the U.K., USA and New Zealand. The business is now a global player in the sports tours industry and has arranged tours and games for high-profile clients such as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United. AMsportstours is reported to have over 3000 clients per year and came to the fore after running the biggest youth soccer event staged during the Brazil 2014 World Cup. They have organised tours to or from 36 different countries to date.

MacPhee has won a number of awards for Entrepreneurship including the Shell and RBS Awards. He has also been a guest speaker on entrepreneurship and business at high-profile events including the Scottish Business Awards and was nominated for the IOD Emerging Director of the Year Award.

TV & Radio

Following Northern Ireland's Qualification for Euro 2016 MacPhee appeared on Radio and TV in both United Kingdom and USA including BBC and ESPN.

AMsoccer

MacPhee founded the charity AMsoccer which provides football coaching to over 500 players. The organisation has had national acclaim winning the "Legacy Award" and producing up to 50 players for professional academies and the Scottish Performance Schools. The most notable graduate from the AMsoccer Curriculum was Louis Appere who was invited into AS Roma Academy prior to signing with Dundee United.^[17]

References