Steve Darby

Stephen David Darby (born 15 January 1955) is an English football coach and former player. He is well known throughout Asia as a pundit for ESPN Star Sports.[1]

For other people named Stephen Darby, see Stephen Darby (disambiguation).

Steve Darby
Personal information
Full name Stephen David Darby
Date of birth (1955-01-15) 15 January 1955
Place of birth Liverpool, Merseyside, England
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Managerial career
Years Team
1978–1979 Bahrain
1995–1998 Sydney Olympic
1998–2000 Johor
2001–2002 Vietnam Women
2002–2005 Home United
2005–2008 Perak
2008 Thailand
2009 Thailand U23
2011 Mohun Bagan
2014 Kelantan
2014 Mumbai City
2015–2016 Laos

Playing career

Darby started out as a goalkeeper for Liverpool and FA Youth Team and subsequently ended up at Tranmere Rovers 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. At Mumbai, he coached Nicolas Anelka and Freddie Ljungberg, who were by then approaching retirement.[2]

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 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 and Post Graduate qualifications in Sports Administration from the University of Canberra. He also holds a TEFL Certificate from Cambridge. He speaks Arabic, 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 Itinerant Coach, was published in October 2021 by Fair Play Publishing.

Honours

Johor FA

  • Winners (1): 1999
  • Winners (1): 1998

Vietnam SEA Games Gold (first ever football gold) 2001 Order of Labour 2001

Home United

AFC Cup semi final 2004 AFC Team of the Year Finalist 2004 AFC Coach of the Year Finalist 2004

Perak FA

  • Winners (1): 2005

AFC Cup Quarter Finals 2006

Laos National team

  • Highest ever FIFA Ranking
  • First World Cup Qualifying points

References
  1. "Darby: I never set targets!". 247Sports.com. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  2. Murray, Trevor (17 August 2015). "Interview with ex-Mumbai City coach Steve Darby: Nicolas Anelka gives 100 percent every time". www.sportskeeda.com. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
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