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Ricky Sbragia

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Ricky Sbragia
Personal information
Full name Richard Sbragia[1]
Date of birth (1956-05-26) 26 May 1956 (age 68)[2]
Place of birth Lennoxtown, Scotland
Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[2]
Position(s) Defender
Youth career
Rangers
Glasgow Amateurs
1972–1974 Birmingham City
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1974–1978 Birmingham City 15 (1)
1975–1976 → Morton (loan) 4 (0)
1978–1980 Walsall 77 (4)
1980–1982 Blackpool 26 (1)
1982–1987 York City 149 (7)
1985 → Darlington (loan) 6 (0)
Total 277 (13)
Managerial career
2002–2005 Manchester United Reserves
2008–2009 Sunderland
2011–2012 Scotland U17
2012–2015 Scotland U19
2015–2016 Scotland U21
2016–2017 Scotland U19
2017–2019 Manchester United U23
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Richard Sbragia (born 26 May 1956) is a Scottish football coach and former player.

His playing career, mainly in the English lower leagues began at Birmingham City, Walsall, Blackpool, York City and a loan spell at Darlington. Sbragia had a brief spell in his homeland with a loan spell at Morton during his spell at Birmingham.

He has an extensive coaching career, having had spells at Manchester United, Bolton and Sunderland, where he had a brief spell as manager. He followed this by joining the Scottish Football Association, having head coach roles at Scotland U17, Scotland U19 and Scotland U21 teams.

Playing career

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Sbragia was born in Lennoxtown, Stirlingshire and is of Italian descent.[3] He was raised in the Castlemilk housing scheme in Glasgow, and attended Grange Secondary School and played in youth teams with Jimmy Calderwood who also became a footballer and later a manager.[4][5]

He started his career with Birmingham City as an apprentice in June 1972 [3] (a year after Calderwood made the same move)[5] and signed as a professional at the club in May 1974, making his debut during the 1974–75 season.[3] He joined Morton on loan in the Scottish Football League during the 1975–76 season and made four appearances.[6] He was unable to establish himself in the first team at Birmingham and after making 15 appearances and scoring one goal, he joined Walsall in October 1978 for a fee of £15,000.[1][3] He won promotion with Walsall in the 1979–80 season after the team finished second in the Fourth Division, before making a move to Third Division side Blackpool for £35,000 in July 1980.[3]

After making 26 appearances and scoring one goal during two seasons at Blackpool, he was signed up by Denis Smith at York City in August 1982.[1] His debut came on the opening day of the 1982–83 season on 28 August 1982 in a 1–1 with Torquay United at Bootham Crescent.[7] He finished the season as an ever-present with 52 appearances in all competitions and scored a goal in a 2–2 draw against Halifax Town.[7] He struck up a partnership with John MacPhail in defence during the 1983–84 season, when York won the Fourth Division with 101 points.[3] He scored York's equaliser against Liverpool in the FA Cup fifth round on 20 February 1985,[8] which set up a lucrative replay at Anfield.[3] Sbragia suffered from a back injury during this match and had surgery on a spinal disc herniation.[3] He joined Darlington on loan in August 1985 and made six appearances for the team.[1] At the end of his playing career, he played one game for Belfast side Linfield in an exhibition match against Glentoran, where he went on to score two goals.[citation needed]

Coaching and managerial career

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He retired from playing in 1987 and commenced his coaching career with York as youth-team coach and obtained his Football Association coaching badge in May 1990.[3] He led the youth team to the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup for the first time in the 1992–93 season.[3] He took over as youth-team coach at Sunderland in 1994 and was later promoted to reserve team coach.[9] He moved to Manchester United as reserve team coach on 20 November 2002,[10] where he built up a successful reserve side, nurturing the fledgling talents of Kieran Richardson and Darren Fletcher, amongst others. He was appointed as first-team coach of Bolton Wanderers on 10 October 2005.[11] After the departure of Sam Allardyce from Bolton on 29 April 2007, Sammy Lee was appointed as manager of Bolton, with Sbragia retaining his position as first-team coach alongside Jimmy Phillips and Gary Speed.[12]

Sbragia rejoined Sunderland's coaching staff in November 2007,[13] and was appointed as caretaker manager following the departure of Roy Keane on 4 December 2008.[14] He took charge of the team for their match against Manchester United, which was lost 1–0.[15] This was followed up with a 4–0 victory over West Bromwich Albion and a 4–1 win at Hull City, although Sbragia remained coy over the possibility of taking over permanently.[16] He was appointed as manager on a permanent basis on 27 December on an 18-month contract.[17] On 24 May 2009, after guiding Sunderland to Premier League survival on the final day of the season, Sbragia resigned as manager of the club.[18] He remained at Sunderland as chief scout, a post which he held until April 2011.[19]

Sbragia was appointed head coach of the Scotland national under-17 team in August 2011.[20] He was moved up with the Scotland national under-17 team to coach the Scotland national under-19 team for the 2012–13 season. Sbragia took temporary charge of the Scotland national under-21 team in November 2014.[21] Sbragia took the Scotland national under-21 team job full-time on 12 August 2015.[22] He left this position following a 4–0 defeat by Ukraine under-21s in September 2016.[23]

On 7 July 2017, Sbragia returned to Manchester United as manager of the club's Under-23 side after 12 years away.[24] On 21 May 2019, he left the club.[25]

Statistics

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Manager

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As of 24 May 2009[26]
Team Nation From To Matches Won Drawn Lost Win %
Sunderland  England 4 December 2008 24 May 2009 26 6 7 13 023.08

Honours

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Walsall

York City

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Hugman, Barry J. (2005). The PFA Premier & Football League Players' Records 1946–2005. Queen Anne Press. p. 547. ISBN 1-85291-665-6.
  2. ^ a b Dunk, Peter, ed. (1987). Rothmans Football Yearbook 1987–88. London: Queen Anne Press. p. 408. ISBN 978-0-356-14354-5.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Jarred, Martin; Windross, Dave (1997). "Football League Players". Citizens and Minstermen, A Who's Who of York City FC 1922–1997. Citizen Publications. p. 89. ISBN 0-9531005-0-2.
  4. ^ "Sunderland warming to humble Scot Sbragia". The Scotsman. 22 December 2008. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  5. ^ a b "Ricky Sbragia would be a great choice as the new Motherwell boss, says pal Jimmy Calderwood". Daily Record. 26 December 2010. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  6. ^ "Greenock Morton : 1946/47 – 2007/08". Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Database. Retrieved 27 December 2008.
  7. ^ a b Batters, Dave (2008). "Season Statistics". York City The Complete Record. The Breedon Books Publishing Company Limited. pp. 358–359. ISBN 978-1-85983-633-0.
  8. ^ Batters. York City The Complete Record. p. 362.
  9. ^ "Sbragia rejoins Sunderland". Sunderland A.F.C. Retrieved 27 December 2008.
  10. ^ "Ferguson in coaching shake-up". BBC Sport. 20 November 2002. Retrieved 27 December 2008.
  11. ^ "Sbragia leaves Man Utd for Bolton". BBC Sport. 11 October 2005. Retrieved 21 December 2008.
  12. ^ "Lee's New Management Structure Revealed". Bolton Wanderers F.C. 3 May 2007. Archived from the original on 12 December 2008. Retrieved 13 March 2008.
  13. ^ "Ricky Joins The Black Cats". Bolton Wanderers F.C. 23 November 2007. Archived from the original on 13 December 2007. Retrieved 24 November 2007.
  14. ^ "Keane and Sunderland part company". BBC Sport. 4 December 2008. Retrieved 4 December 2008.
  15. ^ McKenzie, Andrew (6 December 2008). "Man Utd 1–0 Sunderland". BBC Sport. Retrieved 6 December 2008.
  16. ^ "Sbragia coy over permanent role". BBC Sport. 20 December 2008. Retrieved 21 December 2008.
  17. ^ "Sbragia appointed Sunderland boss". BBC Sport. 27 December 2008. Retrieved 27 December 2008.
  18. ^ "Sbragia resigns from Sunderland". BBC Sport. 25 May 2009. Retrieved 25 May 2009.
  19. ^ "Sbragia departs Black Cats". Sky Sports. 21 April 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
  20. ^ "Exclusive Stewart Regan interview". Scottish Football Association. 26 August 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  21. ^ "Scotland: Billy Stark 'steps down' as under-21 coach". BBC Sport. 4 November 2014. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
  22. ^ "Ricky Sbragia is new Scotland Under-21 head coach". BBC Sport. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  23. ^ "Scotland U21: Coach Ricky Sbragia makes way for Scot Gemmill". BBC Sport. 7 September 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  24. ^ "United appoint Ricky Sbragia". ManUtd.com. Manchester United. 7 July 2017. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
  25. ^ Ducker, James (22 May 2019). "Manchester United under-23 coach Ricky Sbragia leaves club as summer shake-up begins". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  26. ^ "Ricky Sbragia's managerial career". Soccerbase. Racing Post. Retrieved 24 May 2009.
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