The Philips Sports Manager of the Year is an award for the person considered the most outstanding Irish sports manager or coach of a particular year. The award is contested by the twelve winners of the year's Philips Sports Manager of the Month Awards, which are open to Irish sports managers, trainers or coaches, or overseas-born managers of Irish teams. Because the annual ceremony is traditionally held in early December each year, the December winner from the previous year is eligible to compete. Unusually, the award was instigated not by a sporting body or journalists' association, but by the event sponsors themselves,

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...

in 1982. There have been joint-winners twice. First in 1990, as the achievement of

Cork GAA The Cork County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) ( ga, Cumann Luthchleas Gael Coiste Contae Chorcaí) or Cork GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in County Cork and the Co ...

winning the first All-Ireland hurling and football double in exactly 100 years saw respective managers Fr. Michael O'Brien and Billy Morgan honoured. It happened again in 2015 when Irish soccer manager

Martin O'Neill Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, (born 1 March 1952) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Starting his career in Northern Ireland, O'Neill moved to England where he spent most of his play ...

and Northern Irish soccer manager Michael O'Neill shared the award for qualifying their respective sides for the 2016 UEFA European Football Championship.

Jack Charlton John Charlton (8 May 193510 July 2020) was an English footballer and manager who played as a defender. He was part of the England national team that won the 1966 World Cup and managed the Republic of Ireland national team from 1986 to 199 ...

is the most honoured manager since the award's inception, having won it four times during his tenure as Ireland soccer manager.

Declan Kidney Declan Kidney (born 20 October 1959) is an Irish rugby union coach. He was the head coach of the Ireland national rugby union team from 2008 to 2013, where he won the 2009 Six Nations with a Grand Slam, winning the 2009 IRB Coach of the Year aw ...

is the only person to have won the award for achievements with two different teams at different levels, while Brian Kerr was honoured for success with three different Irish national soccer teams. Joining Charlton, Kidney and Kerr as multi-award winners are Kilkenny hurling supremo

Brian Cody Brian Cody (born 12 July 1954) is an Irish former hurling manager and player and retired schoolmaster. He managed the senior Kilkenny county team between 1998 and 2022, becoming the county's longest-serving manager and most successful in te ...

and Dublin football supremo Jim Gavin.

Winners

Multiple winners

Winners by sport

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Philips Sports Manager Of The Year 1982 establishments in Ireland Awards established in 1982 Coaching awards Irish sports coaches

Man A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromo ...

Lists of Irish sportspeople Philips