Curtis Fleming (born 8 October 1968 in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

) is an Irish professional football

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

and former player, who is currently the assistant manager of Championship club

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

. Fleming played

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

and won international honours for the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

at under-21, under-23 (twice), and senior level. He played youth football for Belvedere before starting his senior career with

St Patrick's Athletic St Patrick's Athletic Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Lúthchleas Phádraig Naofa) is a professional Irish association football club based in Inchicore, Dublin, that plays in the Irish Premier Division. Founded in May 1929, they played origina ...

in the

League of Ireland The League of Ireland ( ga, Sraith na hÉireann), together with the Football Association of Ireland, is one of the two main governing bodies responsible for organising association football in the Republic of Ireland. The term was originally use ...

and spent the majority of his career with

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

Club career

St Patrick's Athletic

Fleming played for the Dublin-based youth club Belvedere, and was signed by Brian Kerr for St. Patrick's Athletic in the summer of 1987. He was one of a number of young players signed as Kerr sought to build a squad that could challenge for honours. In his first season, he ousted former international player Eamonn Gregg from the first eleven and quickly established himself as one of the most exciting talents in the league. He won four caps for the Republic of Ireland under-21 side and was the only home based player when playing for the Republic of Ireland under-23 side against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...

in 1989. He was transferred to

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at the County Ground sin ...

in March 1989 but returned in the summer having not played for the first team. After finishing second in his first season, Fleming won the league with St. Pat's in 1989–90 season and earned the moniker ''Black Pearl of

Inchicore Inchicore () is a suburb of Dublin, Ireland. Located approximately west of the city centre, Inchicore was originally a small village separate from Dublin. The village developed around Richmond Barracks (built 1810) and Inchicore railway works ...

Mark II'' (See '' Paul McGrath'' and '' Paul Osam''). In November 1990 he was awarded the FAI's Under-21 Player of the Year award. He also played in the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

and

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, cla ...

while at

Richmond Park Richmond Park, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is the largest of London's Royal Parks, and is of national and international importance for wildlife conservation. It was created by Charles I in the 17th century as a deer pa ...

Middlesbrough

Despite signing for

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí na Seamróige) is an Irish association football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most su ...

Fleming moved to England in the summer of 1991 to join

on a £50,000

transfer Transfer may refer to: Arts and media * ''Transfer'' (2010 film), a German science-fiction movie directed by Damir Lukacevic and starring Zana Marjanović * ''Transfer'' (1966 film), a short film * ''Transfer'' (journal), in management studies ...

. He helped

Lennie Lawrence Robin Michael Lawrence (born 12 December 1947) is an English former football manager, player and football consultant who is non-executive director at EFL League Two side Hartlepool United. Lawrence was a semi-professional at Croydon, Carshalt ...

's side gain promotion to the newly formed

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

in his first season. After being relegated, it took 'Boro' until 1995 to be promoted again, this time with

Bryan Robson Bryan Robson OBE (born 11 January 1957) is an English football manager and former player. He began his career with West Bromwich Albion in 1972, where he amassed over 200 appearances and was club captain before moving to Manchester United in 1 ...

in charge they won the first division title. As Middlesbrough alternated between the Premier League and First division, Fleming remained a constant in the side and as part of Robson's squad he was on the losing side in the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

finals in 1997 and 1998 and the

FA Cup final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official atten ...

in 1997. On 5 August 2001, Middlesbrough played

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country of Spain. They are known as ''Los Le ...

in a

testimonial match A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, particularly in association football in the United Kingdom and South America, where a club has a match to honour a player for servic ...

for Fleming. He played 266 league games for Middlesbrough before finally moving on.

After Middlesbrough

Fleming went on loan to

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

in November 2001, playing six games for them. He then completed a move to

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

at the end of December 2001, for a fee believed to be "in the region of £100,000". Unfortunately for Fleming injuries would curtail his involvement at Palace, although Ian Dowie was impressed enough to make him club captain. After two and half seasons at Crystal palace, Fleming moved back to

North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authori ...

in July 2004 to sign for

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington under ...

on a one-year contract. He remained at the club until the end of the 2004–05 season. Fleming briefly joined Shelbourne in the

(managed by former St. Patrick's Athletic colleague

Pat Fenlon Patrick Fenlon (born 15 March 1969) is an Irish football coach and former player. Fenlon played as a midfielder for St Patrick's Athletic, Bohemians, Linfield, Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne. As a manager he won five League of Ireland titles ...

), and played in the Champions League qualifiers, but at the end of the Irish 2005 season, Fleming officially retired.

International career

Fleming was born in England to a Jamaican father and Irish mother, and moved to Ireland when he was a few months old. He made his international debut for Ireland in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

against the

Czech Republic national football team The Czech Republic national football team ( cs, Česká fotbalová reprezentace), recognised by FIFA as Czechia, represents the Czech Republic in international football. The team is controlled by the Football Association of the Czech Republi ...

on 29 April 1996 (and in the process netting St. Patrick's Athletic another £50,000 as part of his transfer deal). He would go on to win 10 caps under

Mick McCarthy Michael Joseph McCarthy (born 7 February 1959) is a professional football manager, pundit, and former player. He was last in charge of EFL Championship club Cardiff City. McCarthy began his playing career at Barnsley in 1977, and he later ha ...

After retirement

Fleming later worked as a pundit on

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previo ...

for a period during 2006 and was linked with the position of assistant manager to

at Derry City in the League of Ireland. His playing career has continued at an amateur level, with Fleming appearing regularly in the 2006–07 season for

Northern League Northern League may refer to: Sport Baseball * Northern League (baseball, 1902–71), a name used by several minor leagues that operated in the upper midwestern U.S. and Manitoba from 1902 to 1971 * Northern League (baseball, 1993–2010), an indep ...

side

Billingham Synthonia Billingham Synthonia Football Club is a football club based in Stokesley, North Yorkshire, England. Nicknamed the "Synners", they are currently members of the and play at the Stokesley Sports Complex in Stokesley, North Yorkshire. History T ...

as a central defender. Curtis is a valued supporter of the charity Show Racism the Red Card and spoke with passion and humour about his experiences of racism in the game at SRTRC's fifteenth anniversary event at

UNISON In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm. Definition Unison or pe ...

HQ on 3 August 2011. Curtis Fleming is also a patron of the charity Justice First and took part in a fundraising event at Goals Soccer Saturday with his team The Misfits losing 5–2 in the final to Hope athletic. Despite this Curtis graciously handed over the trophy to the winners.

Coaching career

Fleming later coached at youth level at

and joined Livingston in June 2007, as assistant manager to Mark Proctor. In July 2011, Fleming joined former club

, managed by former Eagles teammate

Dougie Freedman Douglas Alan Freedman (born 25 May 1974) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He is the current sporting director of Crystal Palace. Freedman played as a striker, primarily for Crystal Palace and also had spells as a ...

, as Development Coach. In July 2012, Fleming was promoted to the role of first team coach at

, yet moved on four months later to join Freedman in a similar role at

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pik ...

. In February 2016, Fleming joined former Boro teammate Craig Hignett at

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They were founded in 1908 as Hartl ...

as Assistant Manager. After less than a year at Hartlepool he was headhunted by

Ian Holloway Ian Scott Holloway (born 12 March 1963) is an English professional football manager, former player, media personality and television pundit who was most recently the manager of Grimsby Town. A midfielder, he notably played in the Premier Leagu ...

in December 2016 and moved to

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus ...

as Assistant Manager. He moved to

as First Team coach in 2018 and left the club after the departure of

Tony Pulis Anthony Richard Pulis (; born 16 January 1958) is a Welsh football manager and former footballer who last managed Sheffield Wednesday. Pulis obtained his FA coaching badge at age 19, followed by his UEFA 'A' licence aged 21 – making him on ...

in May 2019. In 2019, he was appointed as the reserve team coach of Indian club

Punjab FC RoundGlass Punjab FC is an Indian professional football club from Mohali in Punjab that competes in the Punjab State Super Football League and I-League. Founded as ''Minerva Academy FC'', in 2005, the club name was rebranded to ''Minerva Pun ...

for 2019–20 season. On 15 June 2020, he was appointed as the head coach of the main team. On 28 July 2021 Fleming was appointed as a temporary coach for Championship side

to stand in for Paul Simpson who took time off to receive treatment for renal cell carcinoma.
''Bristol City FC''. Retrieved 2 August 2021 On 22 September 2021 Fleming was appointed as assistant manager at Ashton Gate on a permanent basis.

Honours

League of Ireland Premier Division The League of Ireland Premier Division ( ga, Príomhroinn Sraith na hÉireann), also known as the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division for sponsorship reasons, is the top level division in both the League of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland ...

; 1 **

; 1989–90 *

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First D ...

: 1 **

; 1994–95 *International Honours ** 10 full caps for Republic of Ireland

References

External links

Fleming's UK statistics
at

soccerbase ''Racing Post'' is a British daily horse racing, greyhound racing and sports betting publisher which is published in print and digital formats. It is printed in tabloid format from Monday to Sunday. , it has an average daily circulation of 6 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fleming, Curtis 1968 births Living people Footballers from Manchester Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Republic of Ireland association football managers Republic of Ireland men's international footballers Republic of Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Republic of Ireland men's under-23 international footballers English men's footballers English football managers Irish people of Jamaican descent Sportspeople of Jamaican descent English people of Irish descent English sportspeople of Jamaican descent Middlesbrough F.C. players Darlington F.C. players St Patrick's Athletic F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players League of Ireland players Premier League players English Football League players Shelbourne F.C. players Billingham Synthonia F.C. players Livingston F.C. non-playing staff Bolton Wanderers F.C. non-playing staff Crystal Palace F.C. non-playing staff Belvedere F.C. players Men's association football defenders Hartlepool United F.C. non-playing staff Black Irish sportspeople Queens Park Rangers F.C. non-playing staff Middlesbrough F.C. non-playing staff Punjab FC managers English Football League managers Indian Super League managers Bristol City F.C. non-playing staff People educated at St. Joseph's CBS, Fairview Republic of Ireland expatriate association football managers Irish expatriate sportspeople in India English expatriate football managers English expatriate sportspeople in India Expatriate football managers in India