David Jeffrey (born 28 October 1962) is a Northern Irish 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 currently manages

Ballymena United Ballymena United Football Club is a semi-professional football club from Northern Ireland. Based in Ballymena, County Antrim, the team competes in the NIFL Premiership and plays home matches at the Ballymena Showgrounds which is owned by the ...

. He is best known for managing Linfield between 1997 and 2014. He began his professional playing career with the club, following a spell in the

Manchester United 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 ...

youth team, and also played for

Ards Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a type of respiratory failure characterized by rapid onset of widespread inflammation in the lungs. Symptoms include shortness of breath (dyspnea), rapid breathing (tachypnea), and bluish skin col ...

and

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic territory) is a town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, with a population of 18,755 at the 2011 Census. It is a major passenger and freight roll-on roll-off port. Larne is administered by Mid ...

Personal life

Born in

Newtownards Newtownards is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies at the most northern tip of Strangford Lough, 10 miles (16 km) east of Belfast, on the Ards Peninsula. It is in the civil parish of Newtownards and the historic baronies ...

, Jeffrey attended

Dundonald High School Dundonald High School is a controlled co-educational secondary school located in Dundonald, a suburb of Belfast in Northern Ireland. The school opened in the early-1970s and offers education to 11 to 16-year-olds. Students come from the Dundo ...

and

Sullivan Upper School Sullivan Upper School is a mixed non-denominational voluntary grammar school in Holywood, Northern Ireland, and has approximately 1,100 enrolled pupils. The school motto is ', Irish for "with the gentle hand foremost". History Sullivan Low ...

. He lives in

Glengormley Glengormley () is the name of a townland (of 215 acres) and electoral ward in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Glengormley is within the urban area of Newtownabbey and the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council area. It is also situated in t ...

, and has a career in social work alongside his management career. He has two sons, Gareth and Thomas, and is a member of both the

Orange Order The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants, particularly those of Ulster Scots people, Ulster Sco ...

and a flute band. He cites his parents as the biggest inspiration in his life. Jeffrey is a Christian. In an interview with the

Belfast Telegraph The ''Belfast Telegraph'' is a daily newspaper published in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Independent News & Media. Its editor is Eoin Brannigan. Reflecting its unionist tradition, the paper has historically been "favoured by the Protestant po ...

in 2020, he described himself as having 'an unapologetic and unashamed very strong faith in God'.

Playing career

Jeffrey began his football career as a schoolboy with

, but never played in the first team. He joined Linfield in the summer of 1982. He played for Linfield for 10 years and was club captain for much of that time. Jeffrey scored the crucial away goal against

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 ...

in the

1984–85 European Cup The 1984–85 season of the European Cup club football tournament was overshadowed by the Heysel Stadium disaster that happened prior to the final match. That edition was won for the first time by Juventus in a 1–0 win against defending champi ...

. He left

Windsor Park Windsor Park is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Linfield F.C. who own the land the stadium is built on, while the Irish Football Association own and operate the stadium and pay Linfield an annual re ...

for his hometown club,

in the summer of 1992 reuniting him with former boss

Roy Coyle Robert Irvine Coyle (born 31 January 1946) is a former Northern Ireland international footballer. Coyle is the most successful manager in the history of the Irish Football League. He is the Director of Football at Glentoran. Playing career Co ...

and in February 1995 joined Larne as

player-coach A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

Managerial career

Linfield

In April 1996, Jeffrey returned to Linfield as assistant manager to

Trevor Anderson Trevor Anderson (born 3 March 1951) is a Northern Irish former footballer and manager. He played as a forward. Playing career Born in Belfast, Anderson began his playing career at Portadown before signing for Manchester United Man ...

. Jeffrey was appointed as Linfield manager on 4 January 1997 after Anderson resigned. In the 2005–06 season, Jeffrey guided Linfield to a clean sweep of domestic trophies, missing out only on the cross-border All-Ireland Cup. On 6 June 2006, Jeffrey signed a new four-year contract, the longest contract in Linfield history. His previous deal had one season left to run. In June 2008, Jeffrey won his 23rd manager of the month award, breaking the record for monthly awards. By January 2014, he had extended this record to 32 awards. Alongside

, Jeffrey is Linfield's most successful manager in history, having won 31 trophies during his 17-year tenure. Roy Coyle also won 31 trophies with the Blues during his managerial career from 1975 to 1990. On 15 February 2014, Jeffrey announced that he was to step down as manager of Linfield at the end of the 2013–14 season. He was replaced by former Northern Ireland international,

Warren Feeney Warren James Feeney (born 17 January 1981) is a football manager and former Northern Ireland international footballer, who is currently manager of Welling United. In making his debut for the Northern Ireland national team, he became the thir ...

Ballymena United

On 7 March 2016, it was announced that Jeffrey had been appointed the new manager of

, following the sacking of

Glenn Ferguson Glenn Ferguson (born 10 July 1969) is a Northern Irish former football player and manager. Ferguson amassed over 1,000 domestic appearances in a career where he played for Ards, Glenavon, Linfield and Lisburn Distillery, and scored a tota ...

. Jeffrey guided Ballymena to winning the Northern Irish League cup in 2016–17 season and took them to the quarter-finals of the Irish Cup and a 4th place finish in the league. Jeffrey was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(MBE) in the

2021 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours for 2021 are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded ...

for services to association football and community relations in Northern Ireland.

Managerial statistics

} , align=left, ''27 April 2014'' , 944 , , 579 , , 197 , , 168 , , 1,958 , , 845 , , +1,013 , , , - , align="left",

, align="left", , align=left, 7 March 2016Sport, date=TBD , align=left, ''Present'' , 301 , , 148 , , 41 , , 113 , , 510 , , 438 , , +72 , , , - !align="center" colspan="4", Total ! 1,245 !! 727 !! 209 !! 281 !! 2,468 !! 1,283 !! +1,085 !!

Managerial honours

Linfield * Irish Premier League/IFA Premiership (9): 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2003–04, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2009–10,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

, 2011–12 *

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. I ...

(7): 2001–02, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2009–10,

, 2011–12 *

Irish League Cup The Northern Ireland Football League Cup (BetMcLean League Cup for sponsorship purposes), also known colloquially as the Irish League Cup, is a national football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland open to all member clubs of the No ...

(6): 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2001–02, 2005–06, 2007–08 *

County Antrim Shield The County Antrim & District Football Association Senior Shield (more commonly known as the County Antrim Shield) is a football competition in Northern Ireland. The competition is open to senior teams who are members of the North East Ulster Fo ...

(6): 1997–98, 2000–01, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2013–14 *

Setanta Cup The Setanta Sports Cup was a club football competition featuring teams from both football associations on the island of Ireland. Inaugurated in 2005, it was a cross-border competition between clubs in the League of Ireland from the Republic of I ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...

Irish FA Charity Shield The Northern Ireland Football League Charity Shield is the national association football super cup in Northern Ireland. It has been held on an occasional basis since its inauguration in 1992. Similar to the English FA Community Shield, it pits tog ...

: 2000 *

Irish League Floodlit Cup The Floodlit Cup (more commonly known as the Budweiser Floodlit Cup, Budweiser Cup or Coca-Cola Cup for sponsorship reasons) was an annual football competition organised by the Irish Football League in the late-1980s and 1990s. History By the ...

: 1997–98 Ballymena United *

Northern Ireland Football League Cup The Northern Ireland Football League Cup (BetMcLean League Cup for sponsorship purposes), also known colloquially as the Irish League Cup, is a national football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland open to all member clubs of the No ...

: 2016–17

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeffrey, David 1962 births Living people Association footballers from Northern Ireland Association football defenders NIFL Premiership players Manchester United F.C. players Linfield F.C. players Ards F.C. players Larne F.C. players Football managers from Northern Ireland Linfield F.C. managers Ballymena United F.C. managers People educated at Sullivan Upper School Members of the Order of the British Empire Christians from Northern Ireland