Eric Tinkler (born 30 July 1970) is a South African
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
coach and former player.
Early and personal life
Tinkler was born in
Roodepoort
Roodepoort ( ) is a city in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Formerly an independent municipality, Roodepoort became part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, Johannesburg municipality in the late 1990s, along with Randburg ...
União de Tomar
União Futebol Comércio e Indústria de Tomar, or more commonly União de Tomar, is a Portuguese association football club formed on 4 May 1914 and based in the city of Tomar.Vitória,
Cagliari
Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...
,
Barnsley
Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...
, Caldas and Bidvest Wits.
Tinkler moved from Italian club Cagliari to English club Barnsley on 1 July 1997 for a transfer fee of £650,000.
International career
Tinkler earned 45 caps for the South African national team between 1994 and 2002, scoring 1 goal. He was part of the South Africa squad that won the
1996 African Cup of Nations
The 1996 African Cup of Nations, also known as the Coca-Cola 1996 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 20th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa ( CAF). It was hosted by South Africa, who rep ...
, playing in the final.
Coaching career
Tinkler became head coach of Orlando Pirates in December 2013; in May 2015 it was announced that he would continue in that role for the 2015–16 season. Tinkler left Orlando Pirates to become the first head coach of Cape Town City club on 17 June 2016. On 8 June 2017 he moved to become head coach of
SuperSport United
SuperSport United Football Club (often known as SuperSport) is a South African professional association football, football club based in Atteridgeville in Pretoria in the Gauteng province. The team currently plays in the South African Premier Di ...
. He quit in March 2018.
After a spell with Chippa United, he became manager of Maritzburg United in January 2019. He left the club in November 2020.
He returned as manager of Cape Town City on 24 May 2021. On 31 December 2024, Tinkler left the club.
Career statistics
Club
International
Honours
Cape Town City
:Telkom Knockout Final
Supersport United
:MTN 8 Cup Final