Gordon Ian Forrest (born 14 January 1977) is a Scottish

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 who is the currently assistant coach of

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Super League (), commonly known as the Chinese Super League or the CSL (), also known as the China Resources Beverage Chinese Football Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Ch ...

club Shenzhen Peng City. His playing career included spells with

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. The club has won f ...

, Livingston, East Fife and

Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed in England, who play in the Scottish football system. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite being ba ...

in Scotland, and Leiftur in Iceland. He has coached in Scotland, New Zealand and in Canada, where he was with

Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Vancouver. The Whitecaps compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The MLS ite ...

Early life

Gordon Forrest was born in

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; , ) is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. Dunfermline was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries. The earliest ...

, Fife, on 14 January 1977. He was educated at

Woodmill High School Woodmill High School is a local authority-run high school in Dunfermline, Scotland. It is one of the city's four high schools. Designs were proposed for the school in 1958, and construction finished in 1960. It was built to serve the expandin ...

in the town and supported local football club

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently compete in the after winning the 2022–23 Scottish League One title. Dunfermline play at ...

Playing career

Forrest began his senior career with

, joining as a youth from Rosyth Recreation in 1993. He made his Raith debut against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

in 1996 and also played in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. When his former Raith manager

Jimmy Nicholl James Michael Nicholl (born 28 December 1956) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who played for several clubs, including Manchester United and Rangers. He was mainly a right-back but could also play in other defensive roles. N ...

moved to

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Poplar, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east of ...

, Forrest had an extended trial with the English club before joining Livingston in 1997. After two and a half years there, he left in 1999 for a short spell in Iceland with Leiftur, where he again appeared in the UEFA Cup. Returning to Scotland, he joined East Fife in October 1999. He then joined

in 2000, making over 100 league appearances before leaving in 2005. Forrest ended his playing career with amateur club

Burntisland Shipyard Burntisland Shipyard Football Club are a Scottish football club based in the town of Burntisland, Fife. The club competes in the and play their home matches at Recreation Park. They are full members of the Scottish Football Association. Histo ...

Coaching career

Having left senior football whilst still in his twenties, Forrest concentrated on his coaching career, obtaining a

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

'A' licence and youth and child coaching licences from the

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (; also known as the Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA incl ...

(SFA). He went on to work for the SFA as a Youth Development Officer in Edinburgh and Fife. In 2009 he returned to East Fife, working as first team coach under manager

Stevie Crawford Stephen Crawford (born 9 January 1974) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. He was most recently the interim manager of Lowland League club Cowdenbeath. Crawford started his career with Raith Rovers, with whom he won ...

. In 2011, he emigrated to New Zealand to work as a football development manager for the

Northern Football Federation The Northern Football Federation (NFF) was an association football organisation, responsible for local growth and developing the game in West Auckland, New Zealand, West Auckland, North Shore and Northland, New Zealand. In 2020 it was merged wi ...

. He was also assistant coach for the New Zealand women's national team at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. In October 2012, Forrest joined Canadian-based

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

(MLS) franchise

as head coach of their under-18 team and manager of coaching development. In January 2014 was promoted to working with the MLS team as an assistant coach to

Carl Robinson Carl Philip Robinson (born 13 October 1976) is a Welsh former international footballer who played as a central midfielder. He is currently the assistant coach at Atlanta United FC. Early life Robinson was born and raised in Llandrindod Wells, ...

. Whitecaps released Robinson and his coaching team, including Forrest, in September 2018. Forrest returned to Scotland in January 2019 to take up the position of assistant head coach to

Robbie Neilson Robbie Neilson (born 19 June 1980) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player who was most recently the head coach of USL Championship club Tampa Bay Rowdies. Neilson, who played as a right-back, started his senior career with ...

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional association footb ...

club

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

, a role he shared with

Lee McCulloch Lee Henry McCulloch (born 14 May 1978) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player who most recently served as assistant manager of Scottish Premiership club Heart of Midlothian. McCulloch was capped on eighteen occasions by t ...

from June 2019 onwards. When Neilson left the club in June 2020 to become manager at Heart of Midlothian, Forrest and McCulloch were initially placed in temporary charge at United before joining Hearts as Neilson's assistants. In June 2023, Forrest was named as first team coach of Hearts. He was dismissed in September 2024.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Forrest, Gordon Living people 1977 births Footballers from Dunfermline People educated at Woodmill High School Scottish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Scottish Football League players Raith Rovers F.C. players Livingston F.C. players East Fife F.C. players Berwick Rangers F.C. players Burntisland Shipyard F.C. players Vancouver Whitecaps FC non-playing staff Dundee United F.C. non-playing staff Scottish expatriate men's footballers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Iceland Scottish expatriate sportspeople in New Zealand Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Canada Úrvalsdeild karla (football) players Heart of Midlothian F.C. non-playing staff Expatriate men's footballers in Iceland