Gordon Ian Forrest (born 14 January 1977) is a Scottish football coach and former player who is currently first team coach of

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

club Heart of Midlothian. 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 Scottish Championship as a member of the Scottish Professional Football Leag ...

Livingston Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American custom ...

, East Fife and

Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, just south of the border with Scotland. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite hailing f ...

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 soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on Marc ...

Early life

Gordon Forrest was born in Dunfermline, Fife, on 14 January 1977. He was educated at

Woodmill High School Woodmill High School is a local authority ran 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 expanding ...

in the town and supported local football club

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish Association football, football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently play in Scottish League One after being relegated from the 2021–22 Scottish Champ ...

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 Foo ...

in 1996 and also played in the

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 ...

. 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 Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, ea ...

, Forrest had an extended trial with the English club before joining

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. Hist ...

Coaching career

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

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs foo ...

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

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility fo ...

(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. Crawford started his career with Raith Rovers, with whom he won the 1994 Scottish League Cup final and played in the UEFA Cup. This earned him ...

. 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, North Shore and Northland, New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island co ...

. He was also assistant coach for the New Zealand women's national team at the 2012 Summer Olympics. In October 2012, Forrest joined Canadian-based

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...

(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 Robinson (born 13 October 1976) is a retired Welsh international footballer who played as a central midfielder. He is currently the assistant coach for Major League Soccer club D.C. United. Club career Wolverhampton Wanderers Robinson s ...

. 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 is currently the manager of Scottish Premiership club Heart of Midlothian. Neilson, who played as a right-back, started his senior career with ...

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish Champio ...

club

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in ...

, a role he shared with

Lee McCulloch Lee Henry McCulloch (born 14 May 1978) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. He is the first team assistant manager at Scottish Premiership club Heart of Midlothian. McCulloch was capped on eighteen occasions by the ...

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.

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