Ian Cathro (born 11 July 1986) 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 head coach of Portuguese

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

club

Estoril Estoril () is a town in the civil parish of Cascais e Estoril of the Portuguese Municipality of Cascais, on the Portuguese Riviera. It is a popular tourist destination, with hotels, beaches, and the Casino Estoril. It has been home to numero ...

. Cathro was previously an assistant coach at

Rio Ave Rio Ave Futebol Clube, commonly known as Rio Ave (), is a Portuguese professional football club based in Vila do Conde, that competes in the Primeira Liga. The club is named after the Ave River, which flows through the town and into the Atlant ...

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

and

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

, and was briefly the

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, also known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Scotland and the highest level of the Scottish football league system. Th ...

club Hearts.

Playing career

Cathro played youth football for Forfar Athletic and

Brechin City Brechin City Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the townDespite the name of the football club, Brechin is not an official city. Brechin was historically known as a city because it has a cathedral. of Brechin in Angus. The club w ...

Coaching career

Youth coach

After working as a local youth coach in

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

, Cathro became the head of

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 ...

's youth academy at the age of 22. During his time with Dundee United, he also worked for 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 ...

's local youth programme.

Ryan Gauld Ryan Stewart Gauld (born 16 December 1995) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Major League Soccer club Vancouver Whitecaps, whom he captains, and the Scotland national team. Gauld began his professio ...

has cited Cathro as one of the biggest influences on his career.

Assistant manager

In 2012, he became the assistant manager of Portuguese club

. In 2014, he followed Nuno, his manager at Rio Ave, to Spanish club

, where he also became assistant manager. The two had first met at an SFA coaching course in Scotland in 2009. He resigned his Valencia post on 11 June 2015. A fortnight later, he agreed to join Premier League side

as assistant to

Steve McClaren Stephen McClaren (born 3 May 1961) is an English football coach and former player who is currently the manager of the Jamaica national team. McClaren began his coaching career with Oxford United, before joining Derby County in 1995. In 1999 ...

, the recently appointed manager. When McClaren was sacked by Newcastle United in March 2016 and replaced by Rafa Benítez, Cathro was thought highly enough of to be retained as assistant manager.

Heart of Midlothian

Cathro was appointed head coach of

club Heart of Midlothian on 5 December 2016. The appointment caused some debate within Scottish football.

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

player

Kris Boyd Kris Boyd (born 18 August 1983) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a forward, currently working as a sports pundit. As a player he was a forward. Boyd grew up in the South Ayrshire village of Tarbolton and started h ...

questioned whether such a young manager, with limited playing experience, could command the respect of the squad. Hearts performed poorly in the second half of the 2016–17 season, winning 5 of 22 league games after Cathro was appointed. They fell to fifth place in the league and were knocked out of the

2016–17 Scottish Cup The 2016–17 Scottish Cup was the 132nd season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. The tournament was sponsored by bookmaker William Hill in what was the sixth season of a nine-year partnership, after contract negotia ...

by their

Edinburgh derby The Edinburgh derby is an informal title given to any association football, football match played between Football in Scotland, Scottish clubs Heart of Midlothian F.C., Heart of Midlothian (Hearts) and Hibernian F.C., Hibernian (Hibs), the two o ...

rivals Hibernian. After Hearts failed to qualify from the

2017–18 Scottish League Cup group stage The 2017–18 Scottish League Cup group stage was played from 14 July to 30 July 2017. A total of 40 teams competed in the group stage. The winners of each of the eight groups, as well as the four best runners-up progressed to the second round ( ...

, Cathro was sacked.

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 ...

manager

Brendan Rodgers Brendan Rodgers (born 26 January 1973) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player who is manager of Scottish Premiership club Celtic. Rodgers began his career as a defender at Ballymena United, where he stayed until h ...

said that there appeared to be a "confused" approach at Hearts, with a mismatch between the style of play Cathro wanted to implement and the type of players signed by the club. After Cathro left, Hearts interim manager

Jon Daly Jonathan Barney Daly (born April 14, 1977), sometimes credited as Jonathan C. Daly, Jon C. Daly, or Jon Daly, is an American actor, comedian, writer and producer best known for his sketch comedy work on the Comedy Central series ''Kroll Show''. ...

and player Cole Stockton claimed that the physical training under Cathro had lacked intensity.

Assistant to Nuno

After almost a year out of football, Cathro was appointed first-team coach at

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

in June 2018, linking up again with Nuno, who Cathro worked with in Portugal and Spain. On 3 July 2021, Cathro followed former-Wolves manager Nuno to

, after being appointed assistant head coach. Cathro again followed Nuno when in the summer of 2022 the later was appointed as manager of Saudi club

Al-Ittihad Al-Ittihad may refer to: Sports Football Men Teams * Al-Ittihad Club (Jeddah), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia * Al Ittihad SCSC (Tripoli), Tripoli, Libya * Al Ittihad Gheryan, Gharyan, Libya * Al Ittihad Misurata SC, Misurata, Libya * Al Ittihad SC ...

, with Cathro becoming First Team coach.

Estoril

In July 2024 he was appointed head coach of Portuguese club

. After a "difficult initial three months in charge", he won the league's Manager of the Month award in February 2025.

Managerial statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cathro, Ian 1986 births Living people Footballers from Dundee Scottish men's footballers Forfar Athletic F.C. players Brechin City F.C. players Scottish football managers Heart of Midlothian F.C. managers Scottish Professional Football League managers Dundee United F.C. non-playing staff Newcastle United F.C. non-playing staff Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. non-playing staff Tottenham Hotspur F.C. non-playing staff Men's association football players not categorized by position G.D. Estoril Praia managers Primeira Liga managers Scottish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Portugal Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Spain Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Portugal 21st-century Scottish sportsmen