Michael McDermott (born 1974) is a Northern Irish football coach and former player who is the manager of

League of Ireland First Division The League of Ireland First Division, also known as the SSE Airtricity League First Division for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in both the League of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland football league system. The division w ...

club Cobh Ramblers.

Early life

Born in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

, McDermott attended Belfast Boys' Model School and played for

Cliftonville Cliftonville is a coastal area of Margate in the Thanet District, Thanet district of Kent, England. It includes the Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay estate, built in the 1930s with wide avenues and detached and semi-detached houses with driveways, gar ...

and

Distillery Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

at youth levels. He won a soccer scholarship at the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of Rhode Island. The univer ...

. He made three caps for Northern Ireland national under-18.

Playing career

He has played in

USL Second Division The USL Second Division (commonly referred to as USL-2) was a professional men's soccer league in the United States, operated by United Soccer Leagues (USL). It was at the third tier of soccer in the United States, behind Major League Soccer ...

Coaching career

McDermott has held coaching positions at some of Asia's biggest clubs;

Al Ain Al Ain () is a city in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and the seat of the administrative division of the Al Ain Region. The city is Oman–United Arab Emirates border, bordered to the east by the Omani town of Al-Buraimi. Al A ...

(Abu Dhabi), Esteghlal (Tehran) and Al-Nasr (Dubai). Previously he was the fitness coach of the

Iran national football team The Iran national football team (), recognised as IR Iran by FIFA since 2018, represents Iran in men's international senior Association football, football and is governed by the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI). At the cont ...

during their successful World Cup 2014 qualification campaign. Prior to his second spell with the Iran national team, on 2 July 2017 he was appointed as the assistant manager of Esteghlal. After a brief spell as interim manager, on 30 October 2017 he terminated his contract by mutual agreement. After leaving Esteghlal he returned to the Iran national team to work alongside Carlos Queiroz as an assistant coach for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

and the

2019 AFC Asian Cup The 2019 AFC Asian Cup (or commonly called the Asian Cup 2019) was the 17th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international association football, football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) ...

where they were knocked out in the semi-final by Japan. When Queiroz became the head coach of

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

in February 2019 it was announced that McDermott would join him but an agreement was not reached with the Colombian FA. On 31 March 2019, McDermott took the job of

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club based in East Belfast, Northern Ireland, that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882 and has since won more than 130 major honours. They are one of three Northern Iris ...

manager. Interim manager Gary Smyth, who could no longer fulfil the role due to a lack of necessary UEFA coaching qualifications, returned to his former role as assistant. In his first full season as Glentoran manager, McDermott managed the club to victory in the Irish Cup final, defeating Ballymena United 2–1 and thus securing a place in the 2020-21 Europa League preliminary round. McDermott strengthened the squad ahead of the 2020-21 season, signing former

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

international Luke McCullough and

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

goalkeeper Dayle Coleing, as well as

Burundi Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa, with a population of over 14 million peop ...

midfielder Gaël Bigirimana. McDermott's side defeated Faroese side

Havnar Bóltfelag Havnar Bóltfelag (HB, Literal translation, lit. 'Harbour Football Club') is a Faroe Islands, Faroese professional association football, football club, and is one of the oldest in the Faroe Islands. The club was founded in 1904, and is base ...

1–0 in the preliminary round, before being knocked out in a 5–1 defeat away to Scottish team

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

. He was replaced by assistant manager Rodney McAree as manager on 17 January 2023 after a poor run of form. After spending time as the assistant manager of the Qatar national team, McDermott was named manager of

club Cobh Ramblers on 4 December 2024. On 19 May 2025, he guided his side to a 2–0 win over Rockmount at Turners Cross to win the Munster Senior Cup.

Personal life

McDermott married to Karla in 1996, who was also a fellow student at University of Rhode Island and a U.S. citizen. As of 2019, the couple had two sons and two daughters.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Managerial

Glentoran *

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Clearer Water Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary Association football, football single elimination, knockout cup compet ...

: 2019–20 Cobh Ramblers * Munster Senior Cup: 2024–25

Individual

Atlantic 10 Conference The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. The A-10's member schools are located most ...

Student-Athlete of the Year:

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

References

External links

Profile at soccerstats.us
{{DEFAULTSORT:McDermott, Mick 1974 births Living people Oregon State Beavers men's soccer coaches University of Rhode Island alumni Association footballers from Belfast Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Lisburn Distillery F.C. players Long Island Rough Riders players A-League (1995–2004) players Raleigh Express players Association football managers from Northern Ireland Expatriate association football managers from Northern Ireland Expatriate football managers in Iran Connecticut Wolves players Cliftonville F.C. players Quinnipiac Bobcats men's soccer coaches Esteghlal F.C. managers Glentoran F.C. managers Cobh Ramblers F.C. managers NIFL Premiership managers League of Ireland managers Men's association football defenders Rhode Island Rams men's soccer players American people of Northern Ireland descent Naturalized citizens of the United States Northern Ireland men's youth international footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States