Osian Roberts (born 18 August 1965) is a Welsh

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 of development of Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

Como Como (, ; , or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Nestled at the southwestern branch of the picturesque Lake Como, the city is a renowned tourist destination, ce ...

. In 2014, he was described in the media as "the most influential man in Welsh football".

Early life

Roberts was born in

Anglesey Anglesey ( ; ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms the bulk of the Principal areas of Wales, county known as the Isle of Anglesey, which also includes Holy Island, Anglesey, Holy Island () and some islets and Skerry, sker ...

, and was brought up in Bodffordd on the island.

Career

Roberts was a

central midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

, and captained the Welsh Schools side. He played in north Wales for Bangor City, Bethesda Athletic and Llangefni Town, before moving to the United States at the age of 19 after receiving a scholarship to attend

Furman University Furman University is a private university in Greenville, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1826 and named after Baptist pastor Richard Furman, the Liberal arts college, liberal arts university is the oldest private institution of higher l ...

. At Furman, he was named Southern Conference player of the year in 1986 and 1988. He later played in the

American Professional Soccer League The American Professional Soccer League (APSL) was a professional men's soccer league with teams from the United States and later Canada. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of the third American Soccer League with the Western Soccer League. ...

for the

New Mexico Chiles The New Mexico Chiles were an American soccer club established in 1990 which competed in the American Professional Soccer League. In 1991, the team merged with the New Mexico Roadrunners and moved to the USISL until its disestablishment in 1996. ...

, where he was player-manager. After returning to Wales, he became

Football Development Officer in 1991. In June 2007, Roberts resigned as manager of

Porthmadog Porthmadog (), originally Portmadoc until 1972 and known locally as "Port", is a coastal town and community (Wales), community in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd, Wales, and the historic counties of Wales, historic county of Caernarfonshire. It li ...

to take up the position of

Football Association of Wales The Football Association of Wales (FAW; ) is the Governing bodies of sports in Wales, governing body of association football and futsal in Wales, and controls the Wales national football team, its Wales women's national football team, correspo ...

technical director. He has also coached the Wales under-16, Wales under-18 and Wales B teams, as well as helping coach the women's under-17 team. In 2014, he was the subject of documentary series called ''Byd Pêl-droed Osian Roberts''; it was shown on

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speakin ...

. On 21 July 2015, Roberts was promoted to assistant manager of the Wales national team under team manager Chris Coleman. Coleman resigned the manager role in November 2017 and Roberts stated that he wished to become the new national team manager. Roberts was retained as assistant manager following the appointment of Ryan Giggs as Wales manager. On 1 August 2019, it was announced that Roberts had become technical director of the Morocco national team. He resigned in July 2021. In August 2021, he became assistant manager to

Patrick Vieira Patrick Paul Vieira (; born 23 June 1976) is a French professional association football, football manager and former player who is the head coach of Serie A club Genoa CFC, Genoa. He was named in the FIFA 100 of the greatest living footballers i ...

at Crystal Palace. Vieira was sacked by Crystal Palace in March 2023 with Roberts and other coaching staff also being released. In December 2023, Italian club

announced the appointment of Roberts as their new caretaker coach until the end of the 2023–24 Serie B season, replacing Cesc Fàbregas, who had also been caretaker; Roberts also served as head of development for the club. He eventually guided the club to promotion to

after 21 years by finishing in second place. Fàbregas returned to the role in July 2024.

Managerial statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Osian 1965 births Living people Welsh men's footballers Welsh football managers Sportspeople from Anglesey Bangor City F.C. players Bethesda Athletic F.C. players New Mexico Chiles players American Professional Soccer League players Men's association football midfielders Welsh football coaches Crystal Palace F.C. non-playing staff Welsh expatriate men's footballers Welsh expatriate football managers Welsh expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate soccer coaches in the United States British expatriates in Morocco Expatriate football managers in Morocco Llangefni Town F.C. players Serie B managers Como 1907 managers Como 1907 non-playing staff