Paul Anthony Ashworth (born 29 September 1969) is an English

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 ...

manager and former player. Ashworth had previously played at youth level for

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...

before setting up PASS Soccer Schools, a national company. He later worked for

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They currently compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed the U’s, the club h ...

and

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third level of the English football league system. Peterborough United formed in ...

before moving to

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

where he managed

Ventspils Ventspils () is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population of 33,906. It is situated on the Venta River and ...

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

and

Skonto Riga Skonto FC was a Latvian professional football club, active from 1991 until 2016. The club played at the Skonto Stadium in Riga. Skonto won the Virsliga in the first 14 seasons of the league's resumption (15 in total), and often provided the cor ...

as well as taking over at Russian side

Rostov Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

as Sporting Director. He worked as a technical director in Nigeria from May 2010 – 2014. He was manager/technical director at Sunshine Stars Football Club, a Nigerian premier league team for six months, before moving back to Ventspils as head coach.

Playing career

Ashworth came through the youth system at

, where he played for the side at schoolboy level. He did not make the step up to the first team, though, but began to coach the youth teams at the club.

Youth coaching career

Soccer Schools

While Ashworth was at

Carrow Road Carrow Road is a association football, football stadium in Norwich, Norfolk, England, and is the home of EFL Championship club Norwich City F.C., Norwich City. The stadium is east of the city, near Norwich railway station and the River Wensum. ...

, he set up his own company, PASS Soccer Schools.

Cambridge United

In 1992,

offered Ashworth a role as youth development officer at the club's

Abbey Stadium The Abbey Stadium, currently known as the Cledara Abbey Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Cambridge, England. It has been the home ground of Cambridge United since 1932, and currently has a maximum capacity of 7,937 spe ...

Managerial career

Ventspils

In a league dominated by multi-championship winning side

, Ashworth secured two consecutive runners-up finishes, a Latvian Cup triumph and steered his squad into 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 ...

for the first time. In subsequent seasons, they also played Finnish side

HJK Helsinki Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (), commonly known as HJK Helsinki (), or simply as HJK (), is a Finnish football club based in Helsinki. The club competes in Veikkausliiga, the top division of the Finnish football league system. Founded in 1907, the ...

and Swiss club

Lugano Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...

, winning their first European match.

Rostov

Having previously been unsuccessfully interviewed for the vacant managers position at

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

club

, Ashworth was approached by the president of the club offering him the position of Sporting Director. He accepted the role and was responsible for all of the football side of the club such as youth policy, transfer policy, dealing with visas and international players, research and building of new training facilities as well as liaison with the manager on first team matters. After taking charge temporarily for two matches, he became the first Englishman ever to coach in the Russian Premier League.

Skonto Riga

It was during this period that he self titled himself as "The Mourinho of Latvia", simply due to not being good enough to play professionally in senior football.

Kwara Football Academy

In 2009, Ashworth moved to the position of technical director of Nigeria's only residential football academy, The Kwara Football Academy. Based in Ilorin, it takes talented youngsters from the ages of 13 to 21 and trains them as professional footballers while allowing them to get educated at the same time. Ashworth now has a staff of nine coaches and more than eighty full-time staff under his tutelage, and has developed excellent facilities and training programmes

Astana

On 14 January 2019,

Astana Astana is the capital city of Kazakhstan. With a population of 1,423,726 within the city limits, it is the second-largest in the country after Almaty, which had been the capital until 1997. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim (river), Ishim ...

announced the appointment of Ashworth as their new executive director. Following the dismissal of manager

Michal Bílek Michal Bílek (born 13 April 1965) is a football manager and former player who serves as head coach of the Czech Republic U21 national team. He led the Czech Republic national football team for four years between 2009 and 2013. As a player, he r ...

on 26 August 2020, Ashworth was appointed acting head-coach of Astana. Ashworth left his role as caretaker manager and executive director by mutual consent on 7 October 2020.

Managerial statistics

''As of 27 August 2021''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ashworth, Paul 1969 births People from Aylsham Living people Alumni of Newcastle University English men's footballers Norwich City F.C. players Men's association football players not categorized by position English football managers Cambridge United F.C. non-playing staff FK Ventspils managers FC Rostov managers Skonto FC managers Sunshine Stars F.C. managers FC Astana managers Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. non-playing staff Latvian Higher League managers Russian Premier League managers Nigeria Professional Football League managers Kazakhstan Premier League managers English expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Latvia English expatriate sportspeople in Latvia Expatriate football managers in Russia English expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate football managers in Nigeria English expatriate sportspeople in Nigeria Expatriate football managers in Kazakhstan English expatriate sportspeople in Kazakhstan