Terrence Phelan (born 16 March 1967) is a football coach and former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

. He is the technical director of Indian I-League 2nd Division side South United FC. He also works as a

pundit A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

for

Sony Sports Network The Sony Sports Network, formerly known as the Sony Pictures Sports Network and also known as Sony TEN, is a group of Indian pay television sports channels owned by Culver Max Entertainment. The original TEN Sports channel was first establish ...

and Sports18. He played as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

from 1984 to 2009. He played in the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

for

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

, Chelsea and Everton, as well as in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

for

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club ( ; ) is a Welsh professional football club based in Swansea, Wales. It competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Swansea have played their home matches at ...

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

, Crystal Palace,

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

, Sheffield United. He finished his career abroad for

Charleston Battery The Charleston Battery are an American professional association football, soccer club based in Charleston, South Carolina, and member of the USL Championship. Founded in 1993, the Battery are the oldest continuously operating professional socc ...

and Otago United. He also made 42 appearances for the Irish national team, whom he represented at the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

. During 2015, he was the head coach of

Kerala Blasters Kerala Blasters Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Blasters, is an Indian professional football club based in Kochi, Kerala, that competes in the Indian Super League (ISL), the top tier of football in India. The club was esta ...

of the

Indian Super League The Indian Super League (ISL) is a professional association football league in India and the highest level of the Indian football league system. Administered by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and its commercial partner Football Sport ...

, and has remained in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n football ever since.

Club career

Phelan started his career as part of the

youth system, and made 19 appearances for Leeds in the 1985–86 season, but was released on a free transfer by Leeds manager

Billy Bremner William John Bremner (9 December 1942 – 7 December 1997) was a Scottish professional Association football, footballer who played for Leeds United F.C., Leeds United, Hull City A.F.C., Hull City, and the Scotland national football team, Scot ...

. Phelan then spent a year at

, earning a move to top division

a year later. In his first season at Wimbledon, Phelan was a member of the team which won the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

with a shock win over

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

. He also helped Wimbledon finish seventh in the league on two occasions during his time there. After five years at Wimbledon in which he made 198 appearances, Phelan was transferred to

for £2.5 million at the start of the 1992–93 season, equalling the British record transfer fee for a defender as well as equalling the club's record fee. At City, Phelan made 122 appearances over three and a half seasons. Arguably the best goal of Phelan's career came at

Maine Road Maine Road was a football stadium in Moss Side, Manchester, England, that was home to Manchester City from 1923 to 2003. It hosted FA Cup semi-finals, the Charity Shield, a League Cup final and England matches. Maine Road's highest attenda ...

for City in an FA Cup tie against

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 ...

when the full-back ran the length of the pitch skipping several challenges and keeping his cool to slot home. Phelan moved to Chelsea in November 1995, where he spent two years on the fringes of the first team (playing just 15 times in the league) before moving to Everton, where he played regularly under

Joe Royle Joseph Royle (born 8 April 1949) is an English football manager and former footballer. In his playing career as a striker, he debuted for Everton at the age of 16 and went on to play for Manchester City, Bristol City, Norwich City, and the E ...

, until he suffered an injury from which he took nearly 18 months to recover. During Phelan's injury,

Walter Smith Walter Ferguson Smith (24 February 1948 – 26 October 2021) was a Scottish football player, manager and director, primarily associated with his two spells as manager of Glasgow club Rangers. A defender, Smith's playing career consiste ...

took over as Everton manager (after

Howard Kendall Howard Kendall (22 May 1946 – 17 October 2015) was an English footballer and manager. Kendall joined Preston North End as an apprentice and stayed with the club when he turned professional. He was a runner-up in the 1964 FA Cup with Preston ...

's third spell as manager lasted just one season), and Phelan only played twice under Smith at the start of the 1999–2000 season. He was subsequently loaned to Crystal Palace. Phelan moved to

in February 2000, and was part of the Fulham team which won promotion to the

in 2001. However, Phelan was released by Fulham following promotion, having just made two league appearances that campaign. Phelan then had a short spell with Sheffield United before moving to the United States, where he played for

and also coached young players. In October 2005, Phelan was named as player-coach of Otago United in the

New Zealand Football Championship The New Zealand Football Championship () was a men's association football league at the top of the New Zealand league system. Founded in 2004, the New Zealand Football Championship was the successor to a myriad of short-lived football leagues in ...

. He remained as coach for four seasons up until the end of the 2008–09 season when, owing to poor results, he was replaced by his assistant Malcolm Fleming for the 2009–10 season.

International career

He made 42 appearances for the Irish national team, whom he represented at the

Coaching career

Phelan is one of the coaches at the new Templegate Training Academy in Ardwick, Manchester. On 6 April 2015, Phelan was appointed as a Technical Director of

' grassroots programme. On 1 November 2015, he was made the head coach of the Blasters after Peter Taylor was sacked. He returned to his previous role when

Steve Coppell Stephen James Coppell (born 9 July 1955) is an English professional football manager and former player. As a player, Coppell was a highly regarded right winger known for his speed, technical ability and work rate. He won domestic honours with ...

was appointed as head coach. He then went on to become technical director of Bangalore Super Division club South United in August 2019.

Honours

Wimbledon *

: 1988 Fulham *

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was g ...

: 2000–01 Charleston Battery *

USL A-League The USL First Division (USL-1) was a professional men's soccer league in the second tier of the United States league system. It was organized by the United Soccer League as its premier league for men from 1996 to 2010, above the USL Second Di ...

: 2003 * Southern Derby: 2003 2005 Awards * Football League Fourth Division PFA Team of the Year: 1986–87 * FAI Young International Player of the Year: 1992

References

External links