Following a playing career which saw him play for the likes of Newcastle United, Dundee United, Hibernian and Coventry City in the top tiers of English and Scottish football, Michael O’Neill made the transition into management with Brechin City in 2006. 

The former Northern Ireland international helped to stabilise affairs at Glebe Park after taking over following their relegation to the third division, reaching the play-offs in his first campaign in charge.

The ex-midfielder’s stock continued to rise and in December 2008, with Brechin top of the table, Republic of Ireland giants Shamrock Rovers swooped for his services.

Shamrock had struggled in previous years, however O’Neill made an instant impact in the Republic capital, guiding them to second in his first campaign, before clinching the league title in the following two years.

Success domestically led to the chance to compete on the European stage and after not disgracing themselves in defeat to Italian heavyweights Juventus in Europa League qualifying in 2010, Rovers reached the group stages the following season after an impressive two-legged victory over Partizan Belgrade.

It wasn’t long after the group stage had concluded that Northern Ireland made their move on 28th December 2011, having seen him amass a win ratio of almost 55%.

Over the course of the next eight years, the 50-year-old transformed the fortunes of a nation which had last reached a major tournament in 1986.

He lifted his nation from a world ranking of 129 up to as high as 20, as well as qualifying and advancing to the knockout stages of Euro 2016.

Northern Ireland followed up that achievement by narrowly missing out on the 2018 World Cup following play-off heartache to Switzerland.