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Former Premier League players you might not know are international managers

Oct. 9, 2023
Former Premier League players you might not know are international managers

The managers of the home nations - Gareth Southgate, Steve Clarke, Rob Page and Michael O'Neill - all played in the Premier League.

But there are actually a lot of ex-Premier League players who you might not have known are international bosses.

Let's have a look.

Former Aston Villa striker Savo Milosevic was just appointed manager of Bosnia-Herzegovina last month.

The ex-Serbia international, who has also been Montenegro assistant boss, has previously managed Partizan Belgrade and Slovenia's Olimpija Ljubljana in a veritable Balkans tour.

His first two games demonstrate the range of international football - away to Liechtenstein and at home to Portugal.

Former Arsenal and Manchester City left-back Sylvinho has been in charge of Albania since January, with ex-City right-back Pablo Zabaleta as one of his assistants.

Sylvinho, who previously managed Lyon and Corinthians, has taken Albania to the top of their Euro 2024 qualifying group with 10 points from five games.

Montella, who spent nearly all his career in his native Italy, just makes the cut for former Premier League players, with a six-month loan spell at Fulham in 2006-07.

This is the ex-Italy striker's first international window as Turkey boss, with games against Croatia and Latvia this month.

He has almost 500 games of managerial experience with Roma (as caretaker boss), Catania, Fiorentina (two spells), Sampdoria, AC Milan, Sevilla and Adana Demirspor.

The former Derby and West Ham defender has been India manager since May 2019, winning 18 of his 46 games in charge.

Stimac has won several minor trophies in that spell, including two South Asian Football Federation Championships.

He previously managed his native Croatia from 2012 to 2013 as well as clubs in his homeland, Iran and Qatar.

Scot Morrison played in the English top flight for Blackburn and Manchester City.

In 2010, the Seychelles thought they had appointed Morrison as their manager, but in a case of mistaken identity they had actually hired amateur British coach Andrew Amers-Morrison, who was sacked before taking charge of a game.

The 'real' Morrison, who had a successful spell as Connah's Quay Nomads boss in Wales, eventually got an international job 12 years later in May 2022 with Sri Lanka.

Bowyer, who played Premier League football for Leeds, West Ham, Newcastle and Birmingham, and won one cap for England, was named Montserrat boss last month.

That came after spells in charge of Charlton and Birmingham.

Montserrat, who are ranked 179th in the world, beat Barbados 3-2 in his opening game but then lost 3-0 to the Dominican Republic.

Former striker Kiwomya played in the English top flight for Ipswich and Arsenal, and also played for QPR.

He spent less than nine months as Notts County boss in 2013 before getting his second managerial job eight years later with the British Virgin Islands in October 2021.

They have only won one of their five Concacaf Nations League games under Kiwomya to date.


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