Ricky Sbragia

Richard " Ricky" Sbragia ( born May 26, 1956 in Lennoxtown ) is a former Scottish footballer and football manager of Italian origin.

Career as a player

Sbragia played in the central defense. He began his career as a junior player at Birmingham City in 1972, where he also received in 1974 his first professional contract. A year later he moved to Greenock Morton in the Scottish professional league, but where he came only to four inserts. In 1978, he transferred to the then fourth division FC Walsall before moving in 1980 to Blackpool, where he remained for two seasons. There were other changes to York City and Darlington. Mid -eighties, due to an injury the End of career as an active soccer player.

Career as a coach

From 1987 he worked as a trainer, first for the youth team of York City. He established inter alia Graeme Murty, Jonathan Greening, Richard Cresswell and Darren Williams. From 1994 to 2002 he was a youth and reserve team coach at Sunderland AFC, then he moved to Manchester United, where he coached for example, Kieran Richardson and Darren Fletcher. He became a coach at Bolton Wanderers in 2005.

Since December 2008 he has been manager of Sunderland AFC. He signed a 18- month contract after he was initially set as caretaker coach. On 24 May 2009 he was, however, announced his resignation. The reason he gave, in spite of the successful receipt class, the poor run with just five points from their last 12 games of the season.