Barry Simmonds

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Born in the UK, Barry Simmonds was the Director of Football then interim coach of A-League football team, New Zealand Knights.

[edit] Life and work

Simmonds took the job until the club appointed a new manager after the Knights sacked Paul Nevin on the 15th of November 2006 due to the teams poor showing in the league. He immediately changed the system and style of play with improved performances creating a resurgence in results and the basis for an excellent end of season run when the club ownership was handed back to the Australian Football Federation. Simmonds had previously spent time involved with New Zealand football during the '80s and '90s in various roles, including coaching in the national league. He has had spells at English Premiership club Bolton Wanderers, Viking FK of the Norwegian Premier League and English Championship clubs Cardiff City, Crystal Palace and Queens Park Rangers.

His career began in semi-professional football including a spell under Bobby Moore during the England World Cup winning captains tenure at Oxford City before moving into coaching. Simmonds became one of the youngest coaches ever appointed in the Football League joining the staff at Fulham aged 23 years. In addition to coaching he is highly regarded for his work as a scout and talent spotter with a reputation for unearthing relatively unknown players for bargain fees including bringing Iranian Andranik Teymourian to Bolton. It was a trend he continued at the Knights when signing Canadian striker Alen Marcina from Puerto Rico and Gao LeiLei from China.

In 1999 he joined Crystal Palace and whilst Head of Scouting credited with bringing amongst others Aki Riihilati, Tony Popovic and Danny Butterfield to the club all of whom became crowd favourites. Whilst at Cardiff he brought Paul Parry from non-league football and within a few weeks the Welshman was lining up in the national team.

At the end of the 2006-2007 A-League season Simmonds returned to the UK.