Gregor Rioch

Gregor Rioch (born 24 June 1975) is an English former professional footballer. Rioch has been a UEFA A licence coach since the age of 23 and became the holder of the prestigious UEFA Pro Licence coaching award in July 2011. He is currently the academy manager of Wigan Athletic. His father is former Scotland International and Arsenal F.C manager Bruce Rioch.

Gregor Rioch
Personal information
Date of birth (1975-06-24) 24 June 1975
Place of birth Sutton Coldfield, England
Position(s) Defender
Club information
Current team
 Wigan Athletic (Academy Manager)
Youth career
Luton Town
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1993–1995 Luton Town 0 (0)
1993 → Barnet (loan) 6 (0)
1995–1996 Peterborough United 19 (0)
1996–1999 Hull City 106 (10)
1999–2001 Macclesfield Town 64 (6)
2001–2002 Shrewsbury Town 49 (2)
2002–2003 Northwich Victoria 38 (3)
2003–2004 Shrewsbury Town 19 (0)
2003 → Northwich Victoria (loan) 7 (0)
2004 Leigh RMI 0 (0)
Total 308 (21)
Teams managed
2004–2006 Køge BK
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Playing career

Born in Sutton Coldfield, England, Gregor Rioch started his football career as an apprentice at Luton Town, During this time he joined Barnet on loan where he made his league debut at the age of 18 in a 4–2 defeat to Leyton Orient. He moved to Peterborough United in 1995, before joining Hull City a year later and becoming the club captain at the age of 22. After three years with the Tigers he joined Macclesfield Town, under the management of Sammy McIlroy and Gil Prescott. Rioch left the Silkmen on transfer deadline day in 2001 and joined Kevin Ratcliffe at Shrewsbury Town. He spent 18 months at the Salop and was a key player during the 2001–02 season that just missed out on a play-off place on the last game of the season.

Rioch joined Northwich Victoria in 2002–03, before returning to Shrewsbury Town a year later for second spell under a new management regime of Jimmy Quinn and Dave Cooke who were previously in charge at Northwich Victoria. Rioch played 19 games for Shrewsbury Town that got promotion from the Conference back into the Football League via the play-offs.

Rioch returned to Northwich Victoria for a second spell in March 2003, this time on loan. He took the final game of the season as a caretaker manager following the sacking of Shaun Teale. Rioch finished an 11-year playing career with a short spell with Leigh RMI[1] before going into management abroad.

Scotland selected Rioch for one of their youth sides, but he was ineligible to play for the national team because neither Greg nor his parents were born in Scotland, even though his father had captained Scotland.[2]

Coaching career

On leaving Leigh, he was appointed manager of Danish club Køge BK. He spent two years as the youngest manager in Denmark at the age of 29 before returning to England in 2006 to coach Manchester City's under-17s, then their reserves. After only a year, he left to become the academy manager of Coventry City [1] in 2007 and has gone on to develop a number of talented players for the club's first team.. On 10 December 2013 it was announced that Gregor has joined Wigan Athletic as the club's new Academy Manager, and will be responsible for the club's young players between the ages of 9 to 21 years of age.

References
  1. "Academy Manager – Gregor Rioch". Coventry City. 24 February 2009. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
  2. "SFA go back to schooling rule in talent search". The Herald. 5 March 2011. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
  • Greg Rioch at Soccerbase
  • Greg Rioch at Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Database
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