Neil Banfield

Neil Banfield (born 20 January 1962) is an English former footballer who played in the Football League for Crystal Palace and Leyton Orient. He is currently first-team coach at Queens Park Rangers.

Neil Banfield
Personal information
Full name Neil Anthony Banfield[1]
Date of birth (1962-01-20) 20 January 1962[1]
Place of birth Poplar, London, England[1]
Position(s) Defender
Youth career
1978–1980 Crystal Palace
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1979–1981 Crystal Palace 3 (0)
1981–1983 Adelaide City 50 (2)
1983–1985 Leyton Orient 31 (0)
National team
England Schoolboys
– England U18
Teams managed
1992–1997 Charlton Athletic (head youth coach)
1997–2004 Arsenal Academy
2004–2012 Arsenal Reserves
2012–2018 Arsenal (first team coach)[2]
2019– QPR (first team coach)[2]
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Club career

Banfield was born on 20 January 1962 in Poplar, London.[3] He played district and England schoolboy and youth football and joined Crystal Palace as an apprentice in August 1979, with whom he won the 1978 FA Youth Cup in a 1–0 victory over Aston Villa.[3][4] He made only three first team appearances for Palace and in 1981, joined Australian side Adelaide City for two seasons.[3] In December 1983, he moved to Leyton Orient, making 31 league appearances in two seasons before joining Dagenham and Redbridge in May 1985.[3][5]

International career

Banfield was an England schoolboy international, and was a member of the England team that won the 1980 UEFA European Under-18 Championship.[2]

Managerial career

After his retirement he became a coach. He started his coaching career with Charlton Athletic with whom he spent five years as the head coach at the club's academy.[6] Banfield then joined Arsenal in 1997. Banfield went on to coach Arsenal's academy teams with whom he won two FA Youth Cups, an FA Premier Academy League U17 title in 1999–2000 and an U19 League title in 2001–02. He then succeeded Eddie Niedzwiecki as the coach of Arsenal Reserves after the former's departure for Blackburn Rovers in September 2004.[7]

Banfield also served under Don Givens as the assistant manager of the Republic of Ireland U21 team. He held this post from April 2004 to May of the following year. On 24 May 2012, Banfield took up the position of first-team coach for Arsenal,[8][5] a role he held until 2018.

On 14 May 2019, Banfield was appointed first-team coach at Queens Park Rangers [9]

Honours

Club

Crystal Palace[4]

Country

England U18

Managerial career

Arsenal Youth[7]

References
  1. Hugman, Barry J. The PFA Premier & Football League players' records 1946-2015 (First ed.). G2 Entertainment. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-7828-1167-1.
  2. "'Sometimes I have to pinch myself'". Arsenal F.C. 20 January 2015. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  3. Kaufman, Neilson N; Ravenhill, Alan E (2002). The Men Who Made Leyton Orient Football Club. Tempus Publishing. p. 27. ISBN 0752424122.
  4. Mike Purkiss & Nigel Sands. Crystal Palace: A Complete Record 1905–1989. p. 72. ISBN 0907969542.
  5. "Neil Banfield". Arsenal F.C. 2014. Archived from the original on 1 October 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  6. McIntyre, David (19 March 2020). "Banfield: The Rangers can thrive even after star players move on". West London Sport. Retrieved 2 October 2020. Banfield, who spent five years as Charlton’s head youth coach before joining Arsenal in 1997...
  7. Greenwood, Mark. "Football's unsung heroes – Arsenal's Neil Banfield". Football Fancast.com. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  8. "Bould and Banfield join first-team staff". Arsenal F.C. 24 May 2012. Archived from the original on 26 May 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
  9. "Mark Warburton adds Neil Banfield to backroom team". QPR. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  • Neil Banfield at Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Database
Sporting positions
Preceded by
Eddie Niedzwiecki		 Arsenal Reserves Coach
2004–2012		 Succeeded by
Steve Gatting


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