Fulham Wiki
Fulham Wiki
Advertisement
Chris Coleman
Chris Coleman
0Full Name Christopher Patrick Coleman
0Date of Birth 10 Jun 1970
0Place of Birth Swansea, Wales
0Date of Death
0Place of Death
0Fulham career 2003-2007
0Win percentage 35%
0Honours n/a
0Other clubs Real Sociedad (2007-2008)
Coventry City (2008-2010)
AEL (2011-2012)
Wales (2012-2017)
Sunderland (2017-2018)
Hebei (2018-2019)
Atromitos (2022-2023)


Chris Coleman was manager of Fulham from 2003 until 2007. A former player, Chris took over from Jean Tigana after he was dismissed late in the 2002-03 season and helped secure the club as a Premier League team. To date, he holds the club record for the youngest manager to take charge of the first team.

Career[]

Before Fulham[]

Chris had an accomplished playing career in which he represented Wales on 31 occasions, ending his career as captain of Fulham where he was forced to retire following injuries sustained in a car crash at the start of 2001.

Fulham (2002-2007)[]

After announcing his premature retirement from playing in October 2002, Chris duly joined the coaching staff under Jean Tigana the same month having already completed his coaching badges.

After a run of poor results, Jean Tigana was sacked on 17 April 2003 with five games of the 2002-03 season remaining. Chris was named as caretaker manager to oversee the tailend of the campaign, winning three matches and securing a 14th placed finish for the Whites.

It was announced on 15 May 2003 that Chris had officially been appointed as Fulham's manager. Despite his relatively young age of 32, he had beaten other more experienced candidates such as Klaus Toppmöller and George Burley to the post.

Despite many pundits tipping Fulham to get relegated in 2003-04 and for Chris to be sacked, he had a good start to his managerial career by achieving a 9th placed finish.

Chris managed to attain mid-table security over the next two seasons, and this was despite losing key players such as Louis Saha, Edwin van der Sar & Steed Malbranque amongst others. However, 2006-07 would be his last season in charge of Fulham. Despite a reasonably good start to the season, results fell away and the club fell into a relegation battle after only one win in eighteen matches. Chris was sacked on 10 April 2007.

After Fulham[]

Having been recommended by fellow Welshman John Toshack, Chris moved abroad to manage Real Sociedad on 4 July 2007; the Spanish side had recently been relegated from the top tier of Spanish football, La Liga. However, it wasn't a great spell in charge and Chris resigned from the job only several months later.

He then returned to England to manage Coventry City in the Championship in February 2008 and stayed at the club for a little over two years before he was sacked following a 19th placed finish. Another short spell abroad would follow, this time at Cypriot club AEL, but his time there would be short with another resignation after a few months owing to financial difficulties at the club.

Following the tragic death of Wales manager and former player Gary Speed, Chris was appointed as Wales manager in January 2012. He eventually led his country to their best FIFA rankings they had achieved a the time, 8th. He also led them to their first ever major tournament in nearly 60 years, qualifying for the 2016 European Championships. After finishing top of their group, they progressed to the Semi-finals where they lost to eventual champions Portugal.

Unfortunately, Wales failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and Chris resigned as manager on 17 November 2017. Two days later, he was confirmed as the new manager of struggling Sunderland, a club with a large fanbase that found themselves in the relegation zone of the Championship. Despite his best efforts, the club was in turmoil and with results not improving, he was relived of his duties in April 2018.

Chris then moved abroad again, this time to China to manage Hebei where he spent a solitary season, before having a brief time out of the game.

In January 2022, Chris was appointed as manager of Atromitos, a Greek top tier side. He spent over year and a half with the club before he resigned in October 2023.

Fulham Statistics[]

Season Competition
P W D L F A GD Win %
2002-03 Premier League 5 3 1 1 6 4 +2 60%
FA Cup 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --%
League Cup 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --%
Total 5 3 1 1 6 4 +2 60%
2003-04 Premier League 38 14 10 14 52 46 +6 37%
FA Cup 6 3 2 1 9 5 +4 50%
League Cup 1 0 0 1 0 1 -1 0%
Total 45 17 12 16 61 52 +9 38%
2004-05 Premier League 38 12 8 18 52 60 -8 32%
FA Cup 5 2 2 1 8 5 +3 40%
League Cup 4 3 0 1 10 5 +5 75%
Total 47 17 10 20 70 70 0 36%
2005-06 Premier League 38 14 6 18 48 58 -10 37%
FA Cup 1 0 0 1 1 2 -1 0%
League Cup 2 1 0 1 7 7 0 50%
Total 41 15 6 20 56 67 -11 37%
2006-07 Premier League 33 7 14 12 34 52 -18 21%
FA Cup 4 2 1 1 9 9 0 50%
League Cup 1 0 0 1 1 2 -1 0%
Total 38 9 15 14 44 63 -19 24%
Total 176 61 44 71 237 256 -19 35%

Career honours[]

Individual
Championship Manager of the Month
   Winner (1): February 2009

Fulham squads[]

Fulham FC
2002-03 squad
1. van der Sar 2. Finnan 3. Brevett 4. Melville 5. Coleman 6. Inamoto 7. Marlet 8. Clark 9. Sava 10. Collins 11. Boa Morte 12. Taylor 13. Flitney 14. Malbranque 15. Hayles 16. Knight 17. Djetou 18. Legwinski 19. Goldbæk 20. Saha 21. Herrera 23. Davis 24. Goma 25. Ouaddou 26. Harley 27. Womé 30. Thompson 31. Lewis 33. Willock 34. Hammond 35. McAnespie 36. Hudson 38. Cornwall 39. Leacock 40. Štolcers
Manager
Flag of France Jean Tigana / Flag of Wales Chris Coleman
Fulham FC
2003-04 squad
1. van der Sar 2. Volz 3. Harley 4. Melville 5. Legwinski 6. Inamoto 7. Marlet / Pembridge 8. Saha / McBride 9. Sava 10. Clark 11. Boa Morte 12. Crossley 13. Flitney 14. Malbranque 15. Hayles 16. Knight 17. Djetou 18. Bonnissel 19. Hammond 20. Hudson 21. Beasant 22. Leacock 23. S Davis 24. Goma 25. Buari 26. Willock / Petta 27. Štolcers 28. Rehman 29. Doherty 30. Green 31. Pratley 32. T Davis 33. Noble 34. Bocanegra 35. Pearce 36. John 37. Rosenior
Manager
Flag of Wales Chris Coleman
Fulham FC
2004-05 squad
1. van der Sar 2. Volz 3. Bocanegra 4. Malbranque 5. Legwinski 6. Knight 7. Pembridge 8. McBride 9. Cole 10. Clark 11. Boa Morte 12. Crossley 13. Flitney 14. Diop 15. John 16. Batista 17. Radzinski 18. Bonnissel 19. Hammond 20. Jensen 21. Rehman 22. Leacock 23. Timlin 24. Goma 25. Buari 26. Sava 28. Fontaine 29. Doherty 30. Green 31. Pratley 33. Noble 34. McDermott 35. Pearce 36. McKinlay 37. Rosenior 38. Watkins 39. Ehui
Manager
Flag of Wales Chris Coleman
Fulham FC
2005-06 squad
1. Crossley 2. Volz 3. Bocanegra 4. Malbranque 5. Legwinski 6. Knight 7. Pembridge 8. C Jensen 9. Brown 10. Helguson 11. Boa Morte 13. Radzinski 14. Diop 15. John 16. Batista 17. Rosenior 18. Elrich 19. Hammond / Christanval 20. McBride 21. Rehman 22. Leacock 23. Timlin 24. Goma 25. Drobný 26. Green 27. Elliott 28. Fontaine 29. Niemi 30. Warner 31. Pratley / Bridge 32. Collins 33. N Jensen 34. McDermott 35. Pearce 36. Milsom
Manager
Flag of Wales Chris Coleman
Fulham FC
2006-07 squad
1. Crossley 2. Volz 3. Bocanegra 4. Queudrue 5. Christanval 6. Knight 7. Rosenior 8. Brown 9. Helguson 10. Runström 11. Boa Morte / Montella 12. Laštůvka 13. Radzinski 14. Diop 15. John 16. C Jensen 17. Elliott 18. Zakuani 19. Pearce 20. McBride 21. Bullard 22. Routledge 23. Timlin / Dempsey 24. Pembridge 25. N Jensen / Davies 26. Collins 27. Elrich 28. Milsom 29. Niemi 30. Warner 31. Batista 32. Drobný / Omozusi 36. Briggs 37. Smertin
Manager
Flag of Wales Chris Coleman / Flag of Northern Ireland Lawrie Sanchez
Managers
H Bradshaw (1904-1909) • Kelso (1909-1924) • Ducat (1924-1926) • J Bradshaw (1926-1929) • Liddell (1929-1931) • McIntyre (1931-1934) • Hogan (1934-1935) • Peart (1935-1948) • Osbourne (1948-1949) • Dodgin Snr (1949-1953) • Osbourne (1953-1956) • Livingstone (1956-1958) • Jezzard (1958-1964) • Buckingham (1965-1968) • Robson (1968) • Dodgin Jnr (1969-1972) • Stock (1972-1976) • Campbell (1976-1980) • Macdonald (1980-1984) • Harford (1984-1986) • Lewington (1986-1990) • Dicks (1990-1991) • Mackay (1991-1994) • Branfoot (1994-1996) • Adams (1996-1997) • Wilkins (1997-1998) • Keegan (1998-1999) • Bracewell (1999-2000) • Evans & Riedle (2000) • Tigana (2000-2003) • Coleman (2003-2007) • Sanchez (2007) • Hodgson (2007-2010) • Hughes (2010-2011) • Jol (2011-2013) • Meulensteen (2013-2014) • Magath (2014) • Symons (2014-2015) • Jokanović (2015-2018) • Ranieri (2018-2019) • Parker (2019-2021) • Silva (2021-present)
Advertisement