‘Like a movie script’: Michael McArdle backs Northern Ireland to make history

Manager says he has made team ‘play-off ready’ since taking over in March. They now face Portugal in their quest to reach World Cup For seven and a half years, Michael McArdle worked in the construction industry while playing semi-professional football, studying for a degree in building services engineering and raising three young children together with his wife. Any leftover earnings he put into funding his football coaching badges. Eventually he took a big risk and decided to take “probably a 300% drop in salary” and commit to coaching, a life-changing moment that now may be leading towards a World Cup in Brazil next summer as the Northern Ireland Women’s manager.

After laying the foundations at Falkirk, St Mirren and Ayr United, a spell coaching Scotland Women’s Under-23 side and a role with the Scottish FA as the head of elite women’s football led to his appointment by