Mick McCarthy started his career at his hometown club Barnsley and helped them gain promotion from the old English fourth division to the old second division in successive years, before moving to Manchester City in 1983.

In 1987, McCarthy moved to Celtic and won the league and cup double in his first season and after winning another Scottish Cup with Celtic in 1989, he moved to Lyon in France.

However, the move wasn't successful and he returned to England with Millwall where injuries disrupted the remainder of his playing days, and in 1991, he was appointed manager of Millwall before replacing Jack Charlton as the Republic of Ireland manager in 1996.

Ireland missed out on qualification for the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championships after play-off defeats with Belgium and Turkey respectively but they would qualify for the 2002 World Cup by finishing ahead of Holland in the group stages and then beating Iran in the play-offs.

At the finals, a memorable draw against Germany helped Ireland reach the knockout stages where they were beaten by Spain on penalties.

McCarthy would leave the role in late 2002 before returning for a second spell in charge in 2018 until 2020 when he was replaced by current boss Stephen Kenny.

In between those two stints, he managed Sunderland, Wolverhampton Wanderers, and Ipswich while more recently he was at the helm of both APOEL in Cyprus and Cardiff City.