Galway United FC announce the appointment of Sean Kimberley as Academy Manager

Galway United Football Club are delighted to announce the appointment of Sean Kimberley to the club’s first Full Time Academy Manager position.

Following an extensive recruitment process, Kimberley’s appointment comes following a long and respected career of player development in the elite competitive environment of the English Premier and Football League for over three decades.

Sean brings a wealth of expertise and a proven track record in talent development, coaching, recruitment and management at several clubs including Blackburn Rovers, Celtic, Plymouth Argyle and Aston Villa.

Sean Kimberley in his previous role at Blackburn Rovers (Image: Blackburn Rovers)

In his role as Academy Manager, Sean will oversee the management and development of all of our underage squads, managers and staff providing leadership across the key areas of player development, coaching, recruitment and operations.

Galway United FC Academy teams compete in the EA Sports LOI Academy with Men’s Under 14, U15, U17 and U20 teams along with Women’s U17 and U19 squads. In addition, we have a very strong underage pathway program in place in association with the Galway Football Association for players leading into our U14 National League squad which we will look to further build on.

Sean’s appointment is a pivotal step for our academy, bringing invaluable expertise and vision to nurture and elevate the next generation of talent

Senior Women’s Manager, Phil Trill.

Hailing from Birmingham in the UK and with strong Irish connections Sean is really looking forward to working with all involved in the club and wider football community. He comments that his decision to move to Galway came from a belief in the “vision of the club to develop an elite performance environment across the men’s and women’s academy programmes through participation in the community and elite performance on the field”.

Kimberley also mentions that having met John Caulfield a number of times over the years, it was a major pulling point to work with “such a knowledgeable and well respected manager in the League of Ireland”.

I am delighted to welcome Sean to the club and look forward to working closely with him on building & developing the player pathway structures that will allow the club to progress players into the first team to compete at the highest elite level nationally and internationally.

Senior Men’s Manager, John Caulfield

Having worked in youth development at an elite level in clubs in England and Scotland for over three decades, Sean is keen to get started and will bring a wealth of experience from performance on the field to standards in young people development off the field.

With United’s underage player assessments for 2025 being scheduled, Sean indicates his excitement to start working with the young people of the region “across both the men’s and women’s games and the staff to develop each person individually and collectively as a team, with the goal of retaining the reputation that the Galway United FC Academy has and making it the academy of choice within the region”.

Sean Kimberley, pictured following his appointment to the role of Academy Manager in Eamonn Deacy Park, Galway.

Commenting on Sean Kimberley’s appointment, Jonathan Corbett, Galway United FC Chairman says:

“Sean’s appointment is a hugely significant step in our continued development of Galway United. It is the clubs first ever full-time manager position in the academy and will build on all the previous good work done by Johnny Glynn. This appointment coupled with our imminent planning permission application for our Centre of Excellence in Mountain South, Athenry and promised government investment in academy structures is a huge vote of confidence in the development of the game in the West of Ireland. In particular, we acknowledge that none of this would be possible without the continued significant support of Luke & Brian Comer and the Comer Group”.