Damien Duff

Blackburn Rovers

Duff joined Blackburn Rovers as a trainee in 1996 after playing for Leicester Celtic, Lourdes Celtic and St. Kevin's Boys as a schoolboy in Dublin. He made his Blackburn debut at the age of 18 against Leicester City on the final day of the 1996–97 season for which he won the Man of the match award. In his first full season, he scored five goals. Blackburn were relegated the following season. Duff helped Blackburn achieve promotion back to the Premier League in 2001 and then win the League Cup in 2002, beating Tottenham Hotspur 2–1 at the Millennium Stadium in a season where he was Player of the Year. Following the 2002 World Cup, Duff signed a new four-year contract with Rovers. Despite injury problems in the 2002–03 season, he finished as Blackburn's top goalscorer with 9 league goals, which helped his team finish sixth and qualify for the UEFA Cup.

Chelsea

In the run up to the 2003–04 season, Chelsea made a series of bids for Duff, with a £17 million offer, eventually triggering a release clause in the player's contract. Duff chose to move to West London in July. Signed by manager Claudio Ranieri as part of the development of Chelsea financed by new owner Roman Abramovich, Duff made his debut in August 2003 in the Champions League against Slovak side MŠK Žilina. Chelsea won 2–0 and Duff was described as the "star of the show". He scored his first Chelsea goal on 20 September 2003 in a 5–0 away win against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Duff…

Duff played for the Republic of Ireland national under-19 football team in the 1997 UEFA European Under-18 Football Championship finals in Iceland, the 1997 and 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship. In Malaysia, he scored the first ever Golden Goal in a World Cup match. He made his senior début for the Republic of Ireland in 1998 against the Czech Republic. He won 100 caps, making him the fifth most capped player in Irish history. He started a total of 82 times for the Republic of Ireland senior squad, scoring eight goals. He played every game for Republic of Ireland at the 2002 FIFA World Cup and was voted the team's player of the tournament. After scoring against Saudi Arabia, en route to the second round of the FIFA World Cup, Duff marked his goal with an oriental bow, in retrospect often referred to as one of the most memorable moments of his international career. He was named as the FAI Senior International Player of the Year in 2002. After a poor campaign, failing to qualify and a change of managers during the qualifiers for UEFA Euro 2004, he still scored two goals during the qualifiers against Georgia and Russia. He was ever present for the Republic of Ireland in their qualifying campaign for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but yet again, they failed to qualify. Duff's former teammate Steve Staunton took over as manager but early defeats to Germany and a humiliating 5–2 loss to Cyprus saw the Irish fail to qualify again for a major tournament, followed by another change of…

Shamrock Rovers Academy

During his last playing season at Shamrock Rovers, Duff coached the club's under-15 team. On 16 April 2016, it was announced that he would take on a coaching role with the Republic of Ireland under-15s, in line with the recommendation from FAI High Performance Director, Ruud Dokter, that more ex-internationals get involved in coaching roles with the national team setup. On 31 July 2016, Duff joined the Shamrock Rovers first-team coaching staff until the end of the season, with the intention that he would then take control of the under-15 group he previously managed, then competing in the League of Ireland U17 Division.

Celtic coach

Duff was appointed to a reserve team coaching position with Celtic in January 2019. When Neil Lennon became interim manager at Celtic in February 2019, Duff was promoted to first team coach, with John Kennedy promoted to assistant manager. After the club completed a third successive domestic treble, Lennon was made permanent manager, with Duff and Kennedy retaining their roles. Celtic secured a ninth league title in-a-row and fourth straight League Cup in 2019–20.

Republic of Ireland assistant

On 5 April 2020, Duff was announced as the assistant manager of the Republic of Ireland senior team to Stephen Kenny, who replaced Mick McCarthy.

Shelbourne Academy

On 24 June 2020 it was announced that in conjunction with his role as assistant manager of the Republic of Ireland senior team, Duff…

Damien Anthony Duff was born on 2 March 1979 in Ballyboden, County Dublin.