Michael Collins

Huddersfield Town

Collins was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire. Having come through Huddersfield Town's academy, he made his first team debut in a 1–0 home win over Blackpool on 19 February 2005. Collins made eight appearances in the 2004–05 season, with seven of them being starts. He signed a professional contract with the club on 11 May 2005. He made his first start of the 2005–06 season coming on as an 89th-minute substitute in a 3–1 home win over Swansea City on 13 August 2005. His first start came in a 4–2 away win in the League Cup over Chesterfield on 24 August 2005. Collins scored his first goal on 18 February 2006 in a 5–0 win over Milton Keynes Dons. He came on as a substitute in the FA Cup third round tie in January 2006 against Premier League champions Chelsea, and set-up Gary Taylor-Fletcher for an equaliser. Collins made 21 appearances in all competitions Huddersfield in 2005–06. Collins made his first appearance of 2006–07 on the opening day of the season, coming on in the 66th minute in a 2–1 away defeat away to Gillingham. He made his first start of the season in a 2–0 defeat by Mansfield Town at home in the first round of the League Cup on 22 August 2006. His first league start of the season came on 26 August 2006 in a 1–1 draw at home with Nottingham Forest. Collins scored his first goal of the season in a 2–1 away win over Port Vale on 21 October 2006. He scored in the last two matches of the season; first in a 4–2 win over Millwall on 21 April…

Qualifying through the parentage rule, Collins made his international debut in a Republic of Ireland under-18 match in April 2003. He was the captain of the Irish under-19 squad and on 14 March 2007, he got his first call-up to the Republic of Ireland under-21 squad for a match against the Netherlands. However, he was forced to withdraw from the squad after picking up a shoulder injury in a league match for Huddersfield against Brighton & Hove Albion. Collins made his under-21 debut against Germany in a friendly match at the Sportpark Ronhof in Fürth on 21 August 2007. His home debut came against Portugal at Turners Cross in Cork on 7 September 2007. On 15 May 2008, he scored his first goals for the under-21s in a 3–1 win over Malaysia in an Intercontinental Cup match in Malaysia. Collins made six appearances scoring twice between 2007 and 2008.

Bradford Under 18's

In July 2017, Collins joined League One club Bradford City as their under-18s lead coach.

Bradford head coach

He was appointed head coach of Bradford City on 18 June 2018, with Martin Drury and Greg Abbott named as his assistants. He won his first league game, 1–0 away at Shrewsbury, but won only one more game out of 7 in total, and was sacked by the club on 3 September 2018. He later became a coach at Sunderland's academy.

Sheffield United

In November 2020, Collins joined the Sheffield United Academy as a midfield position specific coach. During the following summer of 2021, Collins was appointed as the head of individual development for the Under 21's and below. In January 2022, and following Paul Heckingbottoms promotion to the manager of the football club, Collins was appointed the lead under 21 coach. Collins would go on to lead the under 21's to the Professional Development League North title. In the season of 2022–2023, Collins would again lead them to another Northern title. They then narrowly missed out on the Professional Development League National Title, losing 2–1 to Millwall FC in extra time. For season 2023-2024 Collins, and the under 21's, would go one better. They succeeded in doing the double of Professional Development League North Champions, as well as beating Birmingham City 2–0 in the National Title Final. In the summer of 2024, Collins was promoted to join Chris Wilders staff as first team coach ahead of…

He is the cousin of professional rugby league players Scott Grix and Simon Grix.