Darren Moore


Darren Mark Moore is a professional football coach and former player, who is the current manager of League One club Doncaster Rovers. Born in England, he earned three international caps for Jamaica. Moore is also a member of the management committee of the Professional Footballers' Association. As a player, he represented Torquay United, Doncaster Rovers, Bradford City, Portsmouth, Derby County, Barnsley and Burton Albion. He also played for West Bromwich Albion, going on to serve as their manager between 2018 and 2019.

Early life

Moore attended James Watt Primary School and Holyhead Secondary, both in Handsworth, Birmingham. He played for Holly Lane Colts and in 1989 had a trial with Walsall.

Club career

Torquay United

He began his football career as a trainee with Torquay United in June 1990, and made his debut while still a trainee on 24 March 1992, in a 2–1 defeat at home to Birmingham City. He turned professional in November 1992. Moore began the following season as first choice in the centre of defence, alongside Wes Saunders and went on to play over 100 league games for Torquay before leaving to join Doncaster Rovers for a fee of £62,500 in July 1995.

Doncaster Rovers

Moore arrived at Doncaster with Torquay teammates Scott Colcombe and Duane Darby. He appeared in the first game of the season, a home victory against Scarborough om 12 August. His first goal came in a draw at Barnet on 4 November that season. Altogether Moore played 84 games and scored 8 goals in his two seasons at Belle Vue.
His time at Doncaster wasn't easy as the club at that time was in the grip of owner Ken Richardson, who had been charged with attempting to burn the main stand down, something that had happened only days before Moore had arrived at the club. Financially the club was in dire straits and worse, Kerry Dixon, the manager, had said Richardson was picking the team not him. On the back of this, on 4 June 1997 he left for Bradford City for a fee of £310,000.

Bradford City

He played 18 times during his first season with injuries limiting his starts. But in 1998–99 he started 44 games helping City to promotion into the Premier League for the first time. During the summer he refused to sign a new contract and fell out of favour with manager Paul Jewell. He played just once more for Bradford, in the League Cup against Reading.

Portsmouth

snatched his services from a collection of other suitors, for a fee of £500,000, in November 1999. He spent less than two years at Fratton Park before returning to the West Midlands with West Bromwich Albion for a fee of £750,000 on 14 September 2001.

West Bromwich Albion

The following day he made his Albion debut, as a 2nd-half substitute in a 2–1 win at Watford. Moore proved to be a rock at the heart of the Baggies defence as they earned promotion to the Premiership in 2001–02, and was named in the PFA Division One team of the year. After Albion were relegated from the top flight, he helped them bounce back at the first attempt, figuring in the promotion winning side of 2003–04.
Moore struggled to hold down a regular first team place during the first half of the 2005–06 season. He was sent off in the match against Wigan Athletic on 15 January 2006, his only dismissal in over 100 games for Albion. It proved to be his last game for the club, and later that month he was signed for Derby County by Phil Brown for a fee of £300,000, rising to £500,000 depending on appearances.

Derby County

Moore was a pivotal figure in the 2006–07 Derby side that clinched promotion back to the Premier League after a five-year absence by winning the Championship playoff final 1–0 against his former club West Brom. This was the fourth time he had been part of a squad which won promotion to the Premier League, following on from his successes at West Brom and Bradford. His form that year led to him being named in the PFA Championship team of the year for 2006–07. In the 2007–08 Premiership season, Derby were relegated as the bottom club, although Moore was awarded the club's internal Player of the Season award. Following the club's relegation, manager Paul Jewell allowed Moore to talk to his former club Bradford City, who were managed by his former teammates Stuart McCall and Wayne Jacobs as assistant. However, Bradford City decided not to pursue their interest in Moore, instead opting to sign Graeme Lee.

Barnsley

Moore signed for Barnsley on 2 July 2008. Barnsley manager Simon Davey said they beat off competition from several sides to land the experienced defender. He scored his first goal for the club on 1 November 2008, with a header in a 3–1 win against Charlton Athletic. He scored his second goal for the club on 17 April 2010 against Swansea City. On 2 May 2010 after the West Bromwich Albion game, Moore was released by Barnsley.

Burton Albion

Moore signed for Burton Albion on 7 May 2010, days after his release from Barnsley, rejecting offers from higher-level clubs. He made his first appearance in a Brewers shirt in a pre-season friendly against former club Derby County on 17 July 2010, and on 3 August 2010 was announced as the club's new captain, replacing Darren Stride. Moore left the club on 7 February 2012. He then played for a while for Wellington Amateurs, before returning to his old club West Brom, employed as a youth coach.

International career

Moore made 3 appearances for the Jamaica national team.

Managerial career

West Bromwich Albion

On 2 April 2018, West Bromwich Albion manager Alan Pardew, was dismissed from his post after a run of poor results, leaving them bottom of the Premier League and ten points from safety. Moore was then appointed as caretaker manager, taking charge of all current first team affairs until the end of the season. This made him the first ever Jamaican to manage in the Premier League. Under his leadership, West Brom went undefeated in April, a run that included a 1–0 away win against Manchester United – handing the league title to United's arch-rivals Manchester City, in part earning Moore the Premier League Manager of the Month honour. However, West Brom were relegated from the Premier League later that day following Southampton's win against Swansea City, ending the club's eight-year tenure in the top-flight.
After much speculation over who would become the next permanent manager of West Bromwich Albion, on 18 May 2018, Moore was appointed as the permanent head coach, after impressing during his caretaker spell with the Baggies. The Baggies walked into the new Championship season as firm favourites for promotion, and by Moore's time of departure, were sat in fourth place and in contention for qualification for the promotion play-offs. On 9 March 2019, Moore was sacked by the club, after a negative string of home results. James Shan temporarily replaced Moore in caretaker charge, leading them to the play-off semi-finals against eventual winners Aston Villa, suffering defeat. Slaven Bilić was appointed as Moore's permanent successor in June 2019.

Doncaster Rovers

On 10 July 2019, Moore was appointed as the new manager of League One side Doncaster Rovers, replacing Grant McCann, who left to take charge of Hull City in the Championship.

Personal life

At West Brom he has been known by supporters as "Big Dave".
Moore is a devout Christian. He is active in the Christian charity Faith and Football with Linvoy Primus and Lomana LuaLua. In 2005, Moore, along with Primus, walked the Great Wall of China to raise money for children's causes. He has raised thousands of pounds for Christian Aid and Oxfam and started to raise awareness about helping children in third-world countries. Moore and Primus have organised another charity bicycle ride from Charlton to Portsmouth, via Barnet and Reading, all clubs where Primus played, to raise money for the Faith and Football charity. In 2004, Moore received an award for 'Outstanding Contribution to Grass Roots and Community Football Projects' as part of the PFA's 'Let's Kick Racism Out of Football' campaign.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Individual