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John Collins
	John Collins
Personal information
Full name	John Angus Paul Collins
Date of birth	31 January 1968 (age 41)
Place of birth	Galashiels, Scotland
Height	5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Playing position	Midfielder
Senior career1
National team2
Teams managed
2006–2007; 2008–2009	Hibernian; Charleroi
	1 Senior club appearances and goals; counted for the domestic league only and; correct as of 21:26, 17 October 2007 (UTC).; 2 National team caps and goals correct; as of 21:26, 17 October 2007 (UTC).; * Appearances (Goals)

Not to be confused with Collins John.

John Angus Paul Collins (born 31 January 1968 in Galashiels) is a former Scottish international footballer. He played for Hibernian, Celtic, Monaco, Everton and Fulham in a 19 year playing career. He started his coaching career with Hibernian, winning the 2007 Scottish League Cup Final, but resigned later that year. He then had a brief spell as coach of Belgian club Charleroi in 2009.

[edit] Club career

As a youngster Collins played both rugby and football before turning his attention entirely to football. At youth level, Collins played for Hutchison Vale between 1980 and 1984, captaining the side for four years, before signing as a professional with Hibernian. Collins played for six seasons with the club, appearing 195 times and scoring 21 goals.

Collins signed for Celtic in 1990, becoming their first million pound player. He generally played on the left side of midfield, scoring 47 goals in 217 appearances. He is unfortunate to have played in one of Celtic's most barren spells and won only one trophy, the 1995 Scottish Cup.

Collins moved to AS Monaco in the summer of 1996 on a free transfer under the Bosman ruling. Celtic, under the direction of Fergus McCann, attempted to obtain compensation for the loss of Collins. McCann argued that the Bosman ruling did not apply to this case because AS Monaco are based in the principality of Monaco and are outside of European Union jurisdiction.

Collins won the French championship in 1997 with Monaco, who then reached the semi-final of the 1998 UEFA Champions League, defeating Manchester United in the quarter-final. Collins returned to the UK in the summer of 1998 by moving to Everton, before ending his playing career with Fulham.

[edit] International career

Collins won 58 caps and scored 12 goals for Scotland. He played for his country at Euro 96 and the 1998 World Cup. He scored in the opening match of that World Cup, with a penalty kick against Brazil. Collins retired from international football after the aggregate defeat in the Euro 2000 playoff by England in November 1999.

[edit] After playing

[edit] Hibs manager

John Collins is introduced as Hibs manager at a press conference on Tuesday 31 October 2006

After retiring from club football in 2003, Collins spent time in Monaco with his family, while also obtaining coaching qualifications including the UEFA Pro Licence. On 31 October 2006, Collins was appointed as manager of Hibernian. Collins led Hibernian to their first piece of silverware in 16 years when they defeated Kilmarnock 5–1 in the 2007 Scottish League Cup Final.

Despite the League Cup victory, Collins had a major bust-up with his players just weeks later.^[2] The players strongly criticised the manager for frequently changing the team and formation. It was claimed that almost all of the first team players attended a meeting with chairman Rod Petrie in the hope of removing Collins.^[3] Petrie refused to yield to this pressure, and gave Collins his full support. Hibs finished the season in sixth place in the Scottish Premier League.

On 20 December 2007, Collins resigned from Hibernian with immediate effect, despite having been recently linked to the vacant Scotland national team manager job.^[4] Hibs' board of directors were angered that Collins' decision was taken just one day after announcing his delight at the opening of the club's new training facilities. Collins had also said in October 2007 that "I never broke a contract during my playing career and I've no intention of doing so now."^[5]

The sacking of Lawrie Sanchez by English Premier League side Fulham on 21 December 2007 led some to believe that Collins was being earmarked for the Fulham job.^[6] However, this speculation was ended when Roy Hodgson was appointed manager of Fulham.^[7] More recently, Collins was linked with the vacancy at West Ham United after the departure of Alan Curbishley. Collins was formally interviewed for the job,^[8] but the position was eventually offered to Gianfranco Zola instead.^[9]

[edit] Charleroi manager

On 15 December 2008, Collins was appointed as the manager of Belgian club Charleroi, replacing Thierry Siquet.^[10]^[11] Collins was reunited with former Hibs striker Abdessalam Benjelloun, but Benjelloun was almost immediately returned to Hibs before being loaned to another Belgian club, Roeselare.^[12] Collins announced his departure from Charleroi after the club secured their First Division status near the end of the season.^[13]

[edit] Statistics

International goals: ^[14]

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	17 February 1988	King Fahd Stadium, Riyadh	Saudi Arabia	2–1	2–2	Friendly
2	27 March 1991	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Bulgaria	1–0	1–1	ECQG2
3	19 May 1993	Kadriorg Staadion, Tallinn	Estonia	2–0	3–0	WCQG1
4	8 September 1993	Pittodrie, Aberdeen	Switzerland	1–0	1–1	WCQG1
5	7 September 1994	Olympic Stadion, Helsinki	Finland	2–0	2–0	ECQG8
6	12 October 1994	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Faroe Islands	3–0	5–1	ECQG8
7	12 October 1994	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Faroe Islands	5–0	5–1	ECQG8
8	26 April 1995	Stadio Olimpico, Serravalle	San Marino	1–0	2–0	ECQG8
9	5 October 1996	Stadionas Daugava, Riga	Latvia	1–0	2–0	WCQG4
10	23 May 1998	Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey	Colombia	1–1	2–2	Friendly
11	10 June 1998	Stade de France, Saint-Denis	Brazil	1–1	1–2	WCGA
12	5 October 1999	Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1–0	1–0	ECQG9