BOHEMIAN FC HAVE ANNOUNCED the appointment of Trevor Croly as Academy Director.
Croly will bring a wealth of experience to the role with almost 20 years of League of Ireland coaching experience.
He served as assistant manager to the Bohemians under Keith Long from 2017 until 2022 and since then has served as the club’s U19/U20s team manager and as lead academy coach.
Prior to his arrival at Dalymount Park, Croly served as manager at Shamrock Rovers having previously served as assistant manager at Rovers and at St Patrick’s Athletic.
As part of the role, Croly will be a key part of a new Strategic Footballing Group that will comprise three senior football staff members of both Bohemians and St Kevin’s FC. This group will work closely on new players joining the academy and the U13 and U14 teams.
Croly said, “I am really looking forward to the role of Academy Director. The objective of the role from a player’s perspective is to provide young players with the best expertise, environment and opportunity to maximise their talent.
“The objective from the club’s perspective is to provide the first team with the best young talent in the country who can play in the Bohemian first team, and with the potential and ambition to play at the very highest level.
“I am in the privileged position to understand a rich part of Bohemian Football Club’s history has always been providing talented young footballers with first team opportunities that later lead to the potential of at the highest level and of receiving international recognition.
“From Billy Young and Turlough O’Connor, right through to the present day, Bohemian Football Club have constantly provided young players with opportunities.
“Over recent years we have had players such as Andy Lyons, Paddy Kirk, Warren O’Hora, Seán Grehan, Dawson Devoy, Ross Tierney, Jamie Mullins, Danny Grant, Ryan Graydon, Promise Omochere, James McManus, Cian Byrne and Evan Ferguson progressing to our first team from the academy system.”
Director of Football Pat Fenlon said, “The club have invested resources into getting back to a place where we can now be confident that we can attract the best young talent in the country to the club’s academy and have the right structures in place to ensure that they have the coaching expertise, support and facilities to help them push on as footballers capable of establishing themselves in our first teams.
“The work going on in the background by the club to develop the facilities at the Oscar Traynor Centre cannot be overstated and will provide the club with the strongest possible platform to develop our academy system into one of the best in the country.
“Key to those objectives is having the right personnel within our academy, which is why Trevor Croly is an extremely important appointment.
“Not only does Trevor have years of experience as a coach operating at the highest level in this league, but he knows what it takes for young players to transition from underage and academy football to senior football.
“He has a proven track record in this regard, and I believe that his knowledge and experience will be of enormous benefit as the club looks to realise our aims in the coming years.”
