Osian Roberts

Roberts was born in Anglesey,[1] and was brought up in Bodffordd on the island.[2]

Roberts was a central midfielder,[1] and captained the Welsh Schools side.[2] He played in North Wales for Bangor City, Bethesda Athletic and Llangefni Town,[1][3] before moving to the United States at the age of 19 after receiving a scholarship to attend Furman University.[1] At Furman, he was named Southern Conference player of the year in 1986 and 1988.[4] He later played in the American Professional Soccer League for the New Mexico Chiles, where he was player-manager.[2]

After returning to Wales, he became Anglesey Football Development Officer in 1991.[1]

In June 2007 Roberts resigned as manager of Porthmadog to take up the position of Football Association of Wales technical director.[1] He has also coached the Wales under-16, Wales under-18 and Wales B teams, as well as helping coach the women's under-17 team.[1] In 2014, he was the subject of documentary series called Byd Pêl-droed Osian Roberts; it was shown on S4C.[2][5]

On 21 July 2015, Roberts was promoted to assistant manager of the Wales national team under team manager Chris Coleman.[6] Coleman resigned the manager role in November 2017 and Roberts stated that he wished to become the new national team manager.[7] Roberts was retained as assistant manager following the appointment of Ryan Giggs as Wales manager[8]

On 1 August 2019 it was announced that Roberts had become technical director of the Morocco national team.[9][10] He resigned in July 2021.[11]

In August 2021 he became assistant manager to Patrick Viera at Crystal Palace.[12][13] Viera was sacked by Crystal Palace in March 2023 with Roberts and other coaching staff also being released.[14]