The Central Coast Mariners are pleased to officially announce the arrival of Danny Schofield as our Isuzu UTE A-League Assistant Coach.
Schofield recently arrived on the Coast to assist Mark Jackson, whom he worked with for a brief spell at Leeds United.
As a player, Schofield operated as a winger or midfielder, and made over 400 professional appearances in the English Football League between 1998 and 2015.
He started in non-league before being recruited by Yorkshire club Huddersfield Town, who he went on to play 248 games for.
Schofield also represented Yeovil Town, Millwall, Rotherham United, Accrington Stanley and Stockport in the EFL.
Schofield began his coaching journey whilst still playing professionally for Rotherham, as he took on work with Barnsley FC’s academy.
In 2016 he made the full time move into coaching, starting at Leeds as the clubs’ U15’s and U16’s coach, before being promoted to Professional Development Phase Coach, where he worked alongside Spaniard Carlos Corberan.
Under the guidance of Corberan and Schofield, Leeds’ U23 team were crowned National Professional Development League Champions in England in 2019.
Following that success, Schofield left Leeds to take on a new challenge with Middlesbrough FC as their U23 Lead Coach, before later joining Huddersfield Town, the club he spent over nine years at as a player.
In July 2020, Danny made the step up to the first team as he took charge of Huddersfield’s final game of the 2019/20 Championship season, following the sacking of Danny Cowley.
Cowley’s permanent replacement was announced as Corberan in August 2020, the Spaniard reuniting with Schofield and immediately promoting him to First Team Professional Development Coach, as well as Huddersfield B Team Head Coach.
Upon Corberan’s departure from Huddersfield in July 2022, Schofield was given the Head Coach role permanently. Unfortunately, after a tough start he was relieved of his duties but bounced straight back into management with his hometown club Doncaster Rovers.
Schofield managed to stave off relegation in his first season in charge but departed the club this summer.
He now arrives on the Central Coast to assist Jackson, after turning down several coaching roles in England and across Europe in favour of the opportunity to join the Mariners.
On joining the Mariners, Schofield said, “I’m very pleased, when I spoke to Jacko and the opportunity came up, it’s an exciting project for both of us.”
“It’s a totally different challenge [to working in England or Europe]. All my playing and coaching career had been in England. To come all the way around the other side of the world and to coach in Australia was something I’ve always thought about in the back of my mind and the opportunity came at the right time.”
On reuniting with Jackson, Schofield said, “We’ve always kept in contact since we met in the academy at Leeds.”
“We have very similar ideas on how we want to play football and how we want to coach. We both challenge each other in different ways, but being aligned is the most important thing and to get the opportunity to work with him is great.”
Jackson also gave his thoughts on bringing Schofield to the Mariners, explaining their working relationship and the qualities that he brings to the management team.
“I’ve known Danny for a number of years now, we first met at Leeds when we worked in the academy together, so we’ve had that working relationship for a long time,” he said.
“We both went off on different journeys, but we’ve always kept in touch and more recently spent a lot of time together, watching and discussing football because we have very similar ideas of the game and player development.”
“When the opportunity came up for me to come to the Mariners, I knew I needed a certain type of person with me, for my development as a manager and what I need to support me, and Danny fits that bill.”
“He’s a fantastic coach, he understands the game and we have got alignment in how we see the game being played.”
“The fact that he can lead players on the pitch and look at designing and implementing sessions I want, is fantastic.”
From everyone at the Central Coast Mariners, welcome Danny!
