Jack Charlton - Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Charlton spent a brief time outside of football before being approached by the FAI to manage the Republic of Ireland. Ireland had a particularly strong squad at the time, with players of the calibre of Liam Brady, Ronnie Whelan, Kevin Moran, Mark Lawrenson, Chris Hughton, Paul McGrath and David O'Leary, but had never qualified for a major tournament. In May 1986, Ireland won the Iceland Triangular Tournament in Iceland in Charlton's fourth game in charge.

Ireland qualified for the 1988 European Championships in Germany, and were drawn against England, the Soviet Union and the Netherlands in their group.

An early Houghton goal in Ireland's opening game against England was enough to clinch a 1–0 win. Ireland subsequently drew 1–1 with the Soviets but went out of the competition when they lost 1–0 to the Dutch. Charlton then received the runner-up prize in the World Soccer Manager of the Year awards in 1988.

Ireland qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 1990, where they were drawn against England, Egypt and The Netherlands. The Irish qualified from the group stage despite failing to win any of their 3 group games. They drew 1–1, 0–0 and 1–1 against the English, Egyptians and Dutch respectively. They defeated Romania in the second round match which went to penalties after a 0–0 draw, before meeting Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. Charlton admitted that at one point during the service he actually fell asleep because of the heat and having to sit in the one spot for a long time.

Ireland eventually went out to the hosts, Italy 1–0 in the quarter final. Over 500,000 fans lined the streets of Dublin to welcome the team home from their first World Cup campaign.

Ireland failed to reach the Euro 92, despite going through qualification unbeaten. The team qualified for the 1994 World Cup in the U.S., and beat Italy 1–0 in the first round. During Ireland's next game, against Mexico, Charlton had a pitch-side argument with a linesman who was preventing substitute John Aldridge from taking the pitch. Mexico went on to win 2–1. Charlton was later fined, although he claimed in his autobiography that he never actually paid the fine, and was suspended for the final group match in New York. He watched from the stands as Ireland drew 0–0 to Norway, thus qualifying for the second round. In their next game, Ireland were eliminated from the competition after losing 2–0 to Holland.

Charlton was awarded the freedom of the city of Dublin in 1994 by Lord Mayor Tomás Mac Giolla.

Ireland failed to qualify for Euro 96, despite a strong start to the group, when they won their opening three games, including a 4–0 win against Northern Ireland. The Republic's next game was also against Northern Ireland, although the result was a 1–1 draw. From that point onwards the Republic stuttered badly; after beating the highly fancied Portuguese, the Irish then endured an embarrassing 0–0 draw to Liechtenstein, before losing twice to Austria, on both occasions by three goals to one. Although they defeated Latvia, Ireland needed to beat Portugal in Lisbon to qualify outright, but lost 3–0. In an emotionally charged play off at Anfield against Holland, Ireland lost 2–0.

Charlton resigned shortly after the game. During his reign Ireland peaked at #6 in the FIFA World Rankings and defeated nearly all the major football nations, including Brazil, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, the USSR and England. By his own choice, Charlton's involvement in football since then has been limited to punditry and speaking.