Top Facts about Mick McCarthy

Born on 7 February 1959, Mick McCarthy has Irish descent from his father who was born and raised in this country.

While Mick was in Cyprus preparing the team for the World Cup qualifier, his dad died at the age of 74 due to illness.

He started his career at youth level with Barnsely academy when he was at a very young age. Although such details about his youth career are not quite accessible yet.

However, he closed the chapter of his professional career in 1992 announcing his retirement. Afterwards, he remained on the field but in a different position, as a manger.

This list covers top facts about Mick McCarthy:

The first

fact about Mick McCarthy

is that he has been a commentator and also a television pundit on both BBC and Virgin Media Television.

Mick McCarthy’s Biography

Mick McCarthy was born on 7 February 1959 in the city of Barnsley, United Kingdom. One more

fact about Mick McCarthy

is that his father, Charlie McCarthy was from Co Waterford, Ireland. This later helped him to secure a place in the Republic of Ireland’s national team.

There’s no evidence proving that Mick McCarthy has siblings; therefore, it is assumed that maybe he is the only child in the McCarthy family.

Allegedly, Mick McCarthy studied at the The Elmhirst School that is located in his hometown, Barnsley. He later joined Barnsley academy to process his training sessions.

Unfortunately, there’s not enough information regarding Mick McCarthy’s childhood or other personal information that would shed light on his life before football.

Mick McCarthy’s Professional Career

Mick McCarthy’s professional career started in 1977 with his hometown club,

. He had his league debut on 20 August the same year in a match versus Rochdale, it ended with an absolute 4-0 win for Barnsley. Back then Barnsley was in Fourth Division.

He spent two years of his career in Barnsley in the basement league, but subsequently the club got promoted. But then again after two years, the team was relegated to Division 2.

Although McCarthy was an important player for the team, finally in 1983 after 6 years of playing, he left Barnsley for the Division 2 club,

.

In Mick's first season in the team, Manchester City won promotion and it was a massive change in his career since he had never played in this level before. But unfortunately, it didn’t last long enough as the team once again faced relegation.

 In 1987, Mick McCarthy joined the Scottish club,

. During his time in the team, he won two Scottish Cup winners medals in consecutive seasons. After spending only two seasons in Celtic, he moved to two different clubs: Lyon and Millwall.

Despite the fact about Mick McCarthy that he signed a three-year deal with Lyon, he actually left the team after one season and joined

on a £200,000 deal.

But his career was somehow affected by suffering multiple injuries that in 1992 he decided to announce his retirement and start his career as a manager.

Mick McCarthy’s International Career

In spite of being born in United Kingdom, Mick McCarthy was qualified to play for the

national team since his father was originally Irish.

Before starting his international career at senior level, he had played at the under-23 for which he appeared only once and scored a goal in 1979.

He made his international debut on 23 May 1984 in a friendly match over

. Ever since then, McCarthy established himself a steady spot on the team and became a first-choice player.

He appeared on all the three matches of Euro 1988 and later due to his impressive performance, became the captain of the national team. As a matter of fact, he was called by the nickname “Captain Fantastic”.

Mick also did a stunning job in the 1990 World Cup finals, which was the second-round penalty shoot-out win against

. Afterwards, Ireland had to play over

which was the end of the team.

Another

fact about Mick McCarthy

is that during the 1990 tournament he had the most records for committing fouls.

Overall, Mick McCarthy made 57 appearances for the Republic of Ireland and scored two goals; one of them was in the fixture over Yugoslavia in April 1988 and the other one was in May 1992 against the United States.

Mick McCarthy’s Managerial Career

After announcing his retirement from playing as a professional footballer, in March 1992 Mick McCarthy became the manager of his previous team, Millwall.

During his time in this club, which would also be considered as his first experience of being a manager, he was showing sufficiency and performed a brilliant job in promoting the team. Therefore, he actually became a prime candidate for the next manager of the Republic of Ireland.

Republic of Ireland

It took him 4 years to finally achieve the position, which more specifically took place two days after leaving Milllwall. His first appearance as a manager happened on 27 March 1996 in a friendly match against

which ended with a 0-2 loss for Republic of Ireland.

Although the team failed the qualifications and couldn’t make it to either 1998 World Cup or even Euro 2000, McCarthy took the team to the 2002 World Cup after playing against

which resulted in a 2-1 victory.

But the whole team was a bit distracted by the conflict between McCarthy and the star of the team, Roy Keane. Basically the whole story occurred when Keane questioned the quality of the team’s facilities and additionally, he criticized the poor condition that the other players were experiencing.

But instead of listening to him and maybe trying to take the criticism into consideration, Keane was immediately sent home.

But when people actually realized how bad the condition was for the team, Mick McCarthy started to receive a lot of negative feedbacks afterwards.

Therefore, he had no other choice but to resign from his post on 5 November 2002.

Sunderland

McCarthy became the manager of the English football club,

on 12 March 2003. His early days in the team was absolutely deceive and tough, since the club was nearly facing relegation.

But unfortunately, the damage was done and even McCarthy couldn’t stop the team from getting relegated. However, the blame wasn’t on him anyway and he continued doing his job as a manger.

Mick McCarthy succeeded to take the team to the First Division promotion play-offs, in the next season. But they couldn’t help it when

defeated them in a penalty shoot-out.

He somehow managed to promote the club to the Premiership again in season 2004-2005. But McCarthy wasn’t really lucky with his new club either.

But apparently being on this level was confusing for McCarthy since he couldn’t spend much time strengthening the team. And subsequently, due to constant weak performances in the following season, he was dismissed from the team. As a matter of fact, Roy Keane was the next substitute for Mick McCarthy as a permanent manager for Sunderland.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

But it didn’t take McCarthy too long to find another club. Finally on 21 July 2006, he became the official manager of the Championship side,

. The team was already in a challenging situation, but McCarthy promised the whole team a promotion within only three seasons.

In point of fact, he did make the promotion play-offs for Wolverhampton Wanderers as well as collecting a whole new team out of the club's youth ranks, some of the lower league signings, and of course the free transfers.

But again it wasn’t a pleasing season for the club, including McCarthy himself since they lost many times to various teams.

However, the start of season 2008-2009 was kind of promising when Mick McCarthy won the Championship Manager of the Month Award in August. Also after months of being on the top of the table, Mick once more won the Championship Manager of the Month Award in November.

Eventually, the Wolves got promoted to the Premier League after winning the match versus QPR on 18 April 2009. As a result, Mick received his second Championship as a manager after a 1-1 draw over Barnsley. Also at the end of the season, he achieved his Championship Manager of the Season Award.

But all the struggles and the outcomes of keeping the team in the Premier League were somehow doomed when the team was convicted to breaking the Premier League rules.

As a matter of fact, the whole team was fined £25,000 for fielding a weakened team for a match over

. It was also stated by the Premier League that the club had failed to fulfil its obligations to the league.

Another fact about Mick McCarthy is that obviously, his entire career in Wolverhampton Wanderers included multiple ups and downs. After a risk of relegation for a long time, he managed to save the team and therefore, Mick was announced as the first manager in thirty years to maintain the Wolves’ top flight position for two consecutive seasons.

Anyway season 2011-2012, also known as Mick McCarthy’s last season in Wolverhampton Wanderers, seemed to have a good start for the whole team but actually it ended with McCarthy getting sacked at last!

Apparently in the same season, Wolves decided to sell £15 million worth of its players and with the board allowing Mick McCarthy to spend only £12 million, it was a sure thing for McCarthy to get sacked on 13 February 2012.

Return to the Republic of Ireland

Before returning to the Republic of Ireland, McCarthy was appointed manager at Championship side

on 1 November 2012. He signed a two and a half year contract with the club.

McCarthy managed to take the club out of the relegation zone but overall, his time in Ipswich wasn’t satisfying either. He finally left the club on the expiry of his contract, which was actually at the end of 2017-2018 season.

But then on the exact date of 25 November 2018, McCarthy became the manager of the Republic of Ireland.

His two first games in charge of the national team were in the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifiers in Group D against Gibraltar and Georgia. Both of the matches ended with Ireland defeating the other teams.

His career in the national team of Ireland was in fact going quite well until the coronavirus pandemic started and this led to the resignation of Mick McCarthy.

Cardiff City

Before joining his current club, Mick McCarthy was appointed manager at Cypriot First Division club APOEL on 2 November 2020. The actual expiry date of his contract with the club was until 2022. However, only two months after joining the team, he was sacked by the club.

Nonetheless, McCarthy joined Cardiff City on 22 January 2021. The expiry date of the contract was supposed to be until the end of the same season, but on 4 March 2021 he signed a new two year contract with the club.

Mick's two first games in charge of the new club was actually against two of the previous team he used to play in: Barnsley and Millwall. Both of these fixtures ended as draws.

Mick McCarthy’s Personal Life

Mick McCarthy is married to Fiona McCarthy; as a matter of fact, the two of them are childhood sweethearts. Reportedly, Fiona and Mick first met one another when they were both in primary school.

But sadly, there is no info about Fiona McCarthy. Any personal detail such as birth date, birth place, educational background or even ethnicity stays off the record.

Fiona and Mick are the parents of three children. Two daughters named Katie and Anna and only a son called Michael.

According to Mick himself, Fiona was always there in hard times, supporting and encouraging him even when he was on the verge of totally giving up on everything. In point of fact, once in an interview he talked about his wife:

“Fiona put manners on me years ago. We were coming back from church one Sunday morning and I was having it really tough with Millwall. The results were bad and I'm right under it, because it's my first job and if you lose that first job, it's something like above 50 per cent or 60 per cent don't ever get another one.

“One of the kids kicked the back of the car seat and I had a snarl at them and Fiona let it rip at me: “It's not them, it's you! The kids are doing nothing wrong, it's just you, you're completely absorbed by this.” And there were a few choice words and she was dead right. And from that day I've tried at least, and as I've got older, I've got better.”

Mick McCarthy’s Honors as a Player

Barnsley

• Football League Fourth Division promoted: 1978–79

• Football League Third Division runner-up: 1980–81

Manchester City

• Football League Second Division promoted: 1984–85

• Full Members' Cup runner-up: 1985–86

Celtic

• Scottish Premier League: 1987–88

• Scottish Cup: 1987–88, 1988–89

Individual

• PFA Team of the Year: 1977–78 Fourth Division, 1978–79 Fourth Division, 1980–81 Third Division, 1981–82 Second Division, 1982–83 Second Division, 1983–84 Second Division, 1984–85 Second Division

• Barnsley Player of the Year: 1977–78, 1978–79, 1980–81

• Manchester City Player of the Year: 1983–84

Mick McCarthy’s Honors as a Manager

Sunderland

• Football League Championship: 2004-05

Wolverhampton Wanderers

• Football League Championship: 2008-09

Individual

• Philips Sports Manager of the Year: 2001

• RTÉ Sports Person of the Year: 2001

• Football League Championship Manager of the Month: March 2005, August 2008, November 2008, September 2014, November 2015

• LMA Championship Manager of the Year: 2004-05, 2008-09

Quick Facts about Mick McCarthy

Let’s together look into some other facts about Mick McCarthy.

• Full name: Michael Joseph McCarthy

• Birth date: 7 February 1959

• Birth place: Barnsley, United Kingdom

• Zodiac sign: Aquarius

• Height: 188 cm

• Weight: 115 kg

The English manager apparently hates social media so much that in an interview he decided to finally talk about it:

 “Twitter? Not a chance. Can you imagine? I’d either have 700 billion followers or I’d be put in prison. Why would I want to do that? If someone came on giving me abuse, it would degenerate very quickly.

“You know yourself when you’re having a tough time. You don’t need someone who, by the way, might never have kicked a ball, who might weigh 25 stone, who couldn’t get out of his chair, who has never coached, telling you you’re sh**. No. It would annoy me too much. F*** off.”

However, he suddenly changed his mind and decided to create a Twitter account for himself. He has over 12.2K followers on his twitter account (

). But up to now, he doesn’t have any other social media accounts.

Mick McCarthy is said to be extremely blunt to the point that some people might get offended. But deep down, he is a caring person who's just so sensitive.

Mick McCarthy’s Net Worth and Salary

Since returning to Republic of Ireland’s national team in 2018,

Mick McCarthy’s net worth

has been growing strikingly.

In 2020, his net worth was said to be between $1 million up to $5 million. Also reportedly,

Mick McCarthy’s salary

is around €1.2 million per year.

But obviously, football or more specifically being a manager is not the only source of income for this 62-year-old man. As previously stated, he is also a pundit on television for which he receives a notable amount of money.

However, up to now, no information is available regarding his personal properties or even anything that would somehow prove McCarthy is linked with any brand or endorsement.

Read More: