McFall And The Portadown, A Love Lasted 29 Years

Ronnie McFall, a name that to little more hard or anything. Yet, the history of technical Northern Ireland is Guinness. McFall on Saturday resigned from the technical guidance of Portadown, after less than 29 years on the club's bench.

McFall, in fact, was chosen by the company December 21, 1986, remaining uninterruptedly until March of this year it was the longest-serving coach in Europe and wrote the history of Portadown (team where he also played as a player) well, winning 21 trophies and making sure five times the recognition of Northern Ireland's coach of the year. David Jeffrey, his compatriot who led the Linfield from 1997 to 2014, called the Godfather of Northern Irish coaches.

McFall AND PORTADOWN: A WINNING COMBINATION - McFall was able to bring the Portadown to win the national championship in 1990, thus interrupting the negative tradition and chasing away the supposed curse that fans believed persecute the club.

As he himself confessed, in fact, supporters of Portadown believed that burdening the club a gypsy curse and McFall was mad because he thought he could win something important. The coach won 20 trophies with other clubs in the city, including three other national titles in 1991, 1996 and 2002, reversing the odds.

The latest demonstration that with commitment and trust you can also reach the most unthinkable goals and that if a project is valid can lead to achieving excellent results even for long. His farewell to Portadown was scheduled for the end of this season, but his 70 was ahead of its time after the defeat against the Lurgan Celtic in the Irish Cup. Arrived at Portadown six weeks after the passing of Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, his name will remain inevitably in the history of Northern Irish clubs and football in general.

McFall, however, is not the only one to have achieved a milestone of the genre: think, for example, to the aforementioned Sir Alex Ferguson and his rival Arsène Wenger, but also to another Frenchman, Guy Roux, three coaches who made history at the helm of one team.

Sir Alex Ferguson with one of his pupils: Cristiano Ronaldo,
purchased 18 years from Sporting Lisbon

SIR ALEX FERGUSON: 27 years at Old Trafford - Ferguson led Manchester United from 1986 to 2013 and certainly did not need any introduction, as in 27 years on the Red Devils' bench, where he sat over 1500 times, practically won everything and has coached countless samples. 

Thirteen Premier League, five FA Cups, four League Cups, ten Community Shield, two Champions Leagues, one Cup Winners' Cup, one European Super Cup, an Intercontinental Cup and a World Club: less than 38 trophies that make it the most successful coach as well as more present, in the history of the glorious English club. He has been able to exploit some of the best players in the English league history, including Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes, Gary and Phil Neville. The Scottish manager had announced his retirement in 2002 and 2011, only to change his mind and stay until the end of the 2012-2013 season, hailing the Old Trafford after a home match drew with a pyrotechnic 5-5 against West Bromwich .