‘Like a movie script’: Michael McArdle backs Northern Ireland to make history

The Guardian

Manager says he has made team ‘playoff ready’ since taking over in March. They now face Portugal in their quest to reach World Cup For seven and a half years, Michael McArdle worked in the construction industry while playing semi-professional football, studying for a degree in building services engineering and raising three young children together with his wife. Any leftover earnings he put into funding his football coaching badges. Eventually he took a big risk and decided to take “probably a 300% drop in salary” and commit to coaching, a life-changing moment that now may be leading towards…