Allen Bula

Allen Bula
Bula in March 2014
Personal information
Full name Allen Bula
Date of birth (1965-01-04) 4 January 1965[1]
Place of birth Gibraltar
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
Gibraltar United 35 (?)
St Joseph's 14 (?)
Glacis United 28 (?)
National team
Gibraltar U21
– Gibraltar Senior Team
Teams managed
2002–2003 Dover Athletic U18
2006–2010 MFK Košice (academy manager)
2009–2015 Gibraltar
2017 Lynx
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Allen Bula Uefa Pro Licence coach (born 4 January 1965) is a former Gibraltarian football player and former head coach/manager of the Gibraltar national football team.

Playing career

As a player, he played for Gibraltar United, St Joseph's and Glacis United.[1]

Coaching career

Between 2006 and 2010, he was the head of football development and academy manager at Slovakian first division club MFK Košice.[1] While in that role he discovered several talented players, most notably Nemanja Matić, who subsequently played for Chelsea.

Bula was appointed as the manager of the Gibraltar national team in November 2009.

Between 2009 and 2013 Bula managed the national team in 47 matches, against professional teams from Spain's 2b & 2a leagues, and English Championship & League One teams. Bula's success rate was 78%, with victories over teams such as Portsmouth, Notts County, England C, Bury and Real Balompédica Linense. Most notable was the 3–0 win over the Faroe Islands in 2013 prior to Uefa membership.

Bula managed the national team in their debut as a Uefa member against Slovakia, and earned a draw which sent shock waves around Europe. That was followed by a 1–1 draw away to Estonia and Gibraltar's first win as Uefa member, against Malta.

Bula's tactical approach to the Euro 2016 qualifier against World Cup holders Germany resulted in a 4–0 win for Germany, a creditable result for Gibraltar as many people were expecting Germany to come away with a much heavier victory. Only one goal was scored in second half and that was an own goal by Gibraltar.

On 18 January 2015, Bula arrived in England to partake in the UEFA Pro-Licence course at the St George's Park National Football Centre, alongside coaches such as Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Phil Neville and Scott Parker.[2] However, after a poor start to Gibraltar's Euro 2016 qualification campaign, combined with Bula's defensive approach, he was sacked in March 2015. After a short spell as Director of Football at Lynx in 2016, he took over management of the club in June 2017 after chairman/manager Albert Parody decided to step back from on-the-pitch activities. However, he would only last just over 4 months in the role as he left in October that year, after a disastrous start to the club's campaign.

Personal life

His nephew is former footballer Danny Higginbotham.[3]

Managerial statistics

As of 27 October 2017

Includes accredited UEFA fixture(s) only:

Team From To Record
GWDLWin %
Gibraltar November 2009 March 2015 9 1 2 6 011.11
Lynx June 2017 October 2017 4 0 0 4 0.00

47 Matches as Non Uefa Members WDL/34/7/6 Win% 78%

References

[4]

  1. 1 2 3 "Gibraltar given full Uefa membership at London Congress". BBC. 24 May 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
  2. ↑ Hasselbaink and Sampson start Pro-Licence journey TheFA.com
  3. ↑ "Danny Higginbotham: Gibraltar availability confirmed by defender". BBC Sport. BBC. 19 September 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
  4. ↑ "{title}". Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-04-02.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2510218/Gibraltar-hold-Slovakia-goalless-draw-UEFA-debut-match-Portugal.html http://www.worldsoccer.com/features/rock-of-plenty-the-story-of-football-in-gibraltar-370123 http://www.elmundo.es/deportes/2013/11/18/528a31a361fd3d563f8b4579.html https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/row-zed/gibraltar-now-better-brazil-4633219 https://www.sportskeeda.com/football/allen-bula-nemanja-matic-football-father-plots-demise-of-world-champions-germany-from-the-depths

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