Alan McDonald (12 October 1963 – 23 June 2012) was a Northern Irish football manager and former professional footballer. As a player, he was a centre back who spent most of his career in England with Queens Park Rangers, notably playing in numerous Premier League seasons. He would play 402 times in the league for the club over a sixteen-year spell at Loftus Road. He also had brief stints in the Football League with both Charlton Athletic and Swindon Town. He was capped 52 times for Northern Ireland and played at the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. After retiring as a player, he briefly returned to QPR as a first team coach before going on to manage IFA Premiership side Glentoran from June 2007 until his resignation at the end of February 2010. McDonald collapsed and died whilst playing golf at the Temple Golf Club near Lisburn on 23 June 2012. Club career McDonald joined Queens Park Rangers on 4 October 1979 as a youth player and spent 17 years with the club. Unable to break into the first-team early on in his career, he gained his first league experience whilst on loan at Charlton Athletic and made his league début versus v Crystal Palace on 4 April 1983. His QPR début was at Wolves on 24 September 1983 in a 4–0 away win. McDonald and QPR reached the final of the League Cup in 1986. By the late 1980s, McDonald was playing as stopper in QPR's sweeper system. During his time the club's best finish came in 1993 when they finished in fifth place and were the highest placed London club in the first season of the newly formed Premiership. Their worst came in 1996 when they were relegated. McDonald's last game for QPR was on 31 March 1997 in a home match v Wolves. He joined Swindon Town on a free transfer in the summer of 1997, making 36 appearances and scoring once in his last season as a player, 1997–98. International career McDonald played 52 times for Northern Ireland, including the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, and worked as an assistant manager at Swindon Town and Northern Ireland national team. Coaching career McDonald returned to QPR briefly in February 2006 as assistant to manager Gary Waddock but Waddock struggled as manager and McDonald left in September 2006. McDonald was appointed as coach of Glentoran to help