Michael McDermott (born 1974 in Belfast) is a Northern Irish former professional football player, and is currently the assistant manager to Carlos Queiroz at the Qatar national team. Dermott has held various coaching roles in professional football clubs as well as at the international level. Early life McDermott attended Belfast Boys' Model School and played for Cliftonville and Distillery at youth levels. He won a soccer scholarship at the University of Rhode Island. He made three caps for Northern Ireland national under-18. Playing career He has played in USL Second Division. Coaching career He has held coaching positions at some of Asia's biggest Clubs; Al Ain FC (Abu Dhabi), Esteghlal FC (Tehran), Al Nasr FC (Dubai). Previously he was the Fitness Coach of Iran national football team during their successful World Cup 2014 qualification campaign. Prior to his second spell with the Iran National team, on 2 July 2017, he was appointed as the Assistant Manager of Iranian football club Esteghlal. After a brief spell as 'interim' Manager, on 30 October 2017 he terminated his contract with Esteghlal on mutual agreement. After leaving Esteghlal FC he returned to the Iran National team / Team Melli to work alongside Carlos Queiroz as an Assistant Coach for the 2018 Russia World Cup and also for the Asian Cup 2019 in UAE where they were knocked out in the semi-final by Japan. When Queiroz became the head coach of Colombia in February 2019 it was announced that Mick would join him but an agreement was not reached with the Colombian FA. On 31 March 2019, Mick took the job of Glentoran manager with imminent investment due to come into the club. Interim Manager Gary Smyth, who could no longer fulfil the role due to a lack of necessary UEFA coaching qualifications, returned to his former role as Assistant. In his first full season as Glentoran manager, McDermott managed the club to victory in the Irish Cup final, defeating Ballymena United 2-1 and thus securing a place in the 2020-21 Europa League Preliminary round. Mick McDermott strengthened his squad ahead of the 2020-21 season, signing Northern Ireland international Luke McCullough and Gibraltar goalkeeper Dayle Coleing, as well as Burundi midfielder Gaël Bigirimana. McDermott's side defeated Faroese side Havnar Bóltfelag 1-0 in the preliminary round, before being knocked out in a 5-1 defeat away to Scottish team Motherwell. He was replaced by Rodney McAree as