Spanish football giants pay Patrick's Day tribute to former manager from Donegal

Spanish La Liga club Sevilla has paid a St Patrick's Day tribute to one of its former managers - from dear old Donegal.

"Lá Fhéile Pádraig shona do lucht tacaíochta Sevilla Éireannaigh ar fud an domhain!," they posted on X. "Have some good craic! Our first-ever foreign manager Charles O’Hagan was from Donegal."

Born in the Souvenir House in Buncrana on July 28, 1881, O'Hagan was appointed in 1923 as the first person to hold a dedicated managerial role at the club, a position previously typically filled by the team captain.

During his single season in charge, 1923/24, he led Sevilla to their sixth Andalusian Cup (Copa de Andalucía) and reached the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey, where they lost to Real Unión.

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He played locally with St Columb's Court in Derry and then Derry Celtic, before moving to Everton in 1903, although he never played for the Merseyside club.

He first rose to prominence as an inside-left with Tottenham Hotspur from 1904 to 1906 and then had a brief spell at Middlesbrough before making history during a four-year-spell at Aberdeen, where he became the first-ever player in the club's history to earn an international cap, while representing Ireland.  In all, he earned 11 caps from 1905 to 1909 and finished out his club career at Morton and then Third Lanark. He managed Norwich City in 1920/21 before moving to Spain.

Despite his success on the pitch, his tenure was brief. According to These Football Times, in 2017: "Whispers from the local aficionados suggest O'Hagan’s 'fondness for the red' - a reference to the local wine - may have clashed with the demands of his position."

He departed Seville as suddenly as he arrived, returning close to home in Portrush before a brief, ill-fated coaching attempt in Berlin.

A veteran of the Great War, he served as a lieutenant with the Leinster Regiment and the Highland Light Infantry, seeing action on the Western Front.

In later life, reports indicate O'Hagan has set sail from Derry for New York City, where he reportedly plans to trade the tactics board for a typewriter to begin a new career in journalism. He died in the USA on July 1, 1931, aged 49. 

Sevilla FC is the most successful club in Andalusia and a dominant force in European football, having won La Liga once in 1945–46, five Copa del Reys and the Uefa Cup/Europa League seven times between 2006 and 2023.