Gary French

Gary spent 12 years coaching in Michigan in the United States where he established a broad network of key people in the football community. The first two years were spent with Midwest Soccer Academy in Michigan, which is a Dutch Academy run by Klaas De Boer and he hired some of the best coaches from Holland including former Manchester United assistant coach Rene Meulensteen. The Dutch coaches went to the USA to work throughout the summer before heading back to clubs such as Ajax, PSV, Cambuur, etc. Gary learned a great deal from these coaches, an experience that convinced him Australia is heading in the right direction with the Australian National Curriculum following the Dutch Philosophy.

After coming back to Australia Gary was employed by Football Queensland as a development officer before being appointed as the inaugural Technical Director for Palm Beach Soccer Club. In 2014, That same year Gary coached the Palm Beach Women’s team to runners up in the Brisbane premier league and losing in the Grand Final. Gary was voted Brisbane Football Women's Coach of the year. After leaving Palm Beach Gary took up the role as Head of Women's football at South's United FC. During that time South's consistently made the top four playing in finals. They also reached the final of the Queensland Cup. In 2023 Gary started up the Gold Coast Knights women's program with the women's team winning QPL 3, QPL 1 and NPLW in successive season winning 11 trophy's during that time including the Queensland Cup in 2024. The Junior Academy teams are all playing at the highest level in Queensland. In 2025 Gary was awarded Football Queensland Female Coach of the Year.

Gary's playing career was with Peterborough United, Barnet FC, and Cambridge City in England playing under great managers like Bill Leivers and Barry Fry and a stint playing in Hong Kong then ending his playing career in Australia playing for Broadbeach FC and representing the Gold Coast representative team. It was while at Barnet that Gary played against such teams as Manchester United, Arsenal, and Tottenham and also played in the Anglo Italian tournament in Italy. He also toured Portugal, and Holland. After Gary finished his playing career in Australia he left for Michigan USA and took on the role of Co-Director of Coaching for the Bloomfield Force FC. During this time he also coached the Lahser HS girls team. After a successful ten years, Gary left Bloomfield FC to take up the position of Director of Ultimate Soccer Arenas, which was the largest indoor facility in North America.

Gary is from St Ives, Cambridgeshire in England and football has provided him with incredible opportunities to travel and play football all over the world.