Football legend O'Neill to get honorary degree

Former Celtic manager Martin O’Neill is today being awarded an honorary degree by the university where he studied more than 30 years ago.

O’Neill, 53, stood down from the Parkhead hotseat in May, after five successful seasons, to care for his sick wife Geraldine.

The ex-Nottingham Forest and Northern Ireland midfielder will be presented with a honorary doctorate for services to sport by Queen’s University in Belfast.

O’Neill, who is originally from Kilrea, Co Derry, briefly studied law at Queen’s in 1971.

He left to pursue a professional football career and joined Nottingham Forest from Irish League side Distillery.

The midfielder was a member of the Forest side which defeated German champions Hamburg in Madrid in 1980 to retain the European Cup.

Two years later he captained the national side in the World Cup in Spain, when they famously defeated the host nation 1-0.

He made the last of his 64 international appearances in 1984.

O’Neill started his managerial career with non-league Wycombe Wanderers but made his name at Leicester City, where he won two league cups.

He joined Celtic in June 2000 and was immediately tasked with challenging the domestic supremacy of Old Firm rivals Rangers.

In his inaugural season he steered the Glasgow giants to their first domestic treble since 1969.

The following year he retained the league championship and the club narrowly missed out on qualifying for the second stages of the Uefa Champions League.

In 2002/03 O’Neill led the Parkhead club on an epic Uefa Cup campaign which culminated in a thrilling final against Jose Mourinho’s Porto.

More than 80,000 Hoops fans travelled to Seville but the mass pilgrimage ended in heartbreak when the Portuguese champions ran out 3-2 winners in extra-time.

The Hoops were then pipped to the league championship by Rangers four days later to end the season empty handed.

But Celtic bounced back with a League and Scottish Cup double in 2003/04.

O’Neill announced he was leaving the club in May – days after they again lost the league to Rangers on the last day of the season – to care for his wife, who is fighting cancer.

In his final game in charge the team retained the Scottish Cup and sent O’Neill up the Hampden steps to collect the trophy, his seventh domestic honour.

O’Neill, who has two daughters, was awarded an OBE for services to football in 2004.