Mark Hughes OBE

Mark's illustrious career in football spans over 30 years and includes playing for some of the biggest names in football: Manchester United, Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Everton, Southampton and Blackburn. When you add to this his management portfolio of Wales, Blackburn, Manchester City and Fulham it is easy to understand why he is one of the most respected names in the game.

During his playing days (1980-2002) he won a host of medals, including two Premier League title medals, four FA Cups, three League Cups and two European Cup Winners' Cups. He also collected an FA Cup runners-up medal and a League Cup runners-up medal. In total, Mark played 606 league and cup games scoring 163 goals with a further 72 international matches for Wales where he scored a further 16 goals.

His career in management began with Wales 1999 where he remained until 2004. During those five years, Wales made huge progress and just narrowly missed qualifying for Euro 2004, having beaten Italy in their group.

In 2004 Mark took over the Managers role at Blackburn Rovers  and took them to an FA Cup semi final for the first time in 40 years. In his second season Blackburn surprised even their most optimistic supporters by finishing in the top six of the Premier League and qualifying for the UEFA Cup beating Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal along the way.

In 2008 Mark became the Manager at Manchester City and recruited several new players that went on to reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup in his first season.  In 2009 City continued this success reaching the semi final of the Carling Cup – their first semi final since 1981.

In 2010, Hughes became the Manager of Fulham, following the departure of Roy Hodgson to Liverpool. He led Fulham to an 8th place finish in the Premier League, qualifying for the Europa League.

At the beginning of 2012 Mark was appointed manager of Queens Park Rangers.