Former Coventry City midfielder Michael O'Neill has been given an MBE in the Queens New Year's Honours List.
O'Neill, took the Northern Ireland international team to its first ever European Championships where they reached the last sixteen.
Speaking about his MBE for services to football and the community, O'Neill told the Belfast Telegraph: "It's a fantastic honour and totally unexpected to be honest.
"In many ways I am just getting the recognition for what the team and the Irish Football Association have achieved in recent years.
"It's brilliant. The whole year has been fabulous. It will probably only be when I am not in the job that I will be able to look back and realise the extent of what we all achieved. This award comes at the end of 2016 but it's actually a great way to start 2017.
"That will give me inspiration and motivation to continue to do everything possible to try to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and to do well in the games that we have ahead."
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