At tonight’s annual presentation of awards event at the Shorts recreation and sports club in Belfast, the Torrans Trophy will be presented for the 17th time.
This hugely prestigious honour, named after one of the club’s founding Torrans brothers in the late 19th century, is presented annually to a Linfield personality who is deemed to have earned legendary status at the club and is the equivalent of admission to the club’s Hall of Fame, as one of the All-Time Greats.
This Year the honour is bestowed upon former player, captain and manager, David Jeffrey MBE.
David was born on October 28, 1962 and his association with Linfield began in the summer of 1982, when he joined the club from the Manchester United under age squad.
A fearless central defender, David gave his all for the shirt and he played in 369 first team competitive games for the club, scoring 69 goals, with his most famous goal perhaps being the one that earned a 1-1 draw away to Shamrock Rovers and qualification on the away goals rule to a second round European Cup tie against Panathinaikos of Greece in 1984. In total, David played in 17 European games for Linfield.
David was club captain for most of his playing career and by the time he moved on to Ards in 1992, he had earned 6 Irish League winners medals, along with 4 Gold Cup, one Ulster Cup and two County Antrim Shield winners medals. David, who was awarded a Testimonial year by the club in 1991, also earned 8 caps for the Irish League representative side.
After leaving Ards, David became player coach at Larne in 1995 but in the summer of 1996 he was appointed assistant manager of Linfield by then manager, Trevor Anderson.
David took over from Trevor on January 4, 1997 and ably assisted by Bryan McLoughlin, he embarked on a 17 year spell in the Windsor Park hot seat, winning 31 trophies drawing him level with the legendary Roy Coyle as the club’s most successful manager of all time.
There were so many highlights, landmarks and achievements, with perhaps the 2005 Setanta Cup final triumph in Dublin and the 2005-06 Clean Sweep success being the most memorable.
In total, David won the Irish League trophy 9 times and the Irish Cup on 7 occasions, with the league and cup double memorably being completed 6 times.
9 times he was awarded the Manager of the Year award by the Football Writers, with a further 32 Manager of the Month awards collected along the way.
By the time he stepped down as Linfield manager in April 2014, his statistical record as manager read as follows.
P 944
W 578
D 198
L 168
F 1958
A 846
A win ratio of 61%
David was awarded the prestigious honour of Life Member of Linfield Football Club after the Clean Sweep success in 2006.
David took over the managerial reins at Ballymena United in March 2016 until May 2023 and he was delighted to be awarded the MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list in 2021.
Since retiring from management, David has attended many Linfield games as a supporter and he has undertaken a media role with BBC TV and with the weekend ‘Belfast Telegraph’ newspaper.
With 28 years of service as player, captain, assistant manager and manager and with countless trophy successes, David is a most worthy recipient of the hugely prestigious Torrans Trophy award.
David Jeffrey MBE joins the ranks of the other club immortals below who have been honoured by the club, with the bestowing of this important recognition and appreciation.
Forever Blue
Audaces Fortuna Juvat
Noel Bailie MBE
Martin McGaughey
Glenn Ferguson
Tommy Dickson
Peter Rafferty
Alex Russell
Isaac Andrews
George Dunlop
Bobby Braithwaite
Billy Murray
Sammy Pavis
Joe Bambrick
Ken Gilliland
Dessie Gorman
Jamie Mulgrew
Pat Fenlon
David Jeffrey MBE