Darren Stewart (soccer)

Darren Stewart (17 May 1966 – 18 October 2018) was an Australian soccer player who played in the Australian, Malaysian and Singaporean national leagues before becoming a coach active in Singapore and managing the Maldives. He represented Australia three times in 1992.

Club career
A defender, Stewart was a former notable player for APIA Leichhardt, Newcastle Breakers and Johor FA where he captained and won the Malaysia FA Cup in 1998.

He moved to Singapore in 1999, where he played for Balestier Central FC from 1999 to 2002. In 2002, he retired from playing football.

International career
Stewart was an Australia national football team player from 1991 to 1993.

Coaching career
He was the assistant manager for Balestier Khalsa FC's Prime League team in 2003 and assistant manager for the Geylang United FC team in 2004–2005.

He lived in Singapore where he coached and managed the Elias Park Football Club and was a coach for Little League Pte Ltd.

Stewart was named as head coach for Gombak United FC at the start of the 2009 S.League season. He joined the club as a technical analyst in late 2008.

In January 2012, Stewart was confirmed as Balestier Khalsa's head coach for the season 2012 S.League campaign. His time at Balestier were successful, as he guided the club to win the 2013 Singapore League Cup and 6th and 4th placings in the 2012 and 2013 league seasons respectively, the best positions by the club since merging from Balestier Central and Clementi Khalsa. However his contract was not renewed at the end of 2013. Stewart was then contracted to Woodlands Wellington F.C. at the start of 2014. Initially Stewart were successful, with 5-game unbeaten streak in the league and interest from hometown club Newcastle United Jets F.C. to be their head coach, which Stewart turns down to stay with the Singapore club. But after a string of poor results, culminating in a 7–1 thrashing at the hands of Albirex Niigata Singapore in June, Stewart resigned from his position at the club.

In July 2016, Stewart was appointed head coach of the Maldives national team.

Death and legacy
Stewart died in Singapore on 18 October 2018 at the age of 52. In 2020, the Darren Stewart Cup, an annual tournament involving teams that Stewart represented was started.