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Ryan Peter Skinner (born 13 March 1975) is an English football manager who is currently managing in France with Hyères, after joining the Championnat de France Amateur club in December 2026. He has previously managed in Belgium, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Norway, Slovakia and Malaysia. He is known as a past Sunday league footballer and holds a National A Licence.

Hyères are Skinner's eighth different job in management. He managed Belgian Third Division A side Hamme between July 2015 and April 2016. After leaving Hamme, Skinner joined Santos in South Africa where he won the 2017–18 National First Division which won the club promotion to the Premier Soccer League. After four seasons in South Africa, Skinner resigned to become the new Ivory Coast national team manager until he was sacked in 2021. Not long after leaving Ivory Coast, Skinner joined Norway where he failed to qualify for 2022 FIFA World Cup in Argentina.

Skinner's fifth job in six years saw him manage in Slovakia with Lokomotíva Košice, he lasted just 233 days with the Slovak side after being sacked in August 2022. Following his short spell in Europe, Skinner returned to Africa where he rejoined second club Santos of South Africa with whom he won the National First Division and National First Division Manager of the Season in 2017–18. After saving Santos from relegation in 2022–23, Skinner departed Athlone Stadium for the second time and subsequently went on to join Malaysian side PKNS. He enjoyed considerable success with PKNS in his first full season, including winning 20 out of 22 games on road to the Premier League title and promotion to the Super League and winning the 2024 FA Cup. He became Malaysia U23s manager in 2025, but left after successfully qualifying the nation's youth team for the 2026 AFC U-23 Championship.

Skinner spent two further seasons with Selangor PKNS in the top flight of Malaysian football before departing in November 2026, a month later he moved to France to manage Hyères.

Hamme [[belgium|🇧🇪]]
Skinner was appointed Hamme manager on 10 July 2015. His first competitive match in his career was against Witgoor in the Belgian Cup third round, a match that ended in defeat as Hamme lost 1–3 at home. His first league game in charge came four days later versus Oudenaarde, it again ended in disappointment as Hamme lost 0–2. Skinner lost his second league match of 2015–16 before going on a six-match unbeaten streak which included Skinner's first professional win as a manager, Jan Criel scored twice as Hamme beat Torhout 2–1 on 23 August.

Following a defeat to league leaders Olsa Brakel, Hamme went on a run of one win in twelve matches between 27 September and 20 December which entailed seven defeats and just one victory. On 15 November, the board of Hamme gave Skinner one month to improve the club's form and save his job. He kept his job through until the end of January 2016 but, despite going two matches undefeated and performances improving, Hamme chairman Paul Van De Casteele decided to sack Skinner on 28 January. Overall, Skinner won five, drew seven and lost eleven during his 202 days at the Belgian club.

Santos [[south africa|🇿🇦]]
Three months after leaving Hamme, Skinner made his next career move on 10 April 2016 to South Africa as he agreed to join National First Division side Santos on a contract until June 2017. He joined Santos with four matches left of the current season but would not be judged on the club's performances until the 2016–17 campaign. Santos ended the 2015–16 season with three defeats and one victory, therefore finishing in eighth position.

2016–17 was more successful for Skinner at Santos. After eleven matches of the season, Santos found themselves top of the table with twenty-three points. The club were the highest scorers in the division at that point and won the joint-most after eleven with seven wins to their name. Santos remained in-and-around the top three for the majority of the season, and ended up finishing in the play-off positions in second place. They went into the final day with a chance of automatic promotion as they sat one point behind leaders Cape Town, however Skinner's men finished second following a 1–0 defeat versus Maluti FET College and Cape Town's win over Moroka Swallows. On 17 May 2017, Skinner signed a new contract with Santos to keep him at the Athlone Stadium until June 2018.

After finishing four points off top spot, Santos entered the play-off mini league with fellow National First Division club Jomo Cosmos and the Premier Soccer League's second bottom side in Lamontville Golden Arrows. The play-offs ended in disappointment for Santos as they finished third in the three-club mini league, level on points with Jomo Cosmos but five points off Golden Arrows following three draws and one loss.

In 2017–18, Santos and Skinner went one better as the club won the National First Division title. The season started well with Santos picking up forty-one points after eighteen matches which sat them in third place. Santos then won eight of their next ten fixtures which rocketed the club into first place and, on 21 April 2018, the club sealed promotion to the Premier Soccer League as they beat Vasco da Gama and won the National First Division title. Following promotion being achieved, Santos finished the season disappointingly as they lost 5–1 and 3–5 to Moroka Swallows and Highlands Park respectively.

The campaign was a success though as Santos made the top flight of South African football for the first time since 2011–12. They ended 2017–18 with twenty wins, two draws and six defeats with a goal difference of twenty-seven although they scored the least amount of goals (55) then anyone else who finished in the top four. Before promotion was sealed, Skinner signed a new one-year contract with the club and also recorded a club record as the team went on a seven-match unbeaten streak between 24 February 2018 and 21 April 2018. Skinner was given the National First Division Manager of the Season award at the end of the season.

Skinner's first season in the Premier Soccer League was a fairly successful one as he managed to keep Santos up at the first time of asking. The club started 2018–19 with just three wins from fifteen matches and sat second bottom in fifteenth. After ten defeats from their opening fifteen, Santos improved in the latter fifteen matches. From the final fifteen, Santos picked up nine wins overall along with five draws and sixteen defeats to secure a second season in South Africa's top flight. Skinner's safety fight was helped by three wins in a row between 17 April 2019 and 11 May 2019 as the club beat mid-table AmaZulu, bottom club Maritzburg United and, most impressively, reigning back-to-back champions Mamelodi Sundowns. In the end, Santos avoided automatic relegation by fifteen points and missed the promotion/relegation play-offs by eight points.

Two club records were broken during 2018–19, the first being the unwanted record of six games without winning between 28 April 2018 and 21 September 2018 but a better record was achieved in 2019 as Santos set a new record attendance as 15,787 turned up to watch them play Ajax Cape Town on 6 March 2019. In May 2019, Skinner again signed a new one-year contract with Santos. The new contract means Skinner will remain with the Athlone Stadium club until 2020 and will bring his time with the club to four years.

2019–20 proved to be Skinner's final season in charge of Santos as he resigned from his position in March 2020. Skinner's left the club following an emergency board meeting following bad performances, he later stated he left before he was sacked. This all followed Santos being bottom of the Premier Soccer League table with six matches remaining, the club were ten points off the promotion/relegation play-offs and eighteen points off complete safety. In his final campaign with the club, Skinner won just one league match and that came on the opening day of the season against AmaZulu. He drew five and lost eighteen. He duly left on 18 March 2020 after three years and three hundred and forty-three days with Santos.

Ivory Coast
Following multiple job applications, including coming close to joining AmaZulu and Patro Eisden in particular, Skinner confirmed his next career move on 5 April 2020 when he was appointed manager of the Ivory Coast national football team; his first foray into international management. His first task will be qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Argentina.

Skinner's tenure as Ivory Coast boss started on 2 September 2020 against Suriname in a match that ended in defeat as the The Elephants lost on penalties after a 1–1 draw at the André Kamperveen Stadion. Skinner's second match in charge was in Abidjan versus Sudan, this time Ivory Coast won on penalties after a 1–1 draw. In October 2020, Skinner and Ivory Coast began the third round of FIFA World Cup qualifying for 2022 with games coming against Congo and Senegal. The Congo match ended with Skinner picking up his first win in normal time as his side dismantled the Red Devils 6–1 at home, with Wilfried Bony grabbing a hat-trick and Souleyman Doumbia getting his first international goal. In the second World Cup qualifier, Ivory Coast lost 2–0 away to Senegal following Sadio Mané and Khouma Babacar goals.

Skinner ended 2020 with two friendlies, firstly a win in N'Djamena against Chad (1–4) followed by a spirited 0–2 defeat to World Number 1 Brazil at home. 2021 would be a big year for Ivory Coast as the nation participated in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations on home turf, more 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, African Nations Championship qualifiers and the 2021 FIFA Confederations Cup following Ivory Coast's 2019 AFCON triumph.

Skinner only managed Ivory Coast for one of those aforementioned tournaments following his sacking on 15 February 2021, that one tournament was the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations. Ivory Coast finished fourth overall following a semi-final defeat to Cameroon and then a 0–2 defeat in the third-placed play-off versus Senegal. Skinner was sacked the day after the Senegal loss.

Norway [[norway|🇳🇴]]
Six days after departing Ivory Coast, Skinner made an instant comeback to the international scene with Norway. Before putting pen-to-paper, Skinner also received offers from Algeria and Nigeria but rejected them both in order to manage outside of Africa for the first time since 2016. Skinner's first main aim with Norway will be qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Norway are in Group 6 with Faroe Islands, France, Macedonia and Montenegro.

Skinner's debut with Norway came on 25 March 2021 in the nation's first World Cup qualifier for 2022. Skinner and Norway played Faroe Islands and won the match 3–6. They followed that victory in Tórshavn with a 3–1 win at the Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo against Macedonia, but then suffered a defeat in game three away to France (1–3) despite taking a 0–1 lead. In the next international break, in September, Skinner lost back-to-back games as Norway manager following a 2–3 home loss to Montenegro. However, Norway recovered to then beat the Faroe Islands 8–0 at home three days later to sit second in Group 6 with three games to play.

Norway failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup following a winless final three qualifying games. Two draws, versus Macedonia (2–2) and Montenegro (1–1), and a final day defeat at home to France (2–4) sealed Norway's fate and Skinner was sacked immediately after the France final whistle. Skinner's final win as Norway boss came in a friendly against Cyprus (2–0) which fell before the final three qualification matches. His final record with Norway was four wins, two draws and three defeats.

Lokomotíva Košice [[slovakia|🇸🇰]]
On 13 December 2021, Skinner was appointed the new manager of Slovakian 2. Liga club Lokomotíva Košice. Skinner joined with four matches left of the regular season in third place, with the club expecting to advance to the forthcoming promotion stage. Skinner went winless in his first four matches with Lokomotíva Košice but still made the promotion phase after finishing fourth. He picked up his first win with the club on 29 March 2022 in the opening match of the next stage with a 0–3 win versus Slovan Bratislava B. He then picked up two further wins in the promotion phase and lost three times but failed to get promoted after finishing seventh and 16 points off the one and only promotion spot. Following the club's unsatisfactory end to the season, the board told Skinner he must accumulate 13 points from the first five matches of the 2022–23 in order to keep his job. Two games into 2022–23, Skinner was sacked by the club after opening the season with two 1–1 draws and therefore failing the board's objectives.

Santos [[south africa|🇿🇦]]
In August 2022, following his sacking by Lokomotíva Košice, Skinner returned to former club Santos in South Africa. The club, who were relegated at the end of the season that Skinner resigned in, have since been promoted again to the Premier Soccer League and Skinner takes over with the side bottom after three matches. Skinner's first fifteen matches in charge of Santos, which included a debut win over Free State Stars, went relatively well as the club sat in thirteenth place at the midway point following five wins, one draw and nine defeats. In November 2022, Skinner was awarded the month's Manager of the Month award following wins versus AmaZulu (3–0) and Lamontville Golden Arrows (2–0).

Fifteen games later and the club confirmed their Premier Soccer League survival, they lost to champions SuperSport United on the final day but as Chippa United drew their final match of the season days earlier all Santos had to do was not lose by eight goals to the newly crowned champions which they didn't as they lost just 2–0. Hours after the club secured Premier Soccer League football for another season, Skinner announced his resignation sighting hunger for a new challenge and claiming he done all he could for Santos.

PKNS [[malaysia|🇲🇾]]
Two months on from leaving Santos for the second time, Skinner made move number seven of his managerial career as he agreed to become the new manager of Malaysian second tier club PKNS. The club had just come off a season that saw them come third in the Malaysian Premier League and six points off a promotion spot. Skinner's first job as PKNS manager was the 2023 League Cup, PKNS finished third in a group containing three Super League sides in Johor Darul Ta'zim, Kedah FA and Perak FA. They finished just one point off qualification for the next round, but were praised for their results which included going unbeaten (1 away win, 1 home draw) versus Johor DT.

PKNS and Skinner started 2023 superbly with 11 wins from 11 at the halfway stage, and they continued that form throughout by then going onto win the next 15 out of 15. In game 16, following a 2–1 win over DRB-Hicom, PKNS were crowned champions of the Premier League and subsequently confirmed promotion to the Super League on 25 May 2024 after being 21 points clear of their nearest challengers. They won their next match before finally dropping points versus Sime Darby. They won their next two before finally losing to FELDA United; a team who Skinner rejected the chance to manage earlier in his career. They ended the league season with a win to make it 20 wins from 22 matches.

In what was a record-breaking season for the club, they broke numerous records including the team's record attendance (4,214), most goals for a player in a season (Haziq Fikri Hussein – 21), most assists for a player in a season (Roslan Rosmadi – 12) and most games won in a row (15 – 08.01.2024 to 05.04.2024) as well as numerous league records including unbeaten streaks and winning streaks. Skinner also claimed four Manager of the Month awards with them coming consecutively from January to April.

That was not all for Skinner and PKNS though, as they also went on an amazing FA Cup run which ended with a first final appearance for the club versus Johor DT. They began with a round two win over Sime Darby, followed by a round three win against NS Matrix. Then came a two-legged quarter-final versus original Premier League favourites ATM FA, PKNS won 3–1 on aggregate to progress to the two-legged semi-finals where they were drawn with FAM League side UiTM who they also beat 3–1 on aggregate to set up a final match-up with Johor DT. After an intense 90 minutes the scoreline was level at 2–2, extra-time was scoreless so the final went to a penalty shoot-out. Rosli Kassim scored the winning penalty to give Skinner and PKNS the 2024 FA Cup. Winning the FA Cup meant that PKNS will play continental football for the first time in 2025 as they claimed a Group Stage berth in the AFC Cup. Skinner and PKNS finished the 2024 season by again exceeding expectations as they reached the semi-finals of the League Cup before succumbing to rivals Selangor FA 7–6 on aggregate. In 2025, Skinner was approached by the Sudan Football Association to become the new manager of the Sudan national football team however he rejected their offer.

After 11 games of the 2025 season, Skinner's promoted PKNS continued to surprise many as they sat in third position with half of the league season to go. His Super League debut came against Putrajaya SPA, the match ended 1–1 in Kuala Lumpur. That draw was part of a six match undefeated streak that PKNS began with before losing to Johor DT on 8 February, which lead to three-match winless run however PKNS maintained a third place position. PKNS' debut continental campaign in AFC Cup went well as they advanced from Group F on goal-difference ahead of Indonesian club Semen Padang, after being drawn into a group including the aforementioned Semen they were also joined by Filipino side Global and Singaporeans Tampines Rovers. The club were heading out of the competition on the final day as they were drawing away to Tampines while Semen were beating Global but advanced following an 85th-minute winner from Rahim Azahar. In the following knockout stage PKNS were drawn away to league rivals Johor DT and were handsomely beaten 5–1. The club went on to finish 6th in the league, a position that was the club's highest ever league finish in Malaysia's top-flight. Skinner's men finished winless and bottom of their League Cup group to finish 2025.

The 2026 season proved to be Skinner's last. It started well, with four wins from their opening six matches to be 2nd by the end of January. However, form gradually declined throughout the season which led to the club finishing 8th. Average performances coupled with player unrest put pressure on Skinner with his contract expiring in November. Skinner finished the season by guiding Selangor PKNS to the quarter-finals of the League Cup before leaving at the expiration of his contract on 29 November 2026. He later claimed he jumped before he was pushed as he expressed his desire to stay but chairman Azman Al-Haj decided to not renew his contract.

Malaysia U23s [[malaysia|🇲🇾]]
On 2 February 2025, Skinner agreed to become the manager of Malaysia's U23 national side. He joins ahead of AFC U-23 Championship qualifiers during PKNS' off-season in July 2025. Skinner completed qualification for the 2026 AFC U-23 Championship following two wins (versus Timor-Leste U23s and Northern Mariana Islands U23s) and a loss (versus Indonesia U23s), his side qualified in second place after being one of the five best group runners-up. He left his role following qualification citing his only intention was to qualify Malaysia U23s for the tournament and that the competition itself clashes with PKNS' start to the 2026 season.

Hyères [[france|🇫🇷]]
In December 2026, Skinner made a move to France to join third division Hyères on a one-and-a-half year contract. Skinner joined with the Championnat National club third bottom of the table and seven points off safety at the midway point of the season. He won his first match in charge versus Quevilly, who were in last place, and then followed it up with a draw with Orléans. He lost his next two before again picking up four points from two matches. However, Hyères then went on ten match winless streak that included eight straight defeats with led to Hyères' relegation to the Championnat de France Amateur being confirmed. Skinner and Hyères won their final match of the season versus fellow relegated club Moulins to secure 17th, they finished a place off last and eight points off safety. Despite relegation, the board of Hyères claimed to be content with Skinner's performances and Skinner himself pledged to carry on as Hyères manager in France's fourth tier of football.

Honours
Skinner won his first honour as a manager on 21 April 2018 as he won the National First Division with Santos, he won that season's Manager of the Season award too. In 2022, Skinner won his second individual honour as he was given the Premier Soccer League Manager of the Month award for November with Santos. Skinner enjoyed a silverware filled first full season in Malaysia with PKNS, he won the Premier League and FA Cup in 2024 along with four Manager of the Month awards. He won a Super League Manager of the Month award in April 2025 and January 2026.

Collective

 * Santos 🇿🇦
 * National First Division (1): 2017–18


 * PKNS 🇲🇾
 * Premier League (1): 2024
 * FA Cup (1): 2024

Individual

 * Santos 🇿🇦
 * National First Division Manager of the Season (1): 2017–18
 * Premier Soccer League Manager of the Month (1): November 2022–23


 * PKNS 🇲🇾
 * Premier League Manager of the Month (4): January 2024 / February 2024 / March 2024 / April 2024
 * Super League Manager of the Month (2): April 2025 / January 2026