Sparkes joins Canada as Goalkeeper Coach under Marsch
Written by
Simon Austin
October 12, 2026
Andrew Sparkes has been appointed Goalkeeper Coach of Canada’s men’s national team and will combine the role with his full-time job as Head of Goalkeeping at QPR.
Sparkes told TGG the appointment came about through Head Coach Jesse Marsch and their shared background in the Red Bull system. Marsch has been Head Coach of New York Red Bulls, Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig, while Sparkes coached goalkeepers at New York Red Bulls’ Academy and at Salzburg, where he worked under Hans Leitert, Red Bull’s Head of Global Goalkeeping.
Sparkes also spent more than three years as Southampton’s First Team Goalkeeping Coach in the Premier League under Ralph Hasenhüttl, who coached RB Leipzig before moving to St Mary’s.
“Goalkeepers are an important part of the system, with the emphasis to defend the space high outside the box,” Sparkes told TGG. “Goalkeepers must be trained and developed in this way, hence both Hasenhüttl and Marsch wanted a goalkeeper coach with previous experience working in the Red Bull model.”
Sparkes joins a Canada staff with deep Red Bull roots. Assistant Coach and Head Analyst Ewan Sharp was a Performance Analyst at New York Red Bulls, where he first worked with Marsch, before rejoining him at Leeds United. Set Piece Analyst Franz Schiemer worked with Marsch at Salzburg and Leeds.
Before the World Cup, Sharp wrote for TGG about how Canada had built their style with limited time on the training pitch, arguing that principles outweigh tactics in international football.
Canada staff, with Marsch far right and Sparkes fourth from right
Canada reached the last 16 of the World Cup for the first time this summer, losing 3-0 to Morocco in Houston on 4 July. Maxime Crépeau, Dayne St. Clair and Owen Goodman were the goalkeepers in the squad.
Since then, they have beaten Chile 1-0 in Toronto and Peru 2-0 in Montreal, where Goodman made his debut, before losing 1-0 to the USA in St. Paul, with St. Clair in goal.
Canada play Guatemala in Guatemala City in the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final on 13 October, with the return at BMO Field in Toronto on 16 November.
From Swansea to Salzburg
Sparkes, who is from Swansea, started his career at New York Red Bulls’ Academy in 2008. After a year at Salzburg in 2011, he returned to New York before becoming Swansea City’s Head of Academy Goalkeeping in 2012, a post he held until 2018.
Canada is not his first international role, as he was Goalkeeper Coach of Sierra Leone during their qualifying campaign for the 2014 World Cup.
He spent the 2018/19 season as Goalkeeper Coach at South African club Orlando Pirates before joining Southampton in July 2019, succeeding Dave Watson, who was promoted to Assistant Coach.
Sparkes followed Rubén Sellés from Southampton to Reading as his Assistant in the summer of 2023, but left in January 2024 as the club made redundancies.
He joined QPR later that month on a short-term basis after Goalkeeper Coach Gavin Ward needed knee surgery, and was made Head of Goalkeeping in July 2024, overseeing the first team, development squad, youth teams and women’s team.
“It’s a really exciting role for me, working across the whole club to ensure alignment from the Academy into the first team,” he said at the time.
Sparkes holds a UEFA A Licence and an MSc in Sports Coaching and Performance from the University of South Wales.
Both Sparkes and Sharp are TGG Members. You can view their profiles here: Andrew Sparkes and Ewan Sharp
Membership allows you to create your own personal profile, showcasing your experience, qualifications and work to TGG’s audience of football industry professionals, along with a range of other benefits. TGG Members are also able to contact other TGG Members.
Find out more and become a TGG Member HERE.
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