Stuart Pearce MBE (born 24 April 1962) is an English professional football manager and former player, who was most recently a first-team coach for Premier League club West Ham United.

In 2016, he briefly came out of retirement, signing a one-match deal with Longford, from a town in Gloucestershire, a team dubbed "the worst in Great Britain", in order to support the grassroots game.

He returned to Nottingham Forest as manager in July 2014, and initially began the season well, but after a run of poor form, he was sacked in February 2015.

Pearce failed a trial at Queens Park Rangers and then rejected an offer from Hull City, instead settling into a career in the non-league game with his local side, Wealdstone, while training and working as an electrician.

In 1983, Wealdstone received an unexpected offer of £30,000 (then a very large sum for a semi-professional player) for Pearce from top-flight club Coventry City.

Sky Blues manager Bobby Gould had been to watch Wealdstone and was impressed by Pearce's determination and combative attitude.

Despite the transfer, Pearce was still unsure of his prospects in the professional game and even advertised his services as an electrician in Forest's match-day programme.

In his time at the City Ground, Pearce was one of the Forest players who had to cope with the horrors of the Hillsborough disaster during the opening minutes of their FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool.

He admitted in an interview with Match of the Day that, in his first attempt at picking a starting XI, he did not realise until it was pointed out to him by his wife that he had omitted goalkeeper Mark Crossley.

[9] Despite winning Manager of the Month award in January 1997, he would later share the caretaker role with Dave Bassett, and Forest were relegated, finishing in bottom place.

Pearce joined Newcastle United along with fellow veterans John Barnes and Ian Rush in the 1997–98 season under Kenny Dalglish, and played in the 1998 FA Cup final, though again he emerged on the defeated side.

[10] Eventually, Pearce was isolated, along with other players including Barnes and Rob Lee, after Ruud Gullit succeeded Dalglish.

A number of players were treated coldly by Gullit, and Pearce along with Barnes and Lee were made to train with the reserves despite cumulatively having over 150 England caps between them.

The club was dubbed as "the worst in the UK" as they lost all their games at that date with a single goal scored and 179 conceded and lying at the bottom of the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League Division Two, the 13th tier of English football.

[20] Replacing Kenny Sansom as the first choice left-back for his country, injury prevented him from playing in the 1988 UEFA European Championship.

[20] Pearce played at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, setting up a goal for David Platt in the quarter-final win against Cameroon and operating as a more attacking left-back than normal as England deployed a sweeper system.

[21][22] England progressed to the semi-finals, and Pearce was one of two players (the other being Chris Waddle) to miss a penalty in the shoot-out against West Germany after the match had ended in a 1–1 draw.

At 37 years and 137 days, he was the third-oldest outfield player ever to appear for England (only Stanley Matthews and Leslie Compton, plus five goalkeepers, have been older).

[28] His first win was against Liverpool, on 9 April 2005, as Kiki Musampa scored the goal in injury time with a firm volley past Scott Carson.

After a successful run of form, which put the club close to UEFA Cup qualification, Pearce was given the job on a permanent basis.

The side also scored just ten goals at home in the league, and zero after New Year's Day in 2007, a record low in top-flight English football.

[37] Following Capello's resignation, in February 2012 Pearce acted as caretaker manager for the senior team; his sole match in charge was a 3–2 loss in a friendly against the Netherlands.

[45] After leading Forest to an unbeaten start to the season, with thirteen points from an available fifteen, Pearce was named as a candidate for the league's Manager of the Month award for August.

[46] He was beaten by Kenny Jackett of Wolverhampton Wanderers, despite taking Forest to the top of the table by the end of August 2014 after a 1–0 away win against Sheffield Wednesday.

Pearce did manage to win the reverse fixture against Derby and bring the Brian Clough Trophy back to the City Ground, but this was not enough to keep him in his job.

[49] After a spell working at Portsmouth,[50] Pearce joined former club West Ham United as an assistant to manager, David Moyes, in November 2017.

[6] His daughter Chelsea is an equestrian and has regularly competed in eventing since 2010, including riding at three European Championships for Great Britain.

[55][56] Pearce is a devotee of punk rock and is visible as one of the members of a frenetic audience featured on the inside sleeve of the album God's Lonely Men by one of his favourite bands, the Lurkers.

[61] In January 1999 and in appreciation of his talents and his support for various charities, Pearce was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Elizabeth II.