Ian (in white shirt, middle) in action against Manchester United in front of over 50,000 fans at the famous Old Trafford Stadium.

Executive Director/ Technical Director, Ian McMahon is a native of England and was brought up and lived in the Manchester area most of his life.

Ian began his association with professional soccer after being spotted playing for his school and local teams at the age of 11 when he played for (English Premier League Club) Manchester City’s Youth teams, but at 14 he decided to sign for his home town club, Oldham Athletic. He turned down several so called ’bigger’ clubs, including Arsenal, Everton and Manchester City to stay at home. "I came home from school one day and my mother was there with the Arsenal guy, they had both already signed the forms. I told them I did not want to sign for Arsenal." (Ian McMahon) He played his first reserve game (Oldham Athletic) at the age of 15 years old and began life as a full time professional at the age of 16 years old. Made his major league debut at the age of 17 years old.

Transferred to Rochdale Football Club a year later, playing over 100 games by the age of 21,  he also captained the team. Sadly, upon the eve of a move into the English Premier League he suffered a knee injury and was unable to play professionally again, retiring a year later.

Ian has coached at all levels in and holds an English FA License.

Upon his retirement as a player Ian moved into sports administration and coaching, where at the age of 26 years he became the youngest General Manager/ Chief Executive Officer of a professional sports team in England. 

His most recent success was at Professional Soccer club, Doncaster Rovers in England. The club had been branded the worst franchise/ sports team in the country. In Ian’s first year he led them to a Championship in front of a sell out crowd, they repeated the following year. During that time Ian wrote a book chronicling the first season. The book received great reviews in such prestigious magazines as World Soccer Magazine and Four Four Two.

It was during this time that Ian was recruited to come to the USA. He was recruited as the Chief Executive Officer of the Des Moines Menace, a team that played in the Premier Development League of the United Soccer Leagues. During his two year stint, he recruited Head Coach Laurie Calloway and during the second season the Menace became only the third team in history to go undefeated during the regular season. Also, during this time the Menace established attendance records averaging over 4500 per game, they also hosted the National Championships and Mexican powerhouse team, Chivas and the Bermudan National Team. It was here that Ian helped establish the Menace Academy , a youth program based on the successful youth models from Europe. Within the first year the club had over 1000 players.

From Des Moines, Ian moved to Grand Rapids where he took up a similar position as well as taking up the duties as Head Coach of the PDL team, with the West Michigan Edge. He took up the position with only a few weeks left to start of the season and despite this still manged to have an excellent season. Several of those players have since moved into the professional ranks.

Ian again decided to follow his passion and establish a Youth program similar to those he had been involved with in Europe . In 2003 he reached an agreement with the Chicago Fire of the MLS to be their Youth Program in the West Michigan area.

In 2004 the West Michigan Fire was born and Ian became the full time Executive Director/ Technical Director and the Chicago Fire agreed to be the Official youth program of the Chicago Fire in West Michigan .

In 2005 the WMFJ added a W-League (highest level of Women’s soccer) team to the club and Ian became the Head Coach (2005, 2006).

The WMFJ now has over 1,000 players playing in the Youth Program.

In 2005 Ian became a Head Coach in the Michigan ODP System. In 2006 Ian became a National ODP Coach for the Super Y-League.

Ian is married to Elise and has two children, Connor and Nolan.