John Allen is a Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 coach

Coach (sport)

In sports, a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.-Staff:...

. He is currently the head coach

Head coach

A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches...

 of RoPS in Finland's Veikkausliiga

Veikkausliiga

Veikkausliiga is the premier division of Finnish football, comprising the top 12 clubs of the country. Veikkausliiga is currently ranked as the 28th best league in Europe. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agency Veikkaus, hence the league's name...

.

Allen started footballing at his local Chester City F.C.

Chester City F.C.

Chester City Football Club was an English football team from Chester. The club was founded as Chester F.C., and joined the Football League in 1931, spending most of their time in the lower divisions. They changed their name to Chester City in 1983. Chester won their first league title in 2004, the...

 and after a brief visit at Mansfield Town F.C.

Mansfield Town F.C.

Mansfield Town Football Club is an English football club from the former mining town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. The club was formed in 1897 as Mansfield Wesleyans and changed its name to Mansfield Wesley in 1906 before settling on Mansfield Town in 1910...

, he travelled to Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

. At MP

Mikkelin Palloilijat

Mikkelin Palloilijat is a Finnish football club, based in Mikkeli. Club was formed in 1929 and has also had teams in volleyball, ice hockey and bandy. It played in the Finnish First Division from 2004 to 2006 but was relegated to Kakkonen at the end of the season...

 he made his top flight debut on 1987. He made a total of 282 appearances and scored 50 goals while playing for RoPS, TPS

Turun Palloseura

Turun Palloseura, TPS for short and nicknamed Tepsi, is a Finnish football club based in Turku. The club was founded in 1922. TPS currently play in the Veikkausliiga, the highest level of Finnish football. They play their home matches at the 9,372 seater Veritas Stadion, Turku.-History:FC TPS Turku...

, MYPA and TPV. As a player he won the Finnish Championship

Veikkausliiga

Veikkausliiga is the premier division of Finnish football, comprising the top 12 clubs of the country. Veikkausliiga is currently ranked as the 28th best league in Europe. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agency Veikkaus, hence the league's name...

, then known as Mestaruussarja

Mestaruussarja

Mestaruussarja was the top division of Finnish football from 1930 to 1989. It was replaced by Veikkausliiga in 1990.In 1930 league format was used for the first time to decide Finnish champion. Before that from 1908 to 1929 the championship was decided with cup competition. The league was...

, twice.

After retiring as a player he joined his former club, TPS, as an assistant coach in 2003. He took charge of the first team as a caretaker on 2008 after Martti Kuusela

Martti Kuusela

Martti Kuusela is an internationally successful Finnish football manager.Kuusela enjoyed a moderately successful career as a player in Finland. As a coach he won the Finnish championship in 1981 and 1990 with HJK Helsinki...

's dismissal. After the appointment of Pasi Rautiainen

Pasi Rautiainen

Pasi Pentti Rautiainen is a Finnish football manager and former player. He has coached PK-35, FC Jokerit and FC KooTeePee in Finland and FC Levadia Tallinn and FC Flora Tallinn in Estonia. His last club was TPS....

 in 2009, Allen became the manager of TPS's feeder club, ÅIFK

Åbo IFK

Åbo IFK is a sports club from Turku, Finland. The club was founded in 1908.-Background:The greatest successes of ÅIFK have come in football where it has won three Finnish championship titles, in 1910, 1920 and 1924. It has played a total of 9 seasons in the Finnish premier division Mestaruussarja,...

 as well as the youth teams of TPS.

On November 2009 Allen signed a two-year contract with RoPS, then playing in the second highest division

Ykkönen

Ykkönen is the second highest level of the Finnish football league system , although it is the highest league managed by the Football Association of Finland.-Competition:...

 of Finnish football system. After only one season with RoPS they gained promotion to Veikkausliiga

2011 Veikkausliiga

The 2011 Veikkausliiga was the eighty-first season of top-tier football in Finland. It began on 2 May 2011 and ended on 29 October 2011. HJK Helsinki were the defending champions and successfully defended their title....

after being crowned the champions of Ykkönen.