John Mackie joined Lings Elite FC in June 2015 as 1st Team Player-Manager.

John is a former professional footballer best known for his time as a commanding center back at Reading FC and as captain of Leyton Orient.

John spent 4 years at Crawley, during this time he was invited for trials at various other clubs, one of which was at Reading FC. Alan Pardew was caretaker manager at the time and was impressed by Mackie, later signing him for Reading on an initial 2-year deal. John made his debut for Reading in August 2000, ironically against Leyton Orient in Round 1 of the League Cup at Brisbane Road. John went on to make 71 appearances for The Royals under Pardew, helping them progress from battling relegation in 2000/1 to achieving automatic promotion to League One at the end of season 2001/2.

In 2004 Martin Ling signed John for Leyton Orient where, in his second season, Ling awarded Mackie the captaincy. Orient played out that entire season in an automatic promotion spot and, although it went down to the last day of the season, the O's gained automatic promotion for the first time in 36 years. John admits he remembers it was nerve-wracking, but it was a great season and to win promotion as captain was fantastic. At Orient John enjoyed a good partnership with Gabriel Zakuani who, while only 16 at the time, was a great talent and had played for the first team a few times. John recalls Zakuani hadn't really played alongside anyone who took care of him. John’s job was to give him guidance and talk him through games and together they formed a formidable partnership. In total John made 132 appearances for Leyton Orient, notching up 28 clean sheets and scoring 12 goals.

In June 2015, thanks to his close friendship with Martin Ling, John jumped at the chance to join Lings Elite FC in his first coaching role. John's leadership qualities are first class and we're thrilled to be able to give him this opportunity to help develop the younger players here at Lings Elite FC and take his first steps into football management.

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