John "Ian" Porterfield (11 February 1946 – 11 September 2007) was a professional footballer, and an experienced football coach who worked at both club and international level for almost 30 years. Up until his death, he was the coach of the Armenian national team. He has the distinction of being the very first manager to be sacked in the FA Premier League, when he was fired by Chelsea. He replaced Alex Ferguson as manager of Aberdeen in 1986.
Born in Dunfermline, Scotland, at the age of 15 Porterfield had a trial for Leeds United but returned homesick to Scotland, where he joined Raith Rovers. Moving south of the border in 1967 he signed for Sunderland where he experienced his finest moment as a player when he scored the winner at Wembley in the 1973 FA Cup Final, giving them a shock victory over Leeds United, who were among the finest club sides in Europe at that time. He stayed at Sunderland for ten years, with a brief loan spell at Reading in 1976, before moving onto Sheffield Wednesday in July 1977, first as a player and then as player-coach.