Stuart Murray Balmer (born 20 September 1969 in Falkirk) is a Scottish professional footballer, who played as a defender.

This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. (July 2019)

Balmer was a young player at Celtic, having progressed from the Celtic Boys Club, in the late 1980s.^[2] Having never made a competitive first team appearance at Parkhead, he was sold to Charlton Athletic in August 1990 for a fee of £120,000.^[3] He has the distinction of being the first outfield player in the English league to be allocated the squad number 1; Charlton in the early 1990s allocated their squad numbers alphabetically, hence Balmer (and not a goalkeeper as is typical) wore the number 1 shirt for the season.^[4][5]

After eight years at Charlton, Balmer moved to Wigan in September 1998 for £200,000.^[3] In three seasons there, Balmer made over 100 appearances before going on to play for several lower league English sides.^[3] Whilst at Wigan he also played in the final as they won the 1998–99 Football League Trophy.^[6]

In July 2004, Balmer returned to Scotland as player/assistant-manager to Billy Reid at Clyde^[7] and then followed him when he moved to Hamilton Academical a year later.^[8] Balmer scored one goal for Hamilton, ironically in a game against former club Clyde.^[9]

In January 2011, Balmer joined the coaching staff at Ross County as assistant to manager Willie McStay.^[10] McStay was sacked as manager a month later, but Balmer remained on the coaching staff under Jimmy Calderwood who was appointed to manage the side until the end of the season.^[10] Ross County only narrowly avoided relegation and Calderwood left at the end of the season.^[10] Balmer was re-appointed assistant manager by Derek Adams on his appointment as manager in June 2011,^[10] and that following season the management team helped Ross County win the Scottish First Division championship and promotion to the Scottish Premier League.^[11] In a further readjustment of the coaching staff at Victoria Park in November 2012, Balmer took on the duties of coaching the Under-20 side.,^[12] before leaving the club completely in May 2013.^[13]

Balmer joined Airdrie in November 2013 as assistant to their recently appointed manager, Gary Bollan^[14] and subsequently followed Gary, as his assistant, to Forfar in December 2015.^[15] After Bollan was sacked by Forfar in September 2017, Balmer took charge of the side on an interim basis.^[16]