Steven James Ball (born 9 September 1969) is an English football manager and former professional footballer who is currently assistant manager at League Two club Colchester United. Ball began his career with Arsenal, where he won the FA Youth Cup in 1988, but failed to make a first-team appearance for the club. He made his Football League debut with Colchester United, where he had two stints separated by spells with Norwich City and Cambridge United. In a career blighted by injury, Ball could only muster 70 Football League appearances between 1987 and 1996. He also spent time in non-League football with Sudbury Town, Heybridge Swifts, and briefly Long Melford. Ball was manager at Stanway Rovers between 1998 and 2003, and has also managed Clacton Town and Leiston, where he had also been assistant manager. Ball has been long-associated with the Colchester United coaching team, where he worked full-time alongside his part-time role managing Maldon & Tiptree. He was named as assistant manager to David Wright at Colchester United after Wright was named caretaker manager of the club in April 2016. He then replaced Wright as caretaker for Colchester's final game of the 2015–16 season, having been named assistant to new Colchester manager John McGreal in May 2016.