Eoghan O'Connell

Eoghan O'Connell (born 13 August 1995) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a defender for League One club Rochdale. He began his youth playing career in the Republic of Ireland, joined the academy of Scottish club Celtic in 2011 and made his first-team debut three years later. While at the club he was loaned to Oldham Athletic, Cork City and Walsall. In 2017, he signed with English third-tier club Bury and after two seasons with The Shakers, he moved in the summer of 2019 to Rochdale.

Eoghan O'Connell
Personal information
Date of birth (1995-08-13) 13 August 1995[1]
Place of birth Cork, Ireland
Height 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)[2]
Playing position(s) Centre Back
Club information
Current team
 Rochdale
Number 6
Youth career
College Corinthians
Avondale United
2011–2014 Celtic
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2014–2017 Celtic 7 (0)
2015 → Oldham Athletic (loan) 2 (0)
2016 → Cork City (loan) 7 (1)
2017 → Walsall (loan) 17 (1)
2017–2019 Bury 43 (2)
2019– Rochdale 23 (0)
National team
2013 Republic of Ireland U19 1 (0)
2016 Republic of Ireland U21 2 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 06:45, 17 January 2020 (UTC)

O'Connell is a cousin of former Irish rugby captain Paul O'Connell and has been capped at youth international level.

Club career

Celtic

O'Connell played for the College Corinthians and Avondale United Irish academy teams, before switching to the Celtic Academy in 2011.[3][4] On 9 January 2014, he made his first-team debut in a 3–1 victory over Turkish club Trabzonspor in the Turkish Airlines Antalya Cup.[5] In March, he made his competitive debut against Ross County in a 1–1 draw in the Scottish Premiership.[6] Speaking in April 2015 about his debut, he said, "Making my debut at the end of last season was a good thing as it gave me a good platform coming into the next season and show what I could do".[4]

O'Connell started the 2014–15 season by scoring an own goal in a 1–0 league defeat against Inverness CT.[7] After making four appearances for the club in the season and captaining the youth team in a friendly against Sparta Prague, on 2 February 2015 he signed a contract extension that would keep him at Celtic until mid-2017.[8] Commenting about the new contract, he said, "I'm delighted and just happy to get it done".[9] At the end of the season, he was named as the club's Academy Player of the Year.[4] Irish newspaper TheJournal.ie included Connell in their list of "10 most promising young Irish footballers".[10]

O'Connell played his first match of the 2015–16 season, a 3–1 victory over Dundee United, in August. He moved to English League One club Oldham Athletic on a six-month loan deal on 1 September.[11] Five days later, he made his first-team debut, playing the entirety of a 2–1 victory over Bradford City.[12][13] He was injured after featuring in another match for Oldham,[14] and returned to his parent club in November.[15]

In February 2016, O'Connell went on-loan to his home-town club, League of Ireland side Cork City.[16] Manager John Caulfield said O'Connell's signing "injects extra competition into the squad".[17] He made his debut on 27 February, playing the whole match, in which Cork defeated Dundalk 2–0 in the President's Cup.[18][19] He played five times for Cork, scoring once in a 2–2 draw with Galway United, before being recalled to Celtic at the end of April 2016 after sustaining a groin injury.[20]

"I've been particularly impressed by young Eoghan. He's a good size, wants to do well and he's good in the air. He has been around the first team for a few years and had some loan experience."

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers on O'Connell.[21]

On 27 July 2016, O'Connell made his UEFA Champions League debut, playing the whole ninety minutes of a 1–1 draw against Kazakh club FC Astana in the qualifiers. Speaking about his debut, manager Brendan Rodgers said O'Connell was "outstanding" and added; "For a young player, he has been on the fringes for a few years, coming into that environment, under pressure, he had very few mistakes in the game".[22] He featured for the club in the return leg and again earned the praise of Rodgers.[23]

After playing six matches for Celtic during the 2016–17 season, on 12 January 2017, O'Connell was loaned to English League One club Walsall for the rest of the season.[24] He debuted in a 4–1 victory over Sheffield United; Walsall manager Jon Whitney said O'Connell "grew into the game and showed why we brought him in."[25] On 21 January, he scored his first goal in a 3–1 victory over Bristol Rovers.[26] He made 17 appearances for the club.[27]

Bury

O'Connell signed a three-year contract with English League One club Bury on 8 June 2017.[28] He said about his move; "I have come to the stage in my career where I just want to play football all the time. The manager made it clear that he had a big interest in me and wanted me to come to the club." He added that he was happy with the move and he wanted to start playing.[29] O'Connell was injured during the pre-season and was ruled out of play for up to ten weeks.[30] In October he made his first-team debut in a 1–0 victory over Blackburn Rovers in the EFL Trophy.[31] Wearing the number six shirt, he has become a first team regular in 2018–19 under manager Ryan Lowe.

Rochdale

On 4 July 2019, O'Connell signed a two-year contract with Rochdale.[32]

International career

O'Connell made his Republic of Ireland under-19 debut against Norway in August 2013.[33] In September 2016, he was called to the Republic of Ireland under-21 national football team by manager Noel King for 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifiers against Slovenia and Serbia.[34] On 2 September, he made his under-21 international debut in a 2–0 win against Slovenia.[35]

Style of play

O'Connell plays as a centre back.[22] During his time with Celtic, the Herald Scotland described him as "an assured ball-playing centre-half with an air of calmness around him which has belied his lack of experience."[36] His manager at Celtic, Brendan Rodgers, said O'Connell had an "in-built brain for the game."[23]

Personal life

O'Connell hails from Cork and is a supporter of local side Cork City.[22] He is a cousin of former Irish rugby captain Paul O'Connell.[37] Both his father Damien O'Connell and brother Andy O'Connell have played for Cork City.[38]

Career statistics
As of match played 14 January 2020
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National Cup League Cup Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Oldham Athletic (loan) 2015–16[39] League One 2000000020
Cork City (loan) 2016[40] LOI Premier Division 7100101[lower-alpha 1]091
Walsall (loan) 2016–17[41] League One 171000000171
Loan club totals 262001010282
Celtic 2013–14[42] Scottish Premiership 1000000010
2014–15[43] Scottish Premiership 3000100040
2015–16[39] Scottish Premiership 1000000010
2016–17[41] Scottish Premiership 2000104[lower-alpha 2]070
Celtic totals 70002040130
Bury 2017–18[44] League One 12010004[lower-alpha 3]0170
2018–19[45] League Two 31210112[lower-alpha 3]0353
Bury totals 432201160523
Rochdale 2019–20[46] League One 230601000300
Career totals 99480511101235
  1. Appearances in President of Ireland's Cup.
  2. Appearances in UEFA Champions League.
  3. Appearances in EFL Trophy.

Honours

Cork City

Bury

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References
  1. "UEFA Youth League - Eoghan O'Connell". UEFA.com. 29 March 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  2. uefa.com. "UEFA Youth League - Eoghan O'Connell – UEFA.com".
  3. Emmet Malone (16 February 2016). "Cork City sign Celtic's Eoghan O'Connell on loan". The Irish Times. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  4. PJ Browne (26 April 2015). "Cousin Of Irish Rugby International Rewarded For His Progress At Celtic". Balls. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  5. Fintan O'Toole (9 January 2014). "Cork youngster Eoghan O'Connell made his debut for Celtic tonight in Turkey". The 42. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  6. Gavin Berry (31 March 2014). "Celtic starlet Eoghan O'Connell watched rugby hero cousin's rise to top... now he hopes to follow in his footsteps after making Parkhead debut". Daily Record. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  7. Andy Campbell (23 August 2014). "Inverness CT 1 - 0 Celtic". BBC. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  8. "Defender's delight after penning new deal". Celtiic F.C. 2 February 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  9. "Eoghan O'Connell signs new Celtic contract until 2017". BBC Sport. 2 February 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  10. Paul Fennessy (30 June 2015). "Power ranking the 10 most promising young Irish footballers". The Journal. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  11. "Eoghan O'Connell joins Latics on loan". Celtic F.C. 1 September 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  12. Robert Gledhill (5 September 2015). "Oldham 1 Bradford City 2: Cole nets Bantams winner". Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  13. "Eoghan O'Connell set for Oldham debut against Bradford". Euro Sport. 4 September 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  14. Sheldan Keay (24 September 2015). "Oldham Athletic look set to lose Celtic loanee Eoghan O'Connell". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  15. Ruari Daly (8 September 2011). "Eoghan O'Connell returns to Celtic from loan spell". Read Celtic. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  16. Malone, Emmet (16 February 2016). "Cork City sign Celtic's Eothan O'Connell on loan". Irish Times. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
  17. Ryan Kelly (24 February 2016). "Cork City boss hails on-loan Celtic starlet Eoghan O'Connell". Goal. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  18. Eoghan O'Connell at Soccerway. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
  19. O'Shea, John (27 February 2016). "President's Cup Report: Cork City 2 - 0 Dundalk". Extre Time. Ireland. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  20. Cuddihy, Colm (27 April 2016). "Celtic recall Eoghan O'Connell from Cork". Extra Time. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  21. Ben Blake (26 July 2016). "'He has a real brain for football' - Rodgers impressed by Celtic's Irish defender O'Connell". The Journal. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  22. Jamie Casey (28 July 2016). "Nine things we know about Celtic's young Irish starlet Eoghan O'Connell". Irish Post. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  23. "Rodgers hails Irish youngster O'Connell after Celtic triumph". RTÉ Sport. 4 August 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  24. "Eoghan O'Connell: Celtic defender joins Walsall on loan". BBC Sport. 12 January 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  25. https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/walsall-fc/2017/01/17/jon-whitney-backs-eoghan-oconnell-to-shine-for-walsall/
  26. Jonny Boyle (21 January 2017). "Walsall Fans Rave About Eoghan O'Connell After He Scores and Gets MotM". Talking Bows. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  27. Matt Maher (8 June 2017). "Walsall miss out on Celtic defender Eoghan O'Connell". Express and Star. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  28. "Eoghan O'Connell: Bury sign Celtic defender on three-year contract". BBC Sport. 8 June 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  29. "CONFIRMED: Eoghan O'Connell signs for the Shakers". Bury F.C. 8 June 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  30. "Injury Update: 10 weeks for Eoghan O'Connell". Bury F.C. 27 July 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  31. Mikael McKenzie (4 October 2017). "SHAKERS MATCH VERDICT: Blackburn Rovers 0-1 Bury". Bury Times. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  32. "Eoghan O'Connell Joins Rochdale". Rochdale AFC. 4 July 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  33. "Ireland U19s lose friendly game by a single goal". Football Association of Ireland. 13 August 2013. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  34. "Republic of Ireland Under-21 squad named for European qualifiers". RTE. 26 August 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  35. "Ireland U21s leave it late to seal important European Championship qualifying win". The Journal. 2 September 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  36. Neil Cameon (10 August 2016). "Eoghan O'Connell told to show he is good enough to be offered a new deal at Celtic". Herald Scotland. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  37. "Paul O'Connell's Cousin Named Celtic Academy Player Of The Year". Balls.ie. 26 April 2015. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  38. Ben Blake (16 February 2016). "Celtic defender O'Connell joins Cork City on loan". The Journal. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  39. "Games played by Eoghan O'Connell in 2015/2016". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  40. "Eoghan O'Connor". scoresway.com. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  41. "Games played by Eoghan O'Connell in 2016/2017". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  42. "Games played by Eoghan O'Connell in 2013/2014". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  43. "Games played by Eoghan O'Connell in 2014/2015". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  44. "Games played by Eoghan O'Connell in 2017/2018". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  45. "Games played by Eoghan O'Connell in 2018/2019". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  46. "Games played by Eoghan O'Connell in 2019/2020". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
  47. "League Two: 2018/19: Current table". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
    "Bury: Squad details: 2018/19". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
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