Patrick McCourt
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| Paddy McCourt | ||
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| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Patrick McCourt | |
| Date of birth | 16 December 1983 | |
| Place of birth | Derry, Northern Ireland | |
| Height | 1.82 m (5 ft 111⁄2 in) | |
| Playing position | Winger | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Celtic | |
| Number | 20 | |
| Youth career | ||
| 1998–2000 2000–2001 |
Foyle Harps Rochdale |
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| Senior career1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 2001–2005 2005 2005–2008 2008– |
Rochdale Shamrock Rovers Derry City Celtic |
79 (8) 17 (7) 53 (5) 3 (0) |
| National team | ||
| 2002–2004 2002 |
Northern Ireland U21 Northern Ireland |
9 (1) 2(0) |
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1 Senior club appearances and goals |
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Patrick "Paddy" McCourt (born 16 December 1983, Derry), is a Northern Irish footballer who plays as a winger with Scottish Premier League club Celtic. Before joining Celtic from Derry City, played in the League of Ireland. He is the brother of former Derry City striker Harry McCourt.
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[edit] Career
[edit] Rochdale
McCourt, educated at Steelstown Primary School in Derry, began his career with an early move from Foyle Harps to Rochdale on a youth team contract and was billed as a promising winger.His potential quickly persuaded the Spotland club to sign him on a 3 and a half year contract in December 2001, shortly after making his debut against Kidderminster Harriers. His first season ended with 23 appearances and 4 goals. This was complemented by the 9 caps he received at Under 21 level for Northern Ireland. In June 2002, he seemed to have the world at his feet when the then Northern Ireland manager Sammy McIlroy handed him his senior international debut against the might of Spain at Windsor Park[1]. This came at the peak of McCourt's career[2], and he attracted the attention of several Premier League clubs during 2002-03, including Blackburn Rovers. A formal bid of £1.5m was made by Manchester City, however, this was rejected by Rochdale and the deal fell through.
In the 2003-04 season, McCourt managed just a handful of starts for the club and had two spells away on trial with English First Division sides Norwich City[3] and Crewe Alexandra, though neither club followed up their initial interest in him. Despite scoring goals during his spell at Spotland Stadium, a combination of injuries and loss of form hastened his departure from Rochdale in February 2005.
[edit] Shamrock Rovers
After Rochdale manager Steve Parkin had informed him that he was to be released, McCourt headed for another trial, this time with Scottish Premier League outfit Motherwell. Again a move failed to materialise after a two-week stay at Fir Park, but he was signed by Roddy Collins, manager of Eircom League full-timers Shamrock Rovers.
McCourt scored three goals in his first six appearances for the Dublin club and topped the goalscoring table by May 2005. As the club ran into financial difficulty, mainly due to the costs surrounding the building of Tallaght Stadium, the club were forced to place all their players on the transfer list for free, however, this excluded McCourt who they felt was an indispensable asset of the club. However, after 7 goals in 17 appearances (3 of which were goal of the season contenders [1]) and following interest from Bristol City and Queen's Park Rangers, Shamrock Rovers, in need of funds, decided to let McCourt go. The player was signed by his home-town club, Derry City, for a fee thought to be around £60,000.[citation needed] He was Rovers top goalscorer that season and won the Professional Footballers Association of Ireland award of 'Young Player of the Year'[2]
[edit] Derry City
McCourt helped Derry to the runners-up position in both the 2005 and 2006 League of Ireland seasons. In the 2006 season he played in their UEFA Cup run in wins over IFK Gothenburg and Gretna and helped Derry to the FAI Cup and FAI League Cup.
McCourt scored 6 goals in 31 appearances for City in the 2007 season and won an FAI League Cup medal. His skill had reportedly interested West Bromwich Albion, and Derry City announced in June 2008 that they had reached agreement with the newly-promoted Premier League side. [3].
[edit] Celtic
In June 2008 Derry City agreed a fee with Celtic. West Brom had also agreed terms with both player and club, but the lure of joining the club he supported as a boy persuaded McCourt to move to Glasgow[4]. On 19 June 2008 Patrick signed for the club for an undisclosed fee after agreeing a three year contract. On 8 July 2008 Northern Ireland manager Nigel Worthington said that McCourt was likely to be recalled to the national squad. [5] He made his competitive debut for Celtic on 25 October 2008 in the 4-2 win over Hibernian. He has featured prominently for the Celtic reserve team and won many plaudits for his performances, particularly in the game on 28 April 2009 against Rangers which clinched the Scottish Premier Reserve League title for Celtic for the 8th season in succession. [6]
International Career Patrick Mccourt received quite a lot of U21 apperances for Northern Ireland and received his 1st cap against Spain, Paddy Mccourt also received his 2nd cap coming on as a substitute against San Marino in World Cup qualifying campaign for South Africa 2010
[edit] Honours
FAI Cup: 1
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- Derry City F.C. - 2006
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- Derry City F.C. - 2006, 2007
- PFAI Young Player of the Year: 1
- Shamrock Rovers F.C. - 2005
[edit] References
- ^ "Patrick McCourt - Player Profile", Irish Football Association, 18 August 2005.
- ^ "Hard work still to be done for Patrick", Jonathan Greaney, Rochdale Observer, 11 March 2003.
- ^ "Patrick McCourt - Biography", Flown From the Nest, 10 September 2005.
- ^ >"Celtic new boy Paddy McCourt's got more talent than Aiden McGeady, says former boss". Daily Record. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football-news/scottish-football/spl-football/celtic-fc/2008/06/20/celtic-new-boy-paddy-mccourt-s-got-more-talent-than-aiden-mcgeady-says-former-boss-86908-20614519/. Retrieved on 18 August 2008.
- ^ "McCourt seals transfer to Celtic". BBC Sport. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/celtic/7462901.stm. Retrieved on 20 June 2008.
- ^ "Mystery Man McCourts Magic Show". The Herald. 29 April 2009. http://www.theherald.co.uk/sport/headlines/display.var.2504904.0.Mystery_man_McCourts_magic_show.php. Retrieved on 30 April 2009.
[edit] External links
- Patrick McCourt career stats at Soccerbase
- Player Profile - Official IFA site
- McCourt's player profile on CityWeb
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