Aiden McGeady

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aiden McGeady
Personal information
Date of birth	April 4, 1986 (age 21)
Place of birth	Glasgow, Scotland
Height	177cm
Nickname	Aideninho
Playing position	Full Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Celtic
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2004-	Celtic	79 (14)
National team2
2004–	Republic of Ireland	10 0(0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 20:55, 1 April 2007 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 29 March 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Aiden McGeady (born April 4, 1986 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a professional football player for Celtic and represents the Republic of Ireland in international football.

172.215.79.63==Junior career== Aiden McGeady was tipped as a future football star since he was selected for the Under 11 Glasgow Catholic Football School select team at the age of nine.^{[citation needed]} He was educated at primary level at Our Lady of the Missions Primary school and at secondary level at the nearby St Ninian's High School, on the south side of Glasgow. For a short spell in his young teens, McGeady played for amateur club Queen's Park, before the club allowed him to move to the team he supported, Celtic.

McGeady went onto captain Glasgow Catholic Schools, and played alongside now Celtic teammate Mark Wilson. McGeady was tracked by many top teams in England and Scotland, with both Alex Ferguson and Liam Brady making personal pleas for the youngster to join Manchester United and Arsenal respectively.^{[citation needed]} He has been described as the most coveted schoolboy footballer in the UK.^[1] He signed a lucrative boot deal with Adidas at the age of only sixteen.

Contents 1 Club career 2 International career 3 Awards 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Club career

McGeady made his senior debut for Celtic in 2004 during a Scottish Premier League match against Hearts, in which he scored.

Since then McGeady's career at Celtic has flourished particularly under their newest manager, Gordon Strachan, displaying aMan of the Match performances against Rangers.^{[citation needed]} McGeady has worn the same squad number at Celtic since his début: 46.

[edit] International career

As a young player, he represented the Scottish national team, up to Under-15s level and played for the Scottish Schoolboys national team before until he joined Celtic. At that time the SFA policy, incompatible with the policy at Celtic which does not allow such arrangements, a player had to be registered with a Schoolboys team in order to represent Scotland Schoolboys.

Packie Bonner, who knew of his Irish lineage (McGeady's paternal grandfather was Irish), invited him to play for the Irish schoolboys team, (who, unlike the SFA, do not insist on schoolboys actually playing for their school team). Since then he has played for the Irish Under-15s, Under-16s, Under-17s, Under-19s, Under-21s, and, in 2004, made his full international début, against Jamaica in an end-of-season friendly.

His decision to opt for the Republic of Ireland instead of his country of birth, has been the subject of some controversy in Scotland, and left many Scots disappointed with the player's choice of national team.^{[citation needed]} McGeady himself explains it as loyalty to the team that picked him as an unknown youngster.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Awards

Since making his début, aged 18, McGeady has picked up the following awards:

• December 2004 - SPL Player of the Month
• Season 2004/05 - Celtic Young Player of the Year
• November 2005 - SPL Young Player of the Month
• Season 2005/06 - SPL Championship winner
• Season 2005/06 - Celtic Young Player of the Year
• August 2006 - SPL Young Player of the Month
• September 2006 - SPL Young Player of the Month

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Aiden McGeady career stats at Soccerbase
• Aiden McGeady Official Website at Icons.com
• Aiden McGeady Player Profile from Carling

Celtic F.C. - Current Squad

1 Boruc | 2 Telfer | 3 Naylor | 5 Caldwell | 6 Balde | 7 Żurawski | 9 Miller | 10 Vennegoor of Hesselink | 11 Hartley | 12 Wilson | 14 Riordan | 15 Sno | 16 Gravesen | 17 Pressley | 18 Lennon | 20 Jarošík | 21 Brown | 24 Perrier-Doumbé | 25 Nakamura | 26 Sheridan | 37 Beattie | 41 Kennedy | 42 McGlinchey | 44 McManus | 46 McGeady | 48 O'Dea | 49 Cuthbert | 50 Irvine | 51 Riley | 53 Ferry | 54 Conroy | Manager: Strachan