Gavin Whyte (born 31 January 1996) is a Northern Irish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

and the Northern Ireland national team.

Club career

Crusaders

Whyte's

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...

team won three league titles in four years between 2015 and 2018 and he attracted interest from Scotland and England, most notably in trials with

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

side Everton and Scottish side Celtic during the summer of 2016. Whyte received the Player of the Round after his performance in the

Scottish Challenge Cup The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup,Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in ...

, when he netted an injury-time winner to send Crusaders into the semi-finals against Inverness Caledonian Thistle. During the 2017–18 season he scored 24 goals in 49 games, winning his third

NIFL Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the North ...

league title and also the

County Antrim Shield The County Antrim & District Football Association Senior Shield (more commonly known as the County Antrim Shield) is a football competition in Northern Ireland. The competition is open to senior teams who are members of the North East Ulster Fo ...

with Crusaders, and was voted the

Ulster Footballer of the Year The Ulster Footballer of the Year is the older of two association football player of the year awards in Northern Ireland. (The other is the Northern Ireland Football Writers' Association award.) It is awarded by Castlereagh Glentoran Supporters ...

award for 2017–18 and also the

Northern Ireland Football Writers' Association Player of the Year The Northern Ireland Football Writers' Association Player of the Year (often called the NIFWA Player of the Year) is an annual award given to the player who is adjudged to have been the best of the season in the IFA Premiership. It is one of two a ...

award for 2017–18.

Oxford United

On 13 July 2018, Oxford United announced the signing of Whyte on a three-year deal, for an undisclosed transfer fee. He made his debut as an 82nd-minute substitute in Oxford's opening league match of the season, a 4–0 away defeat at Barnsley. His first start, and first goal, came in the first round of the

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by th ...

against

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed the ...

ten days later; Whyte scored the second goal in a 2–0 win for Oxford. His first league goal followed in the next game, when he scored the opener in a 2–3 home defeat to

Accrington Stanley Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England. The club competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They have spent their complete histor ...

. On 22 April 2019, Whyte scored his first hat-trick for the club, in a 2–3 away win against

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mov ...

. By the end of his first and only season with Oxford, he had scored 9 times in 47 appearances (7 of them in League One matches).

Cardiff City

On 30 July 2019, Whyte signed for

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

club

for an undisclosed seven-figure fee. He made his debut on the opening day of the 2019–20 season as a substitute in place of Josh Murphy during a 3–2 defeat to

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 193 ...

. Whyte joined League One club

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's ...

on a six-month loan deal on 14 January 2021. He made his debut on 16 January 2021 in a 1–1 draw at home to

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre rivers, and ...

. The following match on 19 January 2021, he scored in the 3–0 home win against

. On 31 July 2021, Whyte signed a one-year loan deal with Oxford United.

International career

On 14 March 2018, after impressing for Crusaders, Whyte was called up the Northern Ireland U21 squad by Manager

Ian Baraclough Ian Robert Baraclough (; born 4 December 1970) is an English football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of the Northern Ireland national team. He previously managed the Under-21 team. As a player, he was a defender f ...

for matches against Spain U21s and Iceland U21s in the European Under-21 Championships qualifying group stage fixtures. He impressed on 26 March 2018, as Northern Ireland U21 played out a goalless draw with Iceland. On 16 May 2018, after impressing at club level and for the U21s, Whyte was named in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...

's squad ahead of friendlies against

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

and Costa Rica. On 11 September 2018 Whyte scored on his Northern Ireland senior debut, scoring after 108 seconds in a 3–0 win against

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Windsor Park Windsor Park is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Linfield F.C. who own the land the stadium is built on, while the Irish Football Association own and operate the stadium and pay Linfield an annual re ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Northern Ireland's goal tally first.''

Honours

Crusaders *

: 2014–15, 2015–16, 2017–18 *

: 2017–18 Hull City * EFL League One:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Individual *

: 2017–18 * NIFWA Player of the Year: 2017–18

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Whyte, Gavin 1996 births Living people Northern Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Northern Ireland men's international footballers Men's association football forwards Crusaders F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Cardiff City F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players NIFL Premiership players English Football League players Ulster Footballers of the Year Northern Ireland Football Writers' Association Players of the Year Association footballers from Belfast Association footballers from Northern Ireland