Liam Boyce (born 8 April 1991) 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 ...
Scottish Premiership
The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...
Cliftonville
Cliftonville is a coastal area of the town of Margate, situated to the east of the main town, in the Thanet district of Kent, South East England, United Kingdom. It also contains the area known as Palm Bay.
The original Palm Bay estate was ...
Burton Albion
Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association football club in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club moved its home grou ...
Cliftonville
Cliftonville is a coastal area of the town of Margate, situated to the east of the main town, in the Thanet district of Kent, South East England, United Kingdom. It also contains the area known as Palm Bay.
The original Palm Bay estate was ...
, scoring 19 goals in his debut season. He won the IFA Premiership Player of the Month Award for April 2010, and was named the Northern Ireland Football Writers' Player of the Year for the 2009–10 season. Boyce is from the Lower Falls in Belfast. He played for
Immaculata
The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception.
It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth wh ...
for most of his youth years, during this time he attended St Joseph's Primary School Slate Street and St Mary's Grammar School, located on the Glen Road in Belfast, he spent all his secondary school years there and went on to study A Levels.
As his ability and skills in his football career developed he was spotted by
Cliftonville
Cliftonville is a coastal area of the town of Margate, situated to the east of the main town, in the Thanet district of Kent, South East England, United Kingdom. It also contains the area known as Palm Bay.
The original Palm Bay estate was ...
, and they signed him. He spent his first year there playing in the reserves but in the 2009–10 season, Boyce became a first team regular.
Boyce went on trial with Scottish club Celtic in July 2010, and then held discussions in mid-August 2010 about a move to German club
SpVgg Greuther Fürth
Spielvereinigung Greuther Fürth (), commonly known as Greuther Fürth (), is a German football club based in Fürth, Bavaria. They play in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of the German football league system, following relegation from the B ...
. However, the move collapsed a few days later.
Boyce scored his first European goal against
PFC CSKA Sofia
CSKA Sofia ( bg, ЦСКА София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sport ...
in the
2010–11 UEFA Europa League
The 2010–11 UEFA Europa League was the second season of the UEFA Europa League, Europe's secondary club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 40th edition overall including its predecessor, the UEFA Cup. It began ...
Werder Bremen
Boyce eventually signed for another German club,
Werder Bremen
Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are best known for the ...
, on 31 August 2010. He was released by the German club in October 2011, having only made three appearances for the club's reserves side.
Return to Cliftonville
Boyce rejoined Cliftonville in January 2012. In the 2012–13 season, he helped Cliftonville win the league title for the first time since 1998, finishing as the league's top scorer with 29 league goals. He was also named as the 2012–13
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 ...
and Northern Ireland Football Writers' Player of the Year. He won a second league title with the north Belfast club in 2013–14, scoring another 21 league goals before, in July 2014, the club announced that it had withdrawn its offer of a new contract to Boyce.
During this spell at the Reds Boyce made eight appearances in European football scoring once against
Kalmar FF
Kalmar Fotbollförening, more commonly known as Kalmar FF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Kalmar. The club is affiliated to Smålands Fotbollförbund and play their home games at Guldfågeln Arena. Formed on 15 June 1910, the cl ...
in the qualifiers of the
2012–13 UEFA Europa League
The 2012–13 UEFA Europa League was the 42nd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 4th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
The final was played at the Amsterdam Aren ...
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Ross County
On 13 June 2014, it was announced Boyce had signed a pre-contract with Ross County. On 13 April 2015, Boyce scored County's first ever top-flight hat-trick in a 3–0 win at St Mirren F.C., St Mirren. He then enjoyed a prolific season in 2015–16, scoring 17 goals in 24 games. Boyce signed a new contract with County in February 2016. He was the top goalscorer in the 2016–17 Scottish Premiership, with 23 goals.
Burton Albion
On 20 June 2017, Boyce became a club record signing for EFL Championship side
Burton Albion
Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association football club in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club moved its home grou ...
, agreeing a three-year contract with the club. Just weeks later, in a pre-season friendly match against Shrewsbury Town, Boyce suffered a serious knee injury that would keep him out of action for most of the 2017–18 season. He returned to action on 3 February 2018, scoring as Burton lost 3–2 to Aston Villa. On 21 April, Boyce scored an injury-time winner that relegated Sunderland.
Heart of Midlothian
Boyce signed for Heart of Midlothian in January 2020 on a three-and-a-half year deal. He scored the winning goal in the 83rd minute of his debut against Rangers.
International career
On 31 January 2011, Boyce received his debut call-up in the Northern Ireland national team to appear for the Nations Cup. This call-up came after his move to German club Werder Bremen in September 2010. On 9 February 2011, Boyce made his debut against
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
in which he came on as a 72nd-minute substitute for
Niall McGinn
Niall McGinn (born 20 July 1987) is a Northern Irish professional footballer, who plays for Scottish Championship club Dundee. McGinn has also played for Dungannon Swifts, Derry City, Celtic, Brentford, Aberdeen (two spells) and South Korea ...
. He received his second call-up for Northern Ireland's Group C clash with Serbia in Belgrade on 25 March 2011.
On 2 June 2017, Boyce scored his first goal for Northern Ireland in a 1–0 friendly victory over
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
at
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 renta ...
.
Career statistics
Club
International
:''Scores and results list Northern Ireland's goal tally first.''
Honours
Cliftonville
*
Irish 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 Northe ...
:
2012–13
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
Irish League Cup
The Northern Ireland Football League Cup (BetMcLean League Cup for sponsorship purposes), also known colloquially as the Irish League Cup, is a national football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland open to all member clubs of the Nort ...
:
2012–13
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
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 ...
: 2008–09, 2011–12
Ross County
*
Scottish League Cup
The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...
Scottish Championship
The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish Champio ...
:
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 b ...
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 b ...
2020–21 Scottish Championship
The 2020–21 Scottish Championship was the eighth season of the Scottish Championship, the second tier of Scottish football.
Ten teams contested the league: Alloa Athletic, Arbroath, Ayr United, Dundee, Dunfermline Athletic, Greenock Morton, ...