Anton Rogan (born 25 March 1966) is a former 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 ...

. His playing career included spells at

Lisburn Distillery Lisburn Distillery Football Club is a Northern Irish intermediate football club who are based in Ballyskeagh, County Down. A founder member of the Irish League, they currently play in the NIFL Premier Intermediate League, the third tier of the ...

, Celtic,

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and ...

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, ea ...

and

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 ...

. Rogan also played 18 times for the

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 ...

national team between 1987 and 1996.

Career

Rogan was born in Lenadoon, west

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingd ...

, Northern Ireland. In his youth he had played junior football for St Oliver Plunkett FC and

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by ki ...

for St Paul's. He began his professional career playing for

Distillery Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heat ...

before achieving his boyhood dream of signing for Celtic in 1986. Rogan made his first-team debut on 3 January 1987 due to

Roy Aitken Robert Sime "Roy" Aitken (born 24 November 1958) is a Scottish former football player and manager. He made over 480 league appearances for Celtic, and later played for Newcastle United, St Mirren and Aberdeen. Aitken also made 57 international ...

and

Paul McGugan Paul Joseph McGugan (born 17 July 1964) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a central defender for Celtic, Barnsley and Chesterfield. Career McGugan signed for Celtic from Eastercraigs Amateurs in April 1980. He made his ...

being suspended and

Pierce O'Leary Pierce O'Leary (born 5 November 1959) is an Irish former professional footballer. Pierce is the brother of former Arsenal star and fellow Irish international David O'Leary. Playing career Born in Dublin, O'Leary signed for Shamrock Rovers ...

being injured. It proved to be a successful start for Rogan as Celtic thrashed Hamilton Accies 8-3. He usually played at left full back or occasionally as a left-side centre half. In 1988, he was part of Celtic's Centenary side that won the League and Cup Double. He transferred to

in 1991 for two years. He played for Sunderland in the

1992 FA Cup Final The 1992 FA Cup Final was contested by Liverpool and Sunderland at Wembley. Liverpool won 2–0, with goals from Michael Thomas and Ian Rush. Summary This was the first FA Cup Final to feature a Second Division team since Queens Park Rangers r ...

defeat to Liverpool. The following season, he moved to

- again for two years. In 1997, he transferred to

and left them for

in 1999. The latter part of his career was hampered by hamstring injuries and it was discovered that two broken leg injuries early in his career (initially suffered as a teenager before heading to Celtic) were the root cause of these setbacks. Anton Rogan's most famous goal was the opener in the 3-0 demolition of city rivals Rangers in 1991, having been a part of the team the previous week that dumped Rangers out of the Scottish Cup. Another of his goals achieved renown for the wrong reasons, when he opened the scoring in the December 1988 World Cup qualifying match in Spain. Rogan's was an own goal, contributing to the hosts' 4-0 victory over Northern Ireland.

Post-career

He now lives in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

, with his wife and two sons Liam and Conal, has retired from football. He did, however, make an appearance in central defence for Abingdon Town on 19 July 2008 in Luke Beauchamp's testimonial alongside Ian 'Gudge' Smith against Oxford United. Anton has appeared in numerous testimonials and currently runs a taxi and tour company, Townhouse Executive Travel, with his wife in Woodstock Oxfordshire www.townhousewoodstock.co.uk

References

External links

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Anton Rogan
at Northern Ireland football biographies {{DEFAULTSORT:Rogan, Anton 1966 births Living people Association footballers from Belfast Association footballers from Northern Ireland Men's association football defenders Lisburn Distillery F.C. players Celtic F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Millwall F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players Scottish Football League players English Football League players Northern Ireland men's international footballers FA Cup final players