Colin Healy (born 14 March 1980) is a former midfield footballer from Ireland. He has been manager of Cork City F.C. since late 2020. He started his senior career at

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

, spending five years with the Scottish club before joining English side

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 ...

in 2003, where he spent three years. He returned to Scotland in 2006 to sign for

Livingston Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American custom ...

. After a short spell with Livingston he returned to England to join

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

. After leaving Barnsley in 2007, he joined Irish side Cork City, where he spent two years before joining English side Ipswich Town. He spent two years with Ipswich before returning to the Republic of Ireland to sign for former club Cork City. Healy represented the Republic of Ireland at youth and senior level. He made his senior debut for his country in 2002, going on to win 13 caps, scoring once.

Club career

Early career

Healy was born in Ballincollig, County Cork. He came from a sporting family, with his grandfather

Paddy Healy Paddy Healy (21 July 1922 – 26 April 1983) was an Irish hurler and Gaelic footballer. His league and championship career with the Cork senior teams as a dual player lasted ten years from 1943 until 1953. Born in Ballincollig, Healy began h ...

having been a

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 kic ...

er and hurler who won All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and

All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship The GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship, known simply as the All-Ireland Championship, is an annual inter-county hurling competition organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). It is the highest inter-county hurling competition i ...

medals with the Cork inter-county football and hurling teams respectively in 1945 and 1946. Healy played local soccer with Ballincollig and then Wilton United. He attended the FAS/ FAI course in Cork run by former

and Cork City midfielder Mike Conroy and from here he was taken to Celtic Park. He would go on to score three goals for Celtic, his first coming in a league game against Dundee in February 2000. His other two goals came in Scottish League Cup ties against Hearts and Stirling Albion. With Celtic he won a Scottish League Cup medal, playing in the team that beat Kilmarnock 3–0 at Hampden on 18 March 2001.

Sunderland

signed Healy from Celtic in 2003. In December 2003 he broke his leg in a match against a former loan club, Coventry City after a challenge by Moroccan international

Youssef Safri Youssef Joshua Safri ( ar, يوسف سفري, born 3 January 1977) is a Moroccan retired footballer who currently is coach for Qatar SC. Club career Safri started his youth career at Rachad Bernoussi. The following year, he was promoted to the s ...

. In October 2004, he broke his leg again soon after resuming training with Sunderland, after a tackle from then manager Mick McCarthy. In January 2006, it was announced that Healy's contract with Sunderland had expired, and the midfielder left the club.

Livingston and Barnsley

Healy joined SPL club

on 10 March 2006 until the end of the season. On 10 August 2006 Healy signed a one-year contract with

. Having made only 10 appearances for Barnsley, he had his contract cancelled by mutual consent.

Cork City and FIFA case

On 20 February 2007 he signed a two-year contract with hometown League of Ireland club Cork City, alongside former international colleague Gareth Farrelly. FIFA ruled both players to be unable to play for the club, citing a rule forbidding players from transferring between clubs more than twice in a 12-month period between July and June.

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

rejected appeals made by both players. On 1 July 2007 both Healy and Gareth Farrelly became eligible to play for Cork City. On this date, they both played for the club's under-21 team against Lifford of Ennis, Co Clare, winning the game 2–0. Healy made his full Cork City debut against

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when they were beaten in extra time in the Eircom League Cup Quarter Final held at Dalymount Park on 3 July 2007. Healy signed a two-year contract for Cork in 2009. In April 2009, Healy scored his first goal for Cork at Tallaght Stadium.

Ipswich Town

On 16 July 2009, it was confirmed that Cork City had accepted a £100,000 bid from Hartlepool United to take Healy and fellow Cork City teammate

Denis Behan Denis Behan (born 2 January 1984) is an Irish football coach and former player who played as a forward. He spent many years playing for League of Ireland clubs Cork City and Limerick, as well as in the English Football League for Hartlepool Uni ...

to Victoria Park, Hartlepool. However, five days later, Hartlepool United manager Chris Turner confirmed that the deal had not happened due to late interest from Ipswich Town. Healy subsequently signed for Ipswich for an undisclosed fee. In January 2010, he signed on-loan with

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

club

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a ...

. At Falkirk he scored once against Aberdeen. Returning to Ipswich from the on-loan spell in Scotland, during the League Cup Semi-Final 2011 first leg win by Ipswich Town over Arsenal, it was commented that "Colin Healy made Cesc Fabregas look like Colin Healy". In February 2011 Healy scored his first goal for Ipswich against Doncaster Rovers. His contract was terminated by mutual consent in November 2011.

Return to Cork City

In 2013, Healy returned to Cork City on a three-year deal. His most memorable moment came against

St Patrick's Athletic St Patrick's Athletic Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Lúthchleas Phádraig Naofa) is a professional Irish association football club based in Inchicore, Dublin, that plays in the Irish Premier Division. Founded in May 1929, they played origin ...

in 2014 when he scored a late over head kick against a fellow title rival. He and Cork finished runners up behind Dundalk for three years in a row and Healy lost the 2015

FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Extra.ie FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as Derry ...

to Dundalk before finally winning a trophy in March 2016 in the Presidents Cup and the 2016 FAI Cup final where he came off the bench. He retired from playing in April 2017. After retirement from playing he was Cork City's "head of academy" for a number of seasons before being appointed "first team head coach" in December 2020.

International career

Healy played and scored a goal against Australia at the FIFA World Youth Championship finals in Nigeria in 1999. He represented his country at the UEFA U-19 Championship in Sweden in 1999, and won a bronze medal. During the Saipan incident between Mick McCarthy and fellow Cork man

Roy Keane Roy Maurice Keane (born 10 August 1971) is an Irish football pundit, coach and former professional player. He is the joint most successful Irish footballer of all time, having won 19 major trophies in his club career, 17 of which came during ...

at the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

, Healy was called upon by McCarthy as the replacement should Keane be dropped from the squad. A succession of changes-of-heart by the

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

player led to the call-up being delayed and the deadline passing, with Healy unable to join the World Cup squad.

Career statistics

Club

:Source:

International

:Source:

International goals

:Source: ''Republic of Ireland score listed first, score column indicates score after each Healy goal.''

Honours

;Celtic *

: 2000–01 * Scottish League Cup: 2000–01 ;Cork City *

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

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Setanta Sports Cup The Setanta Sports Cup was a club football competition featuring teams from both football associations on the island of Ireland. Inaugurated in 2005, it was a cross-border competition between clubs in the League of Ireland from the Republic of ...

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FAI President's Cup The President of Ireland's Cup, also known simply as the President's Cup, is an association football super cup featuring clubs from the Republic of Ireland football league system. It is a one-off match between the winners of the previous season' ...

;Individual * PFAI Team of the Year: 2014 Premier Division * League of Ireland Player of the Year:

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Healy, Colin 1980 births Living people Association footballers from Cork (city) Republic of Ireland association footballers Republic of Ireland youth international footballers Republic of Ireland international footballers Association football midfielders Celtic F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Livingston F.C. players Barnsley F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players Cork City F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players Falkirk F.C. players Scottish Premier League players English Football League players League of Ireland players