Declan Joseph McManus (born 3 August 1994) is a Scottish 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 lea ...

, who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for NIFL Premiership club

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, No ...

. McManus has previously played for

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

Fleetwood Town Fleetwood Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Fleetwood, Lancashire, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system. Established in 1997, the current Flee ...

Greenock Morton Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the . The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Greenock Morton in 1994 to celebr ...

Alloa Athletic Alloa Athletic Football Club is a Scottish association football semi-professional club based in the town of Alloa, Clackmannanshire. They compete in as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. According to the official club hist ...

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. The club has won f ...

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently compete in the after winning the 2022–23 Scottish League One title. Dunfermline play at ...

, Ross County,

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a 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 resident population of 32,422 at the ...

and

The New Saints The New Saints of Oswestry Town & Llansantffraid Football Club, commonly known as The New Saints () or TNS FC, are an English professional football club that play in the , but are based completely within England, in Oswestry, Shropshire. They a ...

Career

Aberdeen

McManus made his debut for Aberdeen's first team on 28 April 2012, coming on as a substitute in a 3–0 defeat to

. In the new season, McManus goalscoring form in the U20 league caught the eye of

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

and

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland and currently plays in the . Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not ...

, who were keen to sign him on loan. In November 2012, McManus signed a new contract with the club that will keep him until 2015. On 31 July 2013 McManus joined

on a six-month loan deal. McManus made his first ever senior start in Alloa Athletic's 2–0 win in the League Cup First Round fixture against

Peterhead Peterhead (; , ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is the council area's largest settlement, with a population of 19,060 at the 2022 Census for Scotland, 2022 Census. It is the largest fishing port in the United Kingdom for total landi ...

. On 14 December 2013, McManus scored his first senior goal in Alloa's 2–0 win against

. McManus moved on loan to

Scottish League One The Scottish League One, known as William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill League One for sponsorship reasons, is the third tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional association football, foot ...

club

on 8 August 2014. He scored his first ever senior hat-trick in a 5–2 cup victory over

Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed in England, who play in the Scottish football system. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite being ba ...

in August 2014, and left the club at the end of his loan spell having scored 12 goals in 21 starts. On 2 February 2015, McManus joined Greenock Morton for a second loan spell, signing until the end of the 2014–15 season. McManus was nominated for the SPFA League One player of the year for 2014–15, as well as being included in the League One Team of the Year with teammate

Mark Russell Marcus Joseph Ruslander (August 23, 1932 – March 30, 2023), better known as Mark Russell, was an American political satirist and comedian. He is best known for his series of bimonthly comedy specials on PBS television between 1975 and 2004. H ...

. He won the Player of the Year award.

Fleetwood Town

On 15 May 2015, McManus signed a pre-contract agreement with

. On 31 December 2015, McManus returned for his third loan spell with Morton. In July 2016, McManus returned to Scotland, joining

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional association footb ...

side

on loan. In May 2017 he left Fleetwood at the end of his contract

Dunfermline Athletic

McManus returned north to Scotland in June 2017, signing for

side

on a one-year deal.

Ross County

McManus signed for Ross County in June 2018 and was loaned to

on 16 July 2019. McManus was released by County in May 2020, following the end of his contract.

Dunfermline return

Following his release from County, McManus re-signed for

on 10 July 2020, joining the club on a two-year deal.

The New Saints

After one season with Dunfermline, McManus moved to

Cymru Premier The Cymru Premier, known as the JD Cymru Premier for sponsorship reasons, is the national football league of Wales. It has both professional and semi-professional status clubs and is at the top of the Welsh football league system. It was found ...

club

on 14 June 2021, for a fee of £60,000. McManus scored a second half penalty to secure the Welsh sides first ever win a competitive European match, defeating

FC Astana Astana Football Club () is a professional Association football, football club based in Astana. They play in the Kazakhstan Premier League, the highest level of Football in Kazakhstan, Kazakh football. The club's home ground is the 30,000-seat As ...

2-0.

Coleraine

On 31 January 2025 he joined

. He scored his first goal for the club on 8 March as the club defeated Glenavon in a league game.

International career

Having represented

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

in U18 and U19 Levels, McManus was called up for the U21 squad in 2014.

Career statistics

Honours

Greenock Morton *

: 2014–15 Ross County *

: 2018–19 *

Scottish Challenge Cup The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup,2018–19 The New Saints *

: 2021–22,

2022-23 The symbol , known in Unicode as hyphen-minus, is the form of hyphen most commonly used in digital documents. On most keyboards, it is the only character that resembles a minus sign or a dash, so it is also used for these. The name ''hyphen-min ...

Individual *PFA Scotland League One Player of the Year: 2014–2015 * PFA Scotland League One Team of the Year: 2014–2015 *

Greenock Telegraph The ''Greenock Telegraph'' is a local daily newspaper serving Inverclyde (the council area containing the towns of Gourock, Greenock and Port Glasgow), Scotland. Founded in 1857, it was the first halfpenny daily newspaper in Britain. It w ...

Player of the Year: 2014–15 * SPFL Championship Player of the Month: February 2016

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McManus, Declan 1994 births Living people Men's association football forwards Scottish men's footballers Aberdeen F.C. players Scottish Premier League players Alloa Athletic F.C. players Greenock Morton F.C. players Raith Rovers F.C. players Fleetwood Town F.C. players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Ross County F.C. players Falkirk F.C. players The New Saints F.C. players Scottish Professional Football League players Scotland men's youth international footballers Footballers from Glasgow Scotland men's under-21 international footballers English Football League players Cymru Premier players 21st-century Scottish sportsmen Coleraine F.C. players