Derek Anthony Swan (born 24 October 1966) is an Irish former

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 played as a forward. He played for Home Farm, Bohemians,

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in , the third tier of the English football league system. Vale are named after the valley of ports on the Trent and Mersey Canal ...

FC Wageningen FC Wageningen (before 1978 ''Wageningen'' and ''WVV Wageningen'') was a Dutch football club which was founded on 27 August 1911., The club played its matches in the Wageningse Berg stadium. History FC Wageningen spent most of its history in ...

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club is an Irish professional Association football, football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is List of football clubs by competit ...

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club based in East Belfast, Northern Ireland, that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882 and has since won more than 130 major honours. They are one of three Northern Iris ...

and UCD.

Club career

Swan began his career with Home Farm in 1985–86, making his debut against

in November 1985. The following season he secured a switch to Bohemians, where he averaged ten league goals a year in four years with the club. In June 1987 he guested for Shamrock Rovers in a tournament in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. He moved to England with

in May 1990 for a £15,000 fee. Three months later, he went out on a one-month

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

. He never made the first team at

Vale Park Vale Park is a football stadium in the area of Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, and it has been the home ground of Port Vale Football Club since its opening in 1950. It has a current capacity of 15,695, and was renovated durin ...

and was sold on to

for £12,500 in November 1990. He later said that "''I was flying and I was scoring regular goals in the reserves (but

John Rudge John Robert Rudge (born 21 October 1944) is an English former professional football player and manager who is the president of club Port Vale. Rudge began his playing career at Huddersfield Town in November 1961, but made little impact at t ...

didn't seem to notice) so I just decided to come home really''". He scored twice on his Rovers league debut in December 1990. During his three years at the club he scored 25 goals in 75 league appearances and was top club goalscorer in 1991–92 and 1992–93. In December 1994 he returned to "Bohs" for £2,000. He spent the next six years at Dalymount, including scoring at

Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (), commonly known as HJK Helsinki (), or simply as HJK (), is a Finnish Association football, football club based in Helsinki. The club competes in Veikkausliiga, the top division of the Finnish football league system. ...

in a

1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup The 1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup was the first edition of the tournament administered by the UEFA. It saw Strasbourg and Bordeaux win their semi-finals to advance to the first round of the UEFA Cup, the latter eventually finishing runners-up. It also ...

tie. He also netted in a

1996–97 UEFA Cup The 1996–97 UEFA Cup was the 26th season of the UEFA Cup, the third-tier club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). It was won by German side Schalke 04, who beat Internazionale of Italy on pen ...

tie against

FC Dinamo Minsk FC Dinamo Minsk or FK Dynama Minsk (; ) is a Belarusian professional Association football, football club based in the capital city of Minsk. It was founded in 1927 as part of the Soviet Dynamo Sports Club, Dinamo Sports Society, and was the o ...

. In 2000, he signed for

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

, where his goals helped UCD to avoid

relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

as they secured their top-flight status for the following 2001–02 season, with one point to spare.

International career

Swan was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the e ...

at schoolboy, youth, under-21 and under-23 level for the Republic of Ireland. He also played for the

League of Ireland XI The League of Ireland XI, more recently referred to as the Airtricity League XI for sponsorship reasons, is the representative team of the League of Ireland, the national association football league of Ireland. For much of its history, the League ...

against Al-Ahly. He played at the

1985 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1985 FIFA World Youth Championship was the fifth edition FIFA U-20 World Cup, FIFA World Youth Championship, was held in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 24 August to 7 September 1985. The tournament took place in ten venues within eight host citie ...

Personal life

His father played as a goalkeeper for Bohemians and Drogheda and Athlone. His uncle, Maurice Swan, was also a goalkeeper. His cousin, former defender

Tony McDonnell Anthony "Tony" McDonnell (born 10 February 1976, in Dublin) is a retired football player for Irish side, UCD. McDonnell would spend the entirety of his career with UCD, becoming the club's record longest serving player in history. A former S ...

, had a 13-year career with UCD. His son, Ryan, is also a footballer; both father and son have played for Bohemian.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swan, Derek Association footballers from County Dublin Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Republic of Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Republic of Ireland men's under-23 international footballers Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers Men's association football forwards Belvedere F.C. players Home Farm F.C. players Bohemian F.C. players Republic of Ireland expatriate men's association footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Port Vale F.C. players Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands FC Wageningen players Shamrock Rovers F.C. players Dundalk F.C. players Glentoran F.C. players University College Dublin A.F.C. players NIFL Premiership players League of Ireland players League of Ireland XI players 1966 births Living people 20th-century Irish sportsmen