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 ...

who played 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) ** Sm ...

. He played for Home Farm,

Bohemians Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Beer * National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst * Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origi ...

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley of ...

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. Its first success came on 18 June 1939, when the team w ...

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí na Seamróige) is an Irish association football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most su ...

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ga, Dún Dealgan ), meaning "the fort of Dealgan", is the county town (the administrative centre) of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is hal ...

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882. History Early history In 1914, Glentoran won the Vienna Cup, becoming the first United Kingdom team to win a European t ...

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

, 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, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. 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 lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that ...

. He never made the first team at

Vale Park Vale Park is a football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, England. It has been the home ground of Port Vale F.C. since 1950. The ground has seen its capacity go up and down, its peak being 42,000 in 1954 against Blackpool, although a club record 49, ...

and was sold on to

for £12,500 in November 1990. 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 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...

. In December 1994 he returned to "Bohs" for £2,000 and 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 professional football club based in Helsinki, Finland. The club competes in the Finnish Veikkausliiga. Founded in 1907, the club has spent most of its history ...

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 UEFA Cup, the latter eventually finishing runners-up. It also saw English repres ...

tie. He also netted in a 1996–97 UEFA Cup tie against

FC Dinamo Minsk FC Dinamo Minsk ( be, ФК Дынама Мінск, ''FK Dynama Minsk''; russian: link=no, ФК Динамо Минск) is a professional football club based in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk. It was founded in 1927 as part of the Sov ...

. In 2000, he signed for

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

, where his goals helped UCD to avoid

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open league ...

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 ea ...

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 the Republic of Ireland. For much of it ...

against Al-Ahly. He played at the

1985 FIFA World Youth Championship The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

Personal life

His father playeda s a goalkeeper for Bohemians, as well as 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 spent the entirety of his career with UCD, becoming the clubs 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 English Football League players League of Ireland XI players 1966 births Living people