Eoin Toal (born 15 February 1999) is a Northern Irish 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 defender for club

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club ( ) is a professional association football, football club based in Horwich, Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the Englis ...

and the Northern Ireland national team.

Early and personal life

Toal was born in

Armagh Armagh ( ; , , " Macha's height") is a city and the county town of County Armagh, in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Primates of All ...

. One of his uncles, Peter Rafferty, and one of his cousins, Ethan Rafferty, played for Armagh in

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

. Peter later managed Armagh U21 to All-Ireland glory in 2004. Eoin himself played Gaelic football until the age of 14, deciding instead to switch to

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

. Another uncle, Mickey Toal, and another cousin, Thomas Mackle, both played Irish road bowling, with Mickey considered a legend in the sport, whilst Thomas has won the All-Ireland Championship.

Club career

Toal began his career with Armagh City, captaining the youth team and making his first-team debut in 2015 aged 16, making over 50 appearances for the club in all competitions, before moving to Derry City in 2017. He served as club captain for Derry City, making 155 appearances for the club in all competitions. He started and played in the 2019 League of Ireland Cup final, and even converted one of the penalties in the

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

, but it wasn't enough as they lost to

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 ...

. Toal signed for

in July 2022 on a three-year contract. It was reported in 2024 that Bolton paid £50,000 for the defender. Toal picked up an ankle injury towards the end of his time at Derry, choosing to play through the injury as he did not want to miss their matches in the

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual association football, football competition organised since 2021 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European foot ...

against

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

. In doing so, he worsened the injury which caused him to miss Bolton's pre-season, as well as the start of their season. Upon his return from injury, he played for Bolton's B team to build up match fitness. He then stepped up his recovery by playing matches in the

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Motors, Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English association football, football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and ...

. After more matches for the B team, as well as the EFL Trophy, Toal made his Football League debut on 2 December 2022 in a 1–1 draw against

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers FC is a men's professional football club in Bristol. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club is affiliated to Bristol Rovers W.F.C., whose team play in the FA Women's National Leag ...

, with Toal being praised for his performance. Three weeks later he scored his first Bolton goal, scoring the equaliser in a 1–1 draw with Lincoln City. He received praise from his teammates for how well he had played during the start of his Bolton career and was named Bolton Player of the Month for December 2022. On 2 April, he started in the 2023 EFL Trophy final which Bolton won 4–0 against

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. The team currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. The club has played ...

. He was forced off towards the end of the match after a challenge by

Sam Cosgrove Sam Benjamin Cosgrove (born 2 December 1996) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Barnsley. He began his career with Wigan Athletic, and had loan spells in non-league football with Barrow, Chorley, Nantwich T ...

, with Bolton manager

Ian Evatt Ian Ross Evatt (born 19 November 1981) is an English professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of Bolton Wanderers. Evatt began his career as a central midfielder, but was later converted to a central def ...

accusing Cosgrove of injuring him on purpose. A few days later, it was revealed the injury would possibly keep Toal out for the rest of the season. Toal recovered much earlier than expected though, allowing him to return for Bolton's last few games of the season. On 4 March 2024, he signed a new three-year contract with Bolton.

International career

Toal first played international football with the Northern Ireland under-15 team. He later played three times for the under-17 team in 2015, three times for the under-19 team in 2017, and 13 times for the under-21 team between 2019 and 2020. He scored one goal during this time, on 7 October 2017 in a 7–1 defeat against Germany under-19. He captained the under-21 team on multiple occasions. On 7 March 2023, he received his first call-up to the Northern Irish senior national team by manager Michael O'Neill, for the

UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that would join the automatically qualified host team Germany in the UEFA Eur ...

matches against

San Marino San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino, is a landlocked country in Southern Europe, completely surrounded by Italy. Located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains, it is the larger of two European microstates, microsta ...

and

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. His debut came seven months later on 17 October when he started in a 1–0 qualifier defeat against

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Derry City *

League of Ireland Cup The League of Ireland Cup, also referred to in Ireland as the 'League Cup', was an annual knockout competition in men's football in Ireland. It was contested by League of Ireland clubs and invited clubs from the lower levels of the Irish footb ...

runner-up:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Bolton Wanderers *

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toal, Eoin 2000 births Living people Association footballers from County Armagh Men's association football defenders Armagh City F.C. players Derry City F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players League of Ireland players English Football League players Sportspeople from Armagh (city) Northern Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Northern Ireland men's international footballers 21st-century sportsmen from Northern Ireland