John Coady (born 25 August 1960 in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

) is an Irish former footballer who played at both the left back position and in left midfield.

Early years

He attended

Synge Street CBS Synge Street CBS (colloquially Synger) is a boys' non-fee-paying state school, under the auspices of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust, located in the Dublin 8 area of Dublin, Ireland. The school was founded in 1864 by Cano ...

,Hoops Heroes: John Coady
where he played on the school's first successful soccer team, winning the Leinster Junior School's Cup in 1977. He played club football at Leicester Celtic AFC He also played

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 ki ...

both at school and for Synge Street PPGFC.

Professional career

John is a lifelong

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 ...

supporter and so his dream came true when he made his

League of Ireland The League of Ireland ( ga, Sraith na hÉireann), together with the Football Association of Ireland, is one of the two main governing bodies responsible for organising association football in the Republic of Ireland. The term was originally use ...

debut on 31 October 1982 away to

University College Dublin A.F.C. University College Dublin Association Football Club ( ga, Cumann Sacar Choláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath), known commonly as UCD, is the football team of University College Dublin. They play in the League of Ireland Premier Division. F ...

scoring twice in a 2-2 draw. After winning 3 Leagues and the

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 ...

twice he signed for

Chelsea F.C. Chelsea Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, West London. Founded in 1905, they play their home games at Stamford Bridge. The club competes in the Premier League, the top division of English football. ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

for £25,000 in December 1986. He made his debut at the age of 26 on 18 April 1987 and scoring the only Chelsea goal in a 1-1 draw away to

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus ...

. He made 9 league appearances (plus 7 more as a substitute) with Chelsea, scoring in two of them. Coady transferred to

Derry City F.C. Derry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Derry, Northern Ireland. It plays in the League of Ireland Premier Division, the top tier of league football in the Republic of Ireland, and is the League of Irelan ...

in October 1988 for £15,000 where he won the domestic treble. Following another stint at Shamrock Rovers in the 1992/93 season where he scored once in 23 total appearances he moved on to play for

Monaghan United Monaghan United F.C. ( ga, Cumann Peile Mhuineacháin Aontaithe) is an Irish association football club based in Monaghan currently playing in the Ulster Senior League. The club joined the League of Ireland in 1983 and subsequently went on to pl ...

(two spells),

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 ...

and Home Farm Everton before finishing his career at

Drogheda United Drogheda United Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Dhroichead Átha Aontaithe) is a semi-professional Irish association football club based in Drogheda, County Louth playing in the League of Ireland Premier Division. They play their home matches ...

where he scored on his debu

He played in the 1995-96 UEFA Cup for Dundalk. He represented 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 ...

twice and scored once in the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

in 7 European appearances for Rovers.The Shamrock Rovers website
He also won one cap for Ireland in the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

qualifiers. Other honours included captaining the League of Ireland in victories over

IFK Göteborg Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or simply Göteborg, is a Swedish professional Football team, football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in ...

and the

League of Wales 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. Prior to ...

. But perhaps the pinnacle of his career was when in 1989, he was named on Frank Burke's Synge Street best all time X1. He stated after making the team that his goalscoring debut for Chelsea paled into insignificance in comparison to this accolade.

Honours

: 6 **

1983/84, 1984/85, 1985/86, 1986/87 ** Derry City 1989/90 ** Dundalk F.C. 1994/95 *

: 3 **

1985, 1986 ** Derry City 1989 *

League of Ireland Cup The League of Ireland Cup ( ga, Corn Sraithe na hÉireann), also referred to in Ireland as the 'League Cup', is an annual knockout competition in men's football in the Republic of Ireland. It is contested by League of Ireland clubs and invite ...

** Derry City - 1989 * LFA President's Cup: **

1984/85

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coady, John 1960 births Living people Republic of Ireland association footballers Association football defenders Shamrock Rovers F.C. players Derry City F.C. players Dundalk F.C. players Drogheda United F.C. players League of Ireland players Chelsea F.C. players English Football League players People educated at Synge Street CBS League of Ireland XI players Leicester Celtic A.F.C. players Monaghan United F.C. players