Luke Vincent Conlan (born 31 October 1994) 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 le ...

who plays as a defender for

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side Cliftonville.

Club career

Born in Portaferry,

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, Conlan attended St Columba's School in the town and played for junior clubs Grosvenor Youth and Portaferry. He was recruited by Championship side

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

in the summer of 2011, signing a two-year scholarship with the club. He was a key member of the youth side that reached the

2011–12 FA Youth Cup The FA Youth Cup 2011–12 was the 60th edition of the FA Youth Cup. The competition consisted of several rounds and was preceded by a qualifying competition, starting with the preliminary round which was followed by four qualifying rounds for n ...

semi-finals, eventually losing 3–1 to Blackburn Rovers on aggregate. In March 2012, whilst still a first-year apprentice, Conlan signed his first professional contract in a two-year deal. He remained a regular in the youth and reserve sides until he suffered a knee injury, and in April 2014 it was announced by Burnley that he would not be retained at the end of the season when his contract expired. However, he continued to train with the club during pre-season and in September 2014, after recovering from injury, he signed a one-year contract extension with the club. In April 2015, it was announced that Conlan had signed another one-year contract extension until the summer of 2016. In July 2015 he signed for

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland Scotland (, ...

side St Mirren on a season-long loan deal. He made his debut for the club in the 3–1

Scottish Challenge Cup The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup,Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, just south of the border with Scotland. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite hailing fr ...

. Conlan received his first senior

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in the Renfrewshire derby against

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

on 21 August 2015. The match ended 0–0. Conlan returned to Burnley in January 2016, having failed to break into the St Mirren first team. In January 2016, he was sent on a one-month youth loan to

Football League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

side

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea. Name The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), w ...

. In June 2019 he signed a new contract with Morecambe. He scored his first professional goal for Morecambe when he scored in an

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tie against

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Par ...

on 12 November 2019. In September 2020 he signed for

AFC Fylde AFC Fylde is a professional football club based in Wesham in the Borough of Fylde, Lancashire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Mill Farm. Originally known as Kirkham & Wesham following a merger of Kirkham Town and Wes ...

. He was released at the end of the 2023–24 season. On 10 May 2024, it was announced that

2023–24 Irish Cup The 2023–24 Irish Cup (known as the Clearer Water Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the 144th edition of the Irish Cup, the premier knock-out cup competition in Northern Irish football since its inauguration in 1881. The winners qualify fo ...

winners Cliftonville had signed Conlan upon his release from AFC Fylde.

International career

Conlan has been capped at under-16, under-17, under-19 and under-21 level for Northern Ireland.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Conlan, Luke 1994 births Living people People from Portaferry Association footballers from County Down Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Northern Ireland men's youth international footballers Northern Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Burnley F.C. players St Mirren F.C. players Morecambe F.C. players AFC Fylde players Scottish Professional Football League players English Football League players National League (English football) players Men's association football defenders