Mikhail Caolan Patrick Kennedy (born 18 August 1996) 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

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) ** Smal ...

for

NIFL Championship The Northern Ireland Football League Championship (known as the Playr-Fit Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the second level of the Northern Ireland Football League, the national football league in Northern Ireland. Clubs in the Championsh ...

side

Institute An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

. He also represented his country up to under-21 level. He played four professional matches for

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

club

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Charlton, south-east London, England. The team compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Their home ground is ...

, scoring once on his debut. He was loaned to several non-league and Irish teams before retiring from professional football at age 23 due to injury in 2020.

Club career

Born in

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

, Kennedy was in

's under-18 team, and then their under-21 side for the 2014–15 season, under the management of

Jason Euell Jason Joseph Euell (born 6 February 1977) is a former professional association football, footballer who played as either a Forward (association football), forward or a midfielder. He spent much of his career playing in the Premier League, with ...

. On 10 December 2014, he signed a professional contract until the summer of 2015. Later that month, he was loaned to nearby

VCD Athletic VCD Athletic Football Club (short for Vickers, Crayford & Dartford Athletic Football Club) is a semi-professional football club based in Crayford in south-east London, England. The club was founded in 1916, during the First World War, as a compa ...

of the

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional Association football, football league covering Greater London, East of England, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, th ...

, where he scored within three minutes of his debut in a 1–1 draw at

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient Manorialism, manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has ...

on the 13th. On 16 January 2015, he returned to VCD on a month-long loan. Kennedy was first included in a Charlton matchday squad on 16 August 2015, remaining an unused substitute in their 2–1

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

win over

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. They play their home ...

at The Valley. Nine days later, he made his debut in the second round of the League Cup, opening a 4–1 win away to

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third level of the English football league system. Peterborough United formed in ...

with a third-minute goal. On 19 September, Kennedy made his first appearance in

The Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

, playing the first 61 minutes of a 3–0 loss at

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

before being replaced by

Igor Vetokele Igor Mavuba Vetokele (born 23 March 1992) is a former professional footballer who played as a forward. Born in Belgium, he also represented the Angola national team. Club career Cercle Brugge Vetokele started his youth career at Oostende in 200 ...

. In December 2015, he extended his contract by two and a half years. On 15 February 2017, Kennedy was loaned to hometown team Derry City of the

League of Ireland The League of Ireland is a national association football Sports league, league consisting of professional clubs in the Republic of Ireland and Derry, Derry City in Northern Ireland. It is governed by the Football Association of Ireland. It was ...

until June. He did not score during his time at the

Brandywell Stadium The Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium () is a municipal football stadium in Derry, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of League of Ireland team Derry City F.C., (temporarily) NIFL Championship team Institute, and also to NIWFA Championship ...

, with manager

Kenny Shiels Kenneth Shiels (born 27 April 1956)Marshall Gillespie, ''The Northern Ireland Football Yearbook 1996/97'', UTV Books, 1996, p. 59 is a Northern Irish football manager and former player who last managed NIFL Premier Intermediate side Moyola Park ...

preferring to play Nathan Boyle as a lone striker. He signed a new six-month contract with Charlton at the end of the 2017–18 season. On 26 December 2018, Chelmsford City announced the signing of Kennedy on a one-month loan deal. He played seven games for the

National League South The National League South, officially Vanarama National League South, is a professional Association football league in England. National League South is the second division of the National League (English football), National Leagues and step ...

club and scored in his last, a 3–1 win at

Dulwich Hamlet Dulwich Hamlet Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in East Dulwich in south-east London, England. They are currently members of and play at Champion Hill. History The club was formed in 1893, by Lorraine 'Pa' Wilson. The ...

on 26 January 2019. On 28 March 2019, Kennedy joined Concord Rangers on loan for a month, again in the National League South. He was released by Charlton in May, and in July he trialled at

in his hometown. In May 2020, over a year after last playing, Kennedy stated that - following medical advice - he would be retiring from professional football at the age of just 23. However, in August 2021, Kennedy signed for semi-professional

team Dergview. In May 2023, it was announced that Kennedy would join

NIFL Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Sports Direct Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and Irish Premiership colloquially, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northern Ireland Football L ...

side

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

Institute

He signed for

club

on 4 January 2024. Kennedy scored on his debut for the club in a 2-1 league win over league leaders Dundela.

International career

Kennedy played for Northern Ireland's under-17 team in

2013 UEFA European Under-17 Championship The 2013 UEFA European Under-17 Championship was the twelfth edition of UEFA's European Under-17 Football Championship since the re-organising of age group competitions in 2002. Slovakia were hosts of the tournament with games taking place at four ...

qualification, scoring in two

elite round In political and sociological theory, the elite (, from , to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful or wealthy people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the ...

games as they finished last in their group. On 21 March 2013, two minutes after replacing Ross Lavery, he scored as Northern Ireland came from behind to draw 2–2 with the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Uden Uden () is a town and former municipality in the province of North Brabant, in the Netherlands. Since 2022 it has been part of the new municipality of Maashorst. History Uden was first recorded around 1190 as "Uthen". However, earlier settle ...

. Two days later, he equalised in a 2–1 loss to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. On 5 September 2015, Kennedy scored in the seventh minute of a 2017 European Championship qualifier for Northern Ireland under-21, albeit in a 1–2 loss to

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Mikhail 1996 births Association footballers from Derry (city) Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Men's association football forwards Charlton Athletic F.C. players VCD Athletic F.C. players Isthmian League players English Football League players League of Ireland players Northern Ireland men's youth international footballers Northern Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Derry City F.C. players Chelmsford City F.C. players Concord Rangers F.C. players Dergview F.C. players Living people Crusaders F.C. players NIFL Premiership players NIFL Championship players Institute F.C. players 21st-century sportsmen from Northern Ireland