Rhys Philip Elliot Murphy (born 6 November 1990) is a 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 striker for club Dorking Wanderers. He has played in the

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 ...

for

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

, Preston North End, Dagenham & Redbridge,

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional association football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. As of the 2025–26 EFL League Two, 2025–26 season, the team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the Eng ...

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1896 as Crawley Foo ...

AFC Wimbledon AFC Wimbledon is an English professional association football club based in Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton, London. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in ...

, Forest Green Rovers and Gillingham. Murphy represented his native England at under-16, under-17 and under-19 international levels, but switched allegiance to the Republic of Ireland in 2011 and played for their under-21 team.

Club career

Youth and Arsenal

Murphy was born in

Shoreham-by-Sea Shoreham-by-Sea (often shortened to Shoreham) is a coastal town and port in the Adur District, Adur district, in the county of West Sussex, England. In 2011 it had a population of 20,547. The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to ...

, West Sussex. He broke into the Arsenal reserve team as a schoolboy, while also scoring 17 goals in 21 matches for the

Arsenal Academy The Arsenal Academy was a military academy in Columbia, South Carolina, originally established in 1842 as an independent school by the state of South Carolina. In 1845, the academy became a component of the South Carolina Military Academy (now ...

. He was previously an academy player for

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

before joining Arsenal Academy. He signed his first professional contract in July 2008. He won the

2008–09 Premier Academy League The 2008–09 Premier Academy League Under–18 season was the twelfth edition since the establishment of The Premier Academy League, and the fifth under the current make-up. The first matches of the season were played on 23 August 2008, and the ...

with the Arsenal under-18 team, scoring the only goal in the play-off final versus

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

, and the 2008–09 FA Youth Cup.

Brentford (loan)

He joined League One club

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

for three months on 24 November 2009. In August 2011, Murphy had a trial with

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

champions Rangers and played for their reserve team. In January 2012, he had a trial with Hibernian, another SPL club.

Preston North End (loan)

He signed for League One club Preston North End on loan until the end of the 2011–12 season. On 22 May 2012, Murphy was released by Arsenal.

Telstar

Murphy joined

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship reasons, while ...

club

Telstar Telstar refers to a series of communications satellites. The first two, Telstar 1 and Telstar 2, were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched atop of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962, successfully relayed the first televisi ...

on 9 June 2012, signing a one-year contract with an option for a second. He made his debut on 10 August 2012 in a 2–1 home defeat to

Helmond Sport Helmond Sport () is a Dutch professional football club based in Helmond, North Brabant. Founded in 1967 following the acquisition of the professional license of , the club achieved promotion to the top-tier Eredivisie in 1982. After two seasons ...

. In the 67th minute, he was substituted for Leandro Resida who scored three minutes after.

Dagenham & Redbridge

He signed for League Two club Dagenham & Redbridge on 22 July 2013 on a two-year contract. He scored on his debut in the 3–1 defeat away to Fleetwood Town on 3 August 2013. He then scored his second goal for Dagenham in a 2–0 home win against

York City York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system, as of the 2024–25 seas ...

the following week.

Oldham Athletic

On 2 February 2015, Murphy signed for League One club

on a two-and-a-half-year contract for an undisclosed fee believed to be in the region of £20,000, to accelerate a pre-contract agreement set to activate in the 2015 summer transfer window. Manager Lee Johnson said of the arrival, "I'm really pleased to bring Rhys to the club and he is an exciting prospect for us, I'm looking forward to working with him and he will fit into our style of play seamlessly".

Crawley Town (loan)

He joined League Two club

on 17 September 2015 on a 93-day loan.

Forest Green Rovers

On 7 July 2016, Murphy signed for

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

club Forest Green Rovers for a nominal fee. His first goal for Forest Green came on 20 August 2016 in a 2–1 home win over York. He followed his first goal up by scoring twice in a 4–1 away victory over Maidstone United a week later on 27 August 2016.

York City (loan)

On 1 December 2016, Murphy joined Forest Green's divisional rivals York City on loan until 7 January 2017.

Crawley Town return (loan)

On 31 January 2017, Murphy returned to League Two club Crawley Town on loan for the remainder of 2016–17. Five days later, Murphy made his Crawley return in a 2–1 home defeat against

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevenage w ...

, replacing Enzio Boldewijn with 12 minutes remaining.

Torquay United (loan)

On 19 September 2017, Murphy joined National League side

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the National League South, the sixth level of the English football league system. They have played their ho ...

on a three-month loan deal. He had his contract with Forest Green cancelled by mutual consent on 9 January 2018.

Gillingham

Murphy signed for League One club Gillingham on 31 January 2018 on a short-term contract.

Chelmsford City

Murphy signed for

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 Chelmsford City on 11 July 2018. On 26 December 2018, Murphy scored his first

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

for the club in a 5–1 win against rivals Billericay Town. Murphy was released by Chelmsford at the end of the 2018–19 season, having been the club's top scorer with 28 goals in all competitions.

Yeovil Town

Murphy signed for newly relegated

club Yeovil Town on 26 June 2019 on a two-year contract.

Southend United

On 10 June 2021, after weeks of speculation, Murphy agreed a two-year deal to join recently relegated National League side Southend United, officially joining the club on 1 July 2021 upon the expiration of his Yeovil contract.

Yeovil Town

In June 2023, Yeovil Town announced that Murphy was rejoining the club following the expiry of his contract at Southend United on 1 July 2023.

Dorking Wanderers

In May 2024, Dorking Wanderers announced that Murphy would be joining the club following the expiry of his contract at Yeovil Town, after he rejected the offer of a new contract. On 14 May 2025, it was announced that Murphy would leave the club at the end of his contract in June.

International career

England

Murphy has played for the England under-16 and under-17 teams and was part of under-19 squad that reached the final of

2009 UEFA European Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship 2009 Final Tournament was held in Ukraine in the cities of Donetsk and Mariupol. Players born after 1 January 1990 were eligible to participate in this competition. Qualification Qualification for the final ...

Republic of Ireland

Before playing for England, Murphy represented the Republic of Ireland at under-15 level and after an approach from Irish under-21 Head Coach Noel King, he switched his allegiance back to the country of his grandfather. He was called up to the under-21 squad in August 2011, and made his debut on 1 September 2011 against

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

at the Showgrounds, scoring the winner in a 2–1 victory.

Career statistics

Honours

Arsenal * Premier Academy League: 2008–09 *

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

: 2008–09 AFC Wimbledon * Football League Two play-offs:

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Yeovil Town *

: 2023–24 England U19 *

UEFA European Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply the Euro Under-19, is an annual football competition, contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Spain is the most successful team in this competit ...

runner-up:

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Individual * Chelmsford City Player of the Year: 2018–19 *Chelmsford City Players' Player of the Year: 2018–19 *Chelmsford City Away Player of the Year: 2018–19

References

External links

Profile
at the Yeovil Town F.C. website
Profile
at the Football Association of Ireland website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Rhys 1990 births Living people Footballers from Shoreham-by-Sea English men's footballers England men's youth international footballers Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers Republic of Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football forwards Wimbledon F.C. players Arsenal F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players SC Telstar players Dagenham & Redbridge F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Crawley Town F.C. players AFC Wimbledon players Forest Green Rovers F.C. players York City F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Chelmsford City F.C. players Yeovil Town F.C. players Southend United F.C. players Dorking Wanderers F.C. players English Football League players Eerste Divisie players National League (English football) players English expatriate men's footballers Republic of Ireland expatriate men's association footballers Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands English expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Irish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands English people of Irish descent 21st-century English sportsmen 21st-century Irish sportsmen