Rhys Philip Elliot Murphy (born 6 November 1990) is a professional footballer who plays as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

for club Southend United. He has played in the English Football League for

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

Dagenham & Redbridge Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club is a professional association football club based in Dagenham, Greater London, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Often known simply as Dag ...

, Oldham Athletic, Crawley Town,

AFC Wimbledon AFC Wimbledon is an English professional Association football, football club, based in London Borough of Merton, Merton, London, that plays in the EFL League Two, after being relegated from the EFL League One following the 2021–22 EFL Leagu ...

, 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, West Sussex. He broke into the Arsenal reserve team as a schoolboy, while also scoring 17 goals in 21 matches for the Arsenal Academy. He was previously an academy player for Wimbledon 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 s ...

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

2008–09 FA Youth Cup The 2008–09 FA Youth Cup was the 57th FA Youth Cup. A record 474 clubs participated in the competition. The competition started in September 2008 with the preliminary round and concluded with the final on 22 and 26 May 2009. Arsenal knocked out ...

Brentford (loan)

He joined League One club

on loan 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 top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

champions

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

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

on loan until the end of the 2011–12 season. On 22 May 2012, Murphy was released by Arsenal.

Telstar

Murphy joined Eerste Divisie club Telstar 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. In the 67th minute, he was

substituted A substitution reaction (also known as single displacement reaction or single substitution reaction) is a chemical reaction during which one functional group in a chemical compound is replaced by another functional group. Substitution reactions ar ...

for Leandro Resida who scored three minutes after.

Dagenham & Redbridge

He signed for League Two club

on 22 July 2013 on a two-year contract. He scored on his debut in the 3–1 defeat away to

Fleetwood Town Fleetwood Town Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Fleetwood, Lancashire. Established in 1997, the current Fleetwood Town F.C. is the fourth incarnation of the club; it was originally formed ...

on 3 August 2013. He then scored his second goal for Dagenham in a 2–0 home win against York City the following week.

Oldham Athletic

On 2 February 2015, Murphy signed for League One club Oldham Athletic 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 Lee Johnson may refer to: Sportspeople * Lee Johnson (wide receiver) (born 1944), American football wide receiver *Lee Johnson (punter) (born 1961), American football punter *Lee Johnson (basketball) (born 1957), American basketball player * Lee Jo ...

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 Crawley Town on 17 September 2015 on a 93-day loan.

Forest Green Rovers

On 7 July 2016, Murphy signed for National League 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 Maidstone United Football Club is a professional football club based in Maidstone, Kent, England. The team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league system. The current club filled the void left by the ol ...

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 large 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, Stevena ...

, replacing

Enzio Boldewijn Enzio Imaniel Ruel Boldewijn (born 17 November 1992) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a winger for Sutton United. He started his career in his native Netherlands before moving to England in 2016 to join Crawley Town. Club care ...

with 12 minutes remaining.

Torquay United (loan)

On 19 September 2017, Murphy joined National League side Torquay United 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, formerly Conference South, is one of the second divisions of the National League in England, immediately below the top division National League. Along with National League North, it is in the second level of the N ...

club Chelmsford City on 11 July 2018. On 26 December 2018, Murphy scored his first hat-trick 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 National League 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.

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 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 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

England U19 * UEFA European Under-19 Championship runner-up:

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

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 People from Shoreham-by-Sea Footballers from West Sussex English footballers England men's youth international footballers Republic of Ireland 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 English Football League players Eerste Divisie players National League (English football) players English expatriate footballers Republic of Ireland expatriate association footballers Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands English expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Irish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands English people of Irish descent