Ryan James McGowan (born 15 August 1989) is an Australian

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 defender for club Livingston. He has previously played for Para Hills Knights, Heart of Midlothian,

Shandong Luneng Taishan Shandong Taishan Football Club () is a Chinese professional Association football, football club based in Jinan, Shandong, that competes in . Shandong Taishan plays its home matches at the Jinan Olympic Sports Center Stadium, located within Lix ...

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

Henan Jianye Henan Football Club (), currently known as Henan F.C. Jiuzu Dukang () for sponsorship reasons, is a Chinese professional football club based in Zhengzhou, Henan, that competes in . Henan plays their home matches at the Hanghai Stadium, located wi ...

, Guizhou Zhicheng, Al-Sharjah,

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The club competes in , the third tier of English football, and is managed by Graham Alexander. The club was founded in 1903 and ...

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club, commonly known as Sydney FC, is a professional association football, soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. They compete in the top-tier men's league in Australia, the A-League Men. Established in 2004, ...

Kuwait SC Kuwait Sports Club () is a Kuwaiti professional football club based in Kuwait City. Their football team has won Kuwait Premier League 19 times and has won over 50 trophies overall. The club plays in the Al Kuwait Sports Club Stadium located i ...

and

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland. The team competes in the , the second division of Scottish football. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun (or Saint Johnstoun)—an old name o ...

, with loan spells at

Ayr United Ayr United Football Club are a football club in Ayr, Scotland, who play in the , the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League. Formed in 1910 by the merger of Ayr Parkhouse and Ayr F.C., their nickname is The Honest Men, fro ...

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland and currently plays in the . Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not ...

and

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

. McGowan has represented Australia at under-17, under-20, under-23 and at

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

levels. McGowan has been officially designated as Socceroo #546 (2012).

Club career

Heart of Midlothian

McGowan began his career at Para Hills Knights and was part of the

South Australian Sports Institute Sport plays an important role in the business, community, social and cultural life in the state of South Australia. Sport as entertainment plays an important role with South Australia, in 2007 having the second highest rate of event attendance ...

, before moving to

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 ...

club Hearts in 2006 and was promoted to the first-team in 2008. He was the captain of Hearts' under 19 squad before making his SPL debut as substitute on 13 May that year in the final league match of the 2007–08 season against Gretna. Shortly after he signed a five-year contract with the club. After just the one first team appearance he was sent out on loan to Ayr United in October 2009. His debut for Ayr came on 14 October, when he scored one of the goals in a 2–2 draw at home to

. In January 2010, the loan was extended until the end of the season. In total, he made 30 appearances in all competitions, scoring one goal for Ayr. On his return under new manager

Jim Jefferies Geoff James Nugent (born February 1977), known professionally as Jim Jefferies, is an Australian and American comedian, actor, and writer. He created and starred in the FX sitcom ''Legit'' (2013–2014) and the Comedy Central late-night sho ...

he played as a substitute against Hamilton on 21 August 2010, and against Celtic in September. On 15 February 2011, he joined First Division team

on a three-month loan deal and made his debut the same night. In all he made eight appearances before returning to Hearts at the start of April. After returning from his loan at Partick, McGowan made six more appearances for Hearts that season, with his first start for Hearts coming on 7 May 2011 against

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

On 23 July 2011, he started the 2011–12 season with a Sky Sports 'Man of the Match' performance against

at Ibrox. He began to establish himself as a member of the first team and played in the Europa League qualifiers against

Paks Paks is a small town in Tolna (county), Tolna county, in the south of Hungary, on the right bank of the Danube River, 100 km south of Budapest. Paks as a former agricultural settlement is now the home of the only Hungarian Paks Nuclear Pow ...

and in the second leg against

Tottenham Tottenham (, , , ) is a district in north London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, ...

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a Association football, football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater i ...

, where Hearts drew 0–0 (losing 5–0 on aggregate). McGowan scored his first goal for Hearts in an

Edinburgh derby The Edinburgh derby is an informal title given to any association football, football match played between Football in Scotland, Scottish clubs Heart of Midlothian F.C., Heart of Midlothian (Hearts) and Hibernian F.C., Hibernian (Hibs), the two o ...

on 2 January. Later in the same game he

headbutt A headbutt or butt is a targeted strike (attack), strike with the head, typically involving the use of robust parts of the headbutter's Skull#Humans, cranium as the area of impact. The most effective headbutts strike the most sensitive areas of ...

ed Ivan Sproule in the stomach, which the referee viewed and took no action, however the SFA compliance officer opened an investigation. The compliance officer offered a two match ban. Hearts denied it was violent conduct but accepted the ban offered. The 2011–12 SPL season was a good one for McGowan, scoring 3 goals – including one in the 2012 Scottish Cup Final victory against Hibs – and winning the Hearts Young Player of the Year award. Ahead of the last day of summer transfer window,

made a bid for Hearts duo McGowan and

David Templeton David Cooper Templeton (born 7 January 1989) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a winger for Glasgow United. Templeton played for Stenhousemuir, Raith Rovers, Heart of Midlothian, Hamilton Academical, Rangers, Burton ...

worth combined £1.3m valuation for the duo but the move rejected. Templeton went on to join Rangers but McGowan stayed, explaining that he needs to keep his international career status alive. On 2 January 2013, it was announced that Hearts had accepted a bid of around £400,000 from Chinese side

. In all, McGowan made 73 appearances for the club.

Shandong Luneng Taishan

On 7 January 2013, McGowan signed a two-year contract with

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Super League (), commonly known as the Chinese Super League or the CSL (), also known as the China Resources Beverage Chinese Football Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Ch ...

side

. He made his Chinese Super League debut for Shandong Luneng Taishan on 9 March 2013 against Dalian Aerbin. In his last match for Shandong, he scored the winning goal in the injury time against Jiangsu Sainty in the second leg of 2014 Chinese FA Cup final. However, Shandong Luneng decided not to extend his contract at the end of 2014 season.

Dundee United

On 23 January 2015, McGowan moved back to Scotland, signing an 18-month contract with

. He made his debut on 31 January 2015, as Dundee United beat Aberdeen 2–1 in the semi-final of the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...

Hampden Park Hampden Park ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden'') is a association football, football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland, which is the national stadium of football in Scotland and home of the Scotland national football ...

Henan Jianye

McGowan returned to China on 21 January 2016 after he was transferred from Dundee United to

. The transfer fee was reported to be approximately £350,000. He made his debut by scoring an own goal as

Shanghai SIPG Shanghai Port Football Club (), previously Shanghai SIPG (), is a Chinese professional football club based in Shanghai, that competes in . Shanghai Port plays its home matches at the Pudong Football Stadium, located within Pudong. Their owners a ...

beat Henan Jianye 5–0. On 27 January 2017, McGowan was released by Henan Jianye.

Guizhou Hengfeng Zhicheng

One month after leaving Henan Jianye, McGowan joined newly promoted

club Guizhou Hengfeng Zhicheng. On 3 March 2017, he made his debut for Guizhou in a 1–1 home draw against

Liaoning FC Liaoning Football Club (), officially known as Liaoning Hongyun (), was a professional association football club with a long history in Chinese football. The club can predate their formation to 1953, when Shenyang government sports body joined ex ...

Al-Sharjah

On 21 August 2017, McGowan joined

UAE Arabian Gulf League The UAE Pro League (), also known as the ADNOC Pro League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the highest level of the Emirati football league system. The first team to w ...

side Al-Sharjah.

Bradford City

On 26 January 2018, Ryan joined

EFL League One The English Football League One, known as Sky Bet League One for sponsorship reasons, or simply League One, is a professional association football league in England. EFL League One is the second-highest division of the English Football League an ...

side

from Al-Sharjah for an undisclosed fee. In January 2019 he was linked with a departure from the club, and a return to Scottish football with

. Later that month he moved on loan to Dundee. In May 2019, following Bradford City's relegation to League Two, it was announced that he would leave the club upon the expiry of his contract on 30 June 2019, one of 11 players to be released.

Sydney FC

On 3 July 2019, McGowan signed a two-year contract with

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

club

, while his brother Dylan earlier joining their derby rivals

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, Wanderers, or simply as WSW) is an Australian professional association football club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in t ...

. On 3 July 2021, Sydney FC announced that McGowan was leaving the club, having agreed to terms with an overseas club.

Kuwait SC

On 7 July 2021, McGowan signed with

Kuwait Premier League The Kuwait Premier League (), known as Zain Premier League due to sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Kuwait football pyramid system. Formed in 1961, Kuwait SC holds the best record in the competition, having won 20 times. History The ...

club

St Johnstone

McGowan returned to Scottish football in July 2022, signing for

. He would score his first goal for the ''Saintees'' on 24 May 2023, a last-minute equaliser against Ross County. After two seasons with the ''Saintees'', the club confirmed on 3 July 2024 that McGowan had left the club after the expiry of his contract.

Livingston

In July 2024, McGowan signed for

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional association footb ...

club Livingston on a two-year deal. McGowan made his competitive debut for the ''Lions'' on 13 July in a victory over Forfar Athletic in the

group stage. On 8 February 2025, McGowan scored his first goal for Livi in a

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Cove Rangers. On 30 March 2025, McGowan won the

Scottish Challenge Cup The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup,Queen's Park. In April 2025, McGowan was one of four ''Lions'' named as part of the 2024–25 PFA Scotland Championship Team of the Year. In total, McGowan played every minute in all 53 games of the season, and finished off in style by winning the Scottish Premiership play-offs to return the ''Lions'' to the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, also known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Scotland and the highest level of the Scottish football league system. Th ...

International career

McGowan was part of the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

team that

qualified Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

for the

AFC Youth Championship 2008 The 2008 AFC U-19 Championship the 35th edition of this tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), was hosted by Saudi Arabia between 31 October and 14 November. The matches were played in Dammam and Khobar, both located at t ...

in November 2007. McGowan was selected for the

2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 17th edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, which was hosted by Egypt from 24 September to 16 October 2009. The tournament was initially going to take place between 10 and 31 July. However, the 2009 FIFA Confede ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

; his brother and teammate

Dylan McGowan Dylan John McGowan (born 6 August 1991) is an Australian professional footballer who plays as a defender for club Hamilton Academical. McGowan was born in Adelaide, Australia, where he played youth football for Para Hills Knights before mov ...

, was not selected. McGowan started in the first match for the

Young Socceroos The Australia national under-20 soccer team, known colloquially as the Young Socceroos, represents Australia in international under-20 Association football, soccer. The team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football ...

in the

, and received a yellow and a straight red against the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

for a studs up challenge which resulted in a penalty. He received his first call-up to the

senior squad in August 2012, when he was selected for the friendly match against

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 ...

, making his debut as a late substitute replacing Sasa Ognenovski. McGowan was booed by some sections of the home support due to his Hearts connections, with the game being played at

Easter Road Easter Road is a football stadium located in the Leith area of Edinburgh, Scotland, which is the home ground of Scottish Premiership club Hibernian (Hibs). The stadium currently has an all-seated capacity of , which makes it the fifth-largest ...

. He was named in Australia's

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

squad and provided the assist to

Tim Cahill Timothy Filiga Cahill (; born 6 December 1979) is an Australian former professional soccer player who played as an attacking midfielder but also played as a striker on many occasions. A box-to-box midfielder, Cahill became recognised for "hi ...

's goal in Australia's 3–2 loss to 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 ...

Family and personal life

His parents emigrated to Australia in 1980, and McGowan was born in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

into a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

family from

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. His brother Dylan currently plays for

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, who currently compete in . They were established in 1874 from the school football team at Hamilto ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Hearts *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,2011–12 Shandong Luneng Taishan *

Chinese FA Cup The Chinese FA Cup (, abbreviated as CFA Cup) is the national knockout cup competition in China organized by the Chinese Football Association. The current holders are Shanghai Port, having beaten Shandong Taishan in 2024 for their first title. H ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Sydney *

Championship: 2019–20 *

Premiership: 2019–20 Livingston *

Scottish Challenge Cup The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup,2024–25 *

play-offs:

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

Australia U-20 *

AFF U19 Youth Championship The ASEAN U-19 Boys' Championship (formerly AFF U-19 Youth Championship) is an annual international football competition contested by the national teams of the members of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and occasionally invited nations fro ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

Individual * Chinese FA Cup Most Valuable Player:

PFA Scotland Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Scotland Team of the Year (often called the PFA Scotland Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 44 footballers in the four national tiers of the Scottish foo ...

2024–25 Scottish Championship The 2024–25 Scottish Championship (known as the William Hill Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the twelfth season of the Scottish Championship, the second tier of Scottish football. The season began on 2 August 2024 and concluded on 2 ...

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:McGowan, Ryan 1989 births Living people Australian people of Scottish descent Soccer players from Adelaide Australian men's soccer players Men's association football midfielders Para Hills Knights SC players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Ayr United F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Shandong Taishan F.C. players Dundee United F.C. players Henan F.C. players Guizhou F.C. players Sharjah FC players Bradford City A.F.C. players Dundee F.C. players Sydney FC players Kuwait SC players St Johnstone F.C. players Livingston F.C. players National Premier Leagues players Scottish Premier League players Scottish Football League players Chinese Super League players UAE Pro League players English Football League players Scottish Professional Football League players A-League Men players Kuwait Premier League players Australia men's youth international soccer players Australia men's under-20 international soccer players Australia men's international soccer players 2014 FIFA World Cup players 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup players Australian expatriate men's soccer players Australian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Australian expatriate sportspeople in China Australian expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Australian expatriate sportspeople in England Australian expatriate sportspeople in Kuwait Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in China Expatriate men's footballers in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Kuwait 21st-century Australian sportsmen