Tony Grant (born 20 August 1976) is an 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 last played for Duleek.

Career

Early years

Starting as a trainee with

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

, Grant signed for

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional association football club in Preston, Lancashire, England. They currently play in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English footbal ...

in November 1995. He was loaned out to Glenavon, making a permanent move to the

Lurgan Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh and roughly southwest of Belfast. The town is linked to Belfast by both the M1 motorway (Northern Ireland), M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin rail ...

club in January 1997; he scored the only goal in their

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Clearer Water Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary Association football, football single elimination, knockout cup compet ...

final win over

Cliftonville Cliftonville is a coastal area of Margate in the Thanet District, Thanet district of Kent, England. It includes the Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay estate, built in the 1930s with wide avenues and detached and semi-detached houses with driveways, gar ...

the same year. This guaranteed entry to the 1997–98 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup where Grant scored against

Legia Warsaw Legia Warszawa (), commonly referred to as Legia Warsaw or simply Legia, is a professional football club based in Warsaw, Poland. Legia is the most successful Polish football club in history, winning a record 15 champions titles, a record 2 ...

League of Ireland

Grant signed for

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club is an Irish professional Association football, football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is List of football clubs by competit ...

in the summer of 2000 and scored on his debut for the club in August of that year. He was presented with the

Player of the Year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year. In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is held on b ...

award at the end of his first season with the club. During his career with the "Hoops", he scored several decisive goals against rivals, Bohemians, including the only goal in

Dalymount Park Dalymount Park (Irish language, Irish: ''Páirc Chnocán Uí Dhálaigh'') is a Association football, football stadium in Phibsborough on the Northside Dublin, Northside of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is the home of Bohemian F.C., ...

's centenary game and a back-heeled winner in another

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

derby, at

Richmond Park Richmond Park, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is the largest of Royal Parks of London, London's Royal Parks and is of national and international importance for wildlife conservation. It was created by Charles I of England, Cha ...

. Grant scored the winning goal for Rovers in the

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

UEFA Intertoto-Cup tie with

Odra Wodzisław Odra may refer to: Rivers * Odra (Baltic Sea), better known as Oder, a river in the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany * Odra (Kupa), a river in Croatia * Odra (Pisuerga), a river in Spain Populated places * Odra, Silesian Voivodeship, a vill ...

in Poland. He made a total of 6 appearances in European Competition for Shamrock Rovers. On 24 February 2004, Bohemians announced the signing of Grant and

James Keddy James Keddy (born 26 March 1973) is an Irish football coach and former player. Career Keddy made his League of Ireland debut for Home Farm on 13 October 1991. He joined UCD in 1994 and his other clubs have included Derry City, Shelbourne, ...

from Shamrock Rovers. Less than two months later, the two clubs played each other at Dalymount Park. The game finished 2–2 but was marked by a

Pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), also called swine (: swine) or hog, is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is named the domestic pig when distinguishing it from other members of the genus '' Sus''. Some authorities cons ...

's head being thrown onto the pitch by Rovers supporters, in a gesture aimed at Grant in particular. The incident remained a topic of humour amongst the media for weeks after, as well as a reminder of the intensity of the rivalry between the two clubs. Grant suffered at first with several niggling injuries during his time with Bohemians, but won back his place in October 2004. In June 2005 he scored another winner in the

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

. Grant signed for

Drogheda United Drogheda United Football Club is a professional Irish association football club based in Drogheda, County Louth playing in the League of Ireland Premier Division. They play their home matches at Sullivan & Lambe Park. The current club is the ...

in 2006 making his debut in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

away to

HJK Helsinki Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (), commonly known as HJK Helsinki (), or simply as HJK (), is a Finnish football club based in Helsinki. The club competes in Veikkausliiga, the top division of the Finnish football league system. Founded in 1907, the ...

in Finland. Injury brought his first season to an early end. He started the 2007 season quite well scoring four goals in twenty appearances, fourteen of these appearances were as a substitute. One of those four goals happened to be the equaliser in the 2007 Setanta Cup Final.

Later years

In the summer of 2008 Grant rejoined Glenavon. He played for three seasons here with fellow Dublin men Adrian Harper and Trevor Molloy. He was released by the club in May 2011 at the end of his contract and signed with Leinster Senior League side Glebe North↵He was then re-signed by Glenavon on 4 January 2012.

Honours

Team

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 ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

. *

Setanta Cup The Setanta Sports Cup was a club football competition featuring teams from both football associations on the island of Ireland. Inaugurated in 2005, it was a cross-border competition between clubs in the League of Ireland from the Republic of Ir ...

. Glenavon *

: 1996–97.

Individual

* Shamrock Rovers F.C. Player of the Year: 2000–01.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Tony 1976 births Living people Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Men's association football forwards Shamrock Rovers F.C. players Bohemian F.C. players Drogheda United F.C. players League of Ireland players Glenavon F.C. players NIFL Premiership players Preston North End F.C. players English Football League players Association footballers from Drogheda Expatriate men's association footballers in Northern Ireland Expatriate men's footballers in England Irish expatriate sportspeople in England