Eoghan O'Connell

Eoghan O'Connell (born 13 August 1995) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a defender for League One club Rochdale. He began his youth playing career in the Republic of Ireland, joined the academy of Scottish club Celtic in 2011 and made his first-team debut three years later. While at the club he was loaned to Oldham Athletic, Cork City and Walsall. In 2017, he signed with English third-tier club Bury and after two seasons with The Shakers, he moved in the summer of 2019 to Rochdale.

O'Connell is a cousin of former Irish rugby captain Paul O'Connell and has been capped at youth international level.

Club Career

Celtic

O'Connell played for the College Corinthians and Avondale United Irish academy teams, before switching to the Celtic Academy in 2011. On 9 January 2014, he made his first-team debut in a 3–1 victory over Turkish club Trabzonspor in the Turkish Airlines Antalya Cup. In March, he made his competitive debut against Ross County in a 1–1 draw in the Scottish Premiership. Speaking in April 2015 about his debut, he said, "Making my debut at the end of last season was a good thing as it gave me a good platform coming into the next season and show what I could do".

O'Connell started the 2014–15 season by scoring an own goal in a 1–0 league defeat against Inverness CT. After making four appearances for the club in the season and captaining the youth team in a friendly against Sparta Prague, on 2 February 2015 he signed a contract extension that would keep him at Celtic until mid-2017. Commenting about the new contract, he said, "I'm delighted and just happy to get it done". At the end of the season, he was named as the club's Academy Player of the Year. Irish newspaper TheJournal.ie included Connell in their list of "10 most promising young Irish footballers".

O'Connell played his first match of the 2015–16 season, a 3–1 victory over Dundee United, in August. He moved to English League One club Oldham Athletic on a six-month loan de