Joe Thomson (footballer)

Joe Thomson

Personal information
Full name	Joseph Alexander Thomson
Date of birth	(1997-01-14) 14 January 1997 (age 27)
Place of birth	Paisley, Scotland
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Larne
Number	6
Youth career
2006–2009	Rangers
2009–2015	Celtic
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2015–2018	Celtic	1	(0)
2016	→ Dumbarton (loan)	18	(2)
2017	→ Queen of the South (loan)	17	(4)
2017	→ Livingston (loan)	2	(0)
2017–2018	→ Queen of the South (loan)	18	(5)
2018–2020	Dunfermline Athletic	38	(2)
2020–2023	Derry City	67	(9)
2023–	Larne	54	(11)
International career‡
2011	Scotland U15	1	(0)
2012	Scotland U16	5	(0)
2013–2014	Scotland U17	9	(0)
2015	Scotland U18	2	(2)
2015–2016	Scotland U19	10	(0)
2017	Scotland U20	4	(0)
2017	Scotland U21	1	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 1 June 2024 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 4 March 2019

Joseph Alexander Thomson (born 14 January 1997) is a Scottish professional footballer, who plays as a midfielder for NIFL Premiership side Larne. Thomson started his senior career at Celtic and he has played on loan at Dumbarton, Livingston, two spells at Queen of the South, Dunfermline Athletic and Derry City. Thomson has also been capped for Scotland at every age level from under-15 to under-21. He is one of only two Scottish players to score in both the Champions League and the Europa League

Personal life

Thomson was born in Paisley and played for Gleniffer Thistle Boys Club. He was a youth signing with boyhood heroes Rangers before switching to Celtic at under-12 level. He attended Williamwood High School then the Celtic school project at St Ninian's High School, Kirkintilloch. ^[1]

Club career

Celtic

Thomson played regularly for the Celtic Development Squad ^[2] and featured in the first-team squad versus Villarreal C.F., ^[3] PSV Eindhoven, FC Den Bosch, Stade Rennais and Sparta Prague who he scored against in the Maspalomas Cup. On 22 August 2015, Thomson made his first-team debut when he appeared as a substitute during the second half of Celtic's 3–1 victory at Tannadice versus Dundee United. ^[4] He left Celtic at the end of the 2017–18 season. ^[5]

Loan spells

Thomson joined Scottish Championship club Dumbarton in August 2016, for the first half of the season. ^[6] He scored his first senior goal in a 2–2 draw with Dunfermline Athletic on 29 October 2016. ^[7] Thomson departed the Sons on 31 December 2016, when his loan deal ended. ^[8]

On 1 January 2017, Thomson subsequently joined fellow Scottish Championship club Queen of the South for the second half of the season, scoring on his debut against St Mirren on 7 January 2017. ^[9] Thomson then returned to his parent club, Celtic at the end of the 2016–17 season. ^[10]

At the start of August 2017, Thomson was sent out on loan to Livingston for six months to gain first-team experience, ^[11] but was recalled back to his parent club in early September 2017, due to a disagreement between the clubs regarding the handling of the player, having only played three league matches for the West Lothian side.^{[ citation needed ]}

On 29 December 2017, Thomson joined Queen of the South for a second spell on loan. He initially joined on an emergency loan deal, although he remained with the side until the end of the season. ^[12] On 20 March 2018, Thomson scored twice in the club's first league victory at Tannadice since 1933, in a 3–2 win versus Dundee United. ^[13]

Dunfermline Athletic

On 16 June 2018, Thomson signed for Scottish Championship club Dunfermline Athletic. ^{[14] [15]} He made his debut starting in a 3–0 win versus Peterhead in the Scottish League Cup on 17 July 2018, ^[16] and scored his first goal in a league match against Dundee United on 4 August 2018. ^{[17] [18]} Thomson was voted Fans Player of the Year in his first season with Dunfermline. After missing part of his second season recovering from injury Thomson was released in May 2020 at the end of his contract along with 16 other players as COVID-19 impacted the clubs financial position. ^[19]

Derry City

In June 2020, Thomson joined League of Ireland club Derry City on an initial 18 months contract and he scored in his Europa League debut. In November 2021 after winning the previous season's Supporters Player of the Year award Thomsons contract was extended for another 2 years.

Thomson won the 2022 FAI cup with Derry City.

Larne

Thomson signed for Larne on 6 January 2023 and made his debut away to Glentoran on 14 January 2023.

He made his first starting appearance for Larne on 17 January 2023 in a County Antrim Cup Final victory over Linfield.

International career

Thomson was selected for the Scotland U17 team in the UEFA under-17 Championship in 2014, ^[20] where the Netherlands beat them in the semi-finals. ^[21]

He was selected for the under-20 squad in the 2017 Toulon Tournament. ^[22] After a historic first ever win against Brazil, which was at any level. ^[23] Scotland later won the bronze medal. ^[24] It was the nations first ever medal at the competition. ^[25]

In March 2017, Thomson made his debut for the Scotland Under-21 team in a friendly versus Estonia. ^{[26] [27]}

Career statistics

As of 5 October 2021

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			National Cup		League Cup		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Celtic	2015–16 [28]	Scottish Premiership	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	2016–17 [29]		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	2017–18 [30]		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Total		1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Celtic U-23s	2016–17 [29]	SPFL Development League	—		—		—		3 [lower-alpha 1]	0	3	0
Dumbarton (loan)	2016–17 [29]	Scottish Championship	17	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	18	2
Queen of the South (loan)	2016–17 [29]		18	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	18	4
Livingston (loan)	2017–18 [30]		2	1	0	0	0	0	1 [lower-alpha 1]	0	3	1
Queen of the South (loan)	2017–18 [30]		17	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	18	5
Dunfermline Athletic	2018–19 [31]		26	2	1	0	3	0	1 [lower-alpha 1]	0	31	2
	2019–20 [32]		11	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	12	0
	Total		38	2	2	0	3	0	1	0	44	2
Derry City	2020 [33]	League of Ireland Premier Division	9	1	2	0	—		1 [lower-alpha 2]	1	12	2
	2021 [33]		19	4	2	0	—		—		21	4
	Total		28	5	4	0	0	0	1	1	33	6
Career total			120	19	8	0	3	0	6	1	137	20

1. Appearances in the Scottish Challenge Cup
2. Appearances in the UEFA Europa League

Honours

Derry City

• FAI Cup 2022

Larne

• County Antrim Shield (2): 2022-23, ^[34] 2023-24 ^[35]
• NIFL Premiership(2): 2022-23, ^[36] 2023-24 ^[37]
• NIFL Charity Shield: 2024 ^[38]

References

1. Brockett, David (14 April 2016). "Scottish football's next big thing: Celtic and Scotland midfielder Joe Thomson". GlasgowLive. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
2. "Fifteen for '15: Celtic's Joe Thomson set to build on youth success". STV Sport. 15 December 2014. Archived from the original on 15 December 2014. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
3. Dalziel, Martin (3 September 2014). "Celts lose to Villarreal in charity match". Celtic FC. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
4. Moffat, Colin (22 August 2014). "Dundee Utd 1-3 Celtic". BBC Sport. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
5. "Playing for the jersey every game". Dunfermline Athletic. 16 June 2018. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
6. Findlay, Alan (5 August 2016). "Proming Celtic youth player joins" . Retrieved 5 August 2016.
7. Findlay, Alan (29 October 2016). "Sons held at home v Dunfermline Ath" . Retrieved 29 October 2016.
8. Findlay, Alan (31 December 2016). "Player departures". Dumbarton FC. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
9. "Thomas and Thomson To Join". Queen of the South FC. 1 January 2017. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
10. "Squad Upate". Queen of the South FC. 6 May 2017. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
11. "Joe Thomson arrives on loan". Livingston FC. 11 August 2017. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
12. "Breaking news: Midfielder returns". Queen of the South FC. 29 December 2017. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
13. "Dundee United 2–3 Queen of the South". BBC Sport. BBC. 20 March 2018. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
14. "Thomson Signs". Dunfermline Athletic FC. 15 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
15. "Pars sign Joe Thomson following Celtic departure". Dunfermline Press. Newsquest. 15 June 2018. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
16. "Dunfermline 3 Peterhead 0". Dunfermline Athletic FC. 17 July 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
17. "Dundee United 2 Dunfermline 3". Dunfermline Athletic FC. 4 August 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
18. Dewar, Heather (4 August 2018). "Dundee United 2–3 Dunfermline". BBC Sport. BBC. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
19. "Dunfermline release 17 players to 'protect future of club'". BBC Sport. BBC. 22 May 2020. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
20. "SCOTLAND U17 SQUAD". Aberdeen FC. 24 April 2014. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
21. Stewart, Craig P. (19 May 2014). "Netherlands 5–0 Scotland: Positives for U-17s". The Scotsman . Retrieved 3 July 2022.
22. "Scotland squad for Toulon announced". Scottish FA. 17 May 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
23. "Scotland U20 1-0 Brazil U20: Young Scots make history". The Scotsman . 3 June 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
24. "Scotland finish third at Toulon Tournament with 3-0 win". Scottish FA. 10 June 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
25. "JULES AND HOLSGROVE TAKE BRONZE WITH SCOTLAND IN TOULON". Reading FC. 11 June 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
26. "Scotland U21 profile". Fitbastats.com. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
27. "Scotland Under-21 0-0 Estonia Under-21". BBC Sport. 28 March 2017. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
28. "Games played by Joe Thomson in 2015/2016". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
29. "Games played by Joe Thomson in 2016/2017". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
30. "Games played by Joe Thomson in 2017/2018". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
31. "Games played by Joe Thomson in 2018/2019". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
32. "Games played by Joe Thomson in 2019/2020". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 19 June 2019.
33. "Scotland - J. Thomson - Profile with news, career statistics and history - Soccerway".
34. "County Antrim Shield final: Larne complete hat-trick with shootout win after lengthy injury delay". BBC Sport . BBC. 17 January 2023. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
35. "County Antrim Shield: Larne beat Glentoran 2-1 to win silverware for fourth consecutive season". BBC Sport . BBC. 23 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
36. "Larne secure historic first Irish League title". BBC Sport . BBC. 14 April 2023.
37. "Larne lift title as Carrick secure Euro play-off". BBC.
38. "NIFL Charity Shield: Larne come from behind to win Charity Shield". 5 July 2024.

External links

• Joe Thomson at Soccerbase
• Joseph Thomson at the Scottish Football Association
• Player profile at The Celtic Wiki