Michael Duffy (footballer)

Michael Duffy

Personal information
Full name	Michael Duffy
Date of birth	(1994-07-28) 28 July 1994 (age 30)
Place of birth	Derry, Northern Ireland
Position(s)	Winger
Team information
Current team	Derry City
Number	7
Youth career
	Derry City
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2012–2015	Derry City	57	(13)
2015–2017	Celtic	0	(0)
2015–2016	→ Alloa Athletic (loan)	34	(3)
2016–2017	→ Dundee (loan)	8	(0)
2017–2021	Dundalk	152	(41)
2022–	Derry City	59	(15)
International career‡
	Northern Ireland U17
2012	Republic of Ireland U18	1	(0)
2012–2013	Northern Ireland U19	3	(1)
2014–2016	Northern Ireland U21	9	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 14:33, 13 February 2024 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 21:34, 11 October 2016 (UTC)

Michael Duffy ^[1] (born 28 July 1994) is an Irish footballer who plays for League of Ireland Premier Division side Derry City. His previous clubs include Celtic, Alloa Athletic, Dundee & Dundalk.

Club career

Derry City

Duffy is a product of the Derry City youth team and made his first appearance for the senior team at Richmond Park on 3 September 2012 as a second-half substitute in a 3–0 defeat to St Patrick's Athletic. Duffy scored his first league goal in the 1–0 win away to Shelbourne on 8 June 2013. ^[2] As a 19-year-old Duffy scored against Aberystwyth Town and Shakhtyor Soligorsk in the Europa League and netted a hat-trick in July on his 20th birthday in a league match against UCD. ^[3]

In October 2014 it was reported that he had signed a two-year contract extension with Derry. ^[4]

Celtic

In February 2015 he was transferred to Scottish club Celtic. ^[5] Duffy has not played in the first team for Celtic but impressed in the Development squad. ^{[6] [7]}

In July 2015, he was loaned to Alloa Athletic on a six-month deal. ^[8] At the start of 2016, Duffy was reported to be extending his stay at Alloa until the end of the 2015–16 season. ^[9] On 27 February 2016, Duffy scored his first goal for Alloa in a 3–1 home loss to Livingston. ^[10] Duffy went on to score the only goal in a 1–0 win against Hibs and was also on target in a 1–1 draw with Rangers. Duffy was named as Alloa Advertiser Player of the Year.

On 30 June 2016, Duffy moved on loan to Dundee. ^[11]

Dundalk

Duffy signed for Irish champions Dundalk in January 2017. He was part of the team that won the EA Sports Cup in September, but he missed the crucial penalty in their shoot-out defeat to Cork City in the FAI Cup Final in November. ^[12] The following season Duffy was a near ever-present in the side that won the 2018 League and FAI Cup Double and Duffy was subsequently honoured by his fellow professionals by being awarded the PFAI Players' Player of the Year award. He also played regularly in the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League group stage. ^[13]

Return to Derry City

On 29 September 2021, Derry City announced that Duffy would be returning to his hometown club after signing a 4 year contract on a pre-contract agreement set to begin after the end of the 2021 season. ^[14] Duffy made his second debut for the club on 14 March 2022, coming off the bench in a 2–0 win at home to Drogheda United but unfortunately had to be substituted off after fracturing his tibia. ^{[15] [16]} He did not return until 5 August when he came off the bench to play 13 minutes against his former club Dundalk. He helped Derry City to win the FAI Cup in his first season back at the club.

In the 2023 season, his second season back at the club, he scored the tie winning goal in the 2nd qualifying round of the 2023-24 UEFA Europa Conference League against KuPS to take Derry City to the 3rd qualifying round of any European cup for only the second time in the club's history. ^[17]

International career

On the 26 August 2018 it was reported that he intended to make the switch from playing for Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland. ^[18] Michael Duffy was called up to the Home-Based Republic of Ireland under-18 by Paul Doolin on 1 February 2012 for a friendly game against Wales. ^[19] On 15 February, he played the entire game in a 2–1 defeat at Ferrycarrig Park, Wexford. ^[20] Duffy has since represented Northern Ireland at under-19 and under-21 level. He made his debut for the under-21 team on 9 September 2014 in a 4–1 defeat against Serbia at Shamrock Park, Portadown. ^[21] On 24 August 2016 Duffy received his first call up to the senior Northern Ireland squad by manager Michael O'Neill. ^[22] In August 2018 Duffy stated his intention of playing for the Republic of Ireland. ^[23] In November 2020, Duffy's former manager Stephen Kenny revealed that Duffy would have made his most recent Republic of Ireland senior squad, but his international clearance had still not come through despite an 18 month wait. ^[24] On the 6th February 2021, Duffy's transfer of eligibility from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland was officially approved by FIFA after a 2 year wait. ^[25]

Career statistics

As of match played on 10 November 2024 ^[26]

Club	Division	Season	League		National Cup [a]		League Cup [b]		Europe		Other		Total
			Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Derry City	LOI Premier Division	2012	5	0	0	0	0	0	—		0	0	5	0
		2013	23	2	4	0	3	2	2 [c]	0	0	0	32	4
		2014	29	11	7	3	1	0	4 [c]	2	—		41	16
	Total		57	13	11	3	4	2	6	2	0	0	78	20
Celtic	Scottish Premiership	2014–15	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—		0	0
		2015–16	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—		0	0
		2016–17	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—		0	0
	Total		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Alloa Athletic (loan)	Scottish Championship	2015–16	34	3	1	0	1	0	—		2 [d]	0	38	3
Dundee (loan)	Scottish Premiership	2016–17	8	0	1	0	4	1	—		—		13	1
Dundalk	LOI Premier Division	2017	32	8	6	2	3	0	2 [e]	0	1 [f]	0	44	10
		2018	36	13	5	0	0	0	4 [c]	1	1 [f]	0	46	13
		2019	34	12	5	2	2	1	5 [g]	1	1 [f]	0	47	16
		2020	16	4	5	3	—		10 [h]	0	—		31	7
		2021	34	4	3	1	—		4 [i]	2	0 [f]	0	41	7
	Total		152	41	24	8	5	1	25	4	3	0	209	54
Derry City	LOI Premier Division	2022	13	3	5	0	—		1 [i]	0	—		19	3
		2023	22	7	2	1	—		6 [i]	1	1 [f]	1	31	10
		2024	31	5	5	4	—		2 [j]	0	—		38	9
	Total		66	15	12	5	—		9	1	1	1	88	22
Derry City Total			123	28	23	8	4	2	15	3	1	1	166	42
Career total			317	72	49	16	14	4	40	7	6	1	426	100

1. Includes FAI Cup & Scottish Cup
2. Includes League of Ireland Cup & Scottish League Cup
3. Appearances in UEFA Europa League
4. Appearances in Scottish Challenge Cup
5. Appearances in UEFA Champions League
6. Appearances in President of Ireland's Cup
7. 3 appearances in UEFA Champions League, 2 appearances & 1 goal in UEFA Europa League
8. 1 appearance in UEFA Champions League, 8 appearances in UEFA Europa League
9. Appearances in UEFA Europa Conference League
10. Appearances in UEFA Conference League

Honours

Dundalk

• League of Ireland Premier Division (2): 2018, 2019
• FAI Cup (2): 2018, 2020
• League of Ireland Cup (2): 2017, ^[27] 2019
• President of Ireland's Cup (2): 2019, 2021

Derry City

• FAI Cup (2): 2012, 2022
• President of Ireland's Cup (1): 2023

Awards

• PFAI Players' Player of the Year (1): 2018 ^[28]

References

1. "Michael Duffy". whoscored.com. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
2. "Michael Duffy – Derry City" . Retrieved 7 October 2014.
3. "Michael marks 20th birthday with happy hat-trick!". derryjournal.com. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
4. "Michael Duffy signs new Candystripes deal". bbc.com. 21 October 2014. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
5. "Transfer Deadline Day Summary". scottishfa.co.uk. Scottish Football Association. 2 February 2015. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
6. Dalziel, Martin (14 May 2015). "Young Celts thrash Killie 4–1 in final league clash". celticfc.net. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
7. McNulty, Chris (8 April 2015). "Celtic Development boss hails Michael Duffy after first Hoops goal". Donegal News. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
8. Henderson, Mark (3 July 2015). "Young Celts head out on loan to Alloa". celticfc.net. Celtic FC. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
9. "Michael Duffy is off on loan again until the end of the season". Derry Now. 7 January 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
10. "Alloa Athletic 1–3 Livingston". BBC Sport. BBC. 27 February 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
11. "Dundee sign Michael Duffy on loan from Celtic". BBC Sport. BBC. 30 June 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
12. "Cork City win FAI Cup in penalty shoot-out thriller". Irish Examiner. Irish Examiner. 5 November 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
13. "Bittersweet night for Dundalk star as he equals Glen Crowes European". the42. the42. 5 November 2020. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
14. "City Confirm Duffy Pre-Contract Deal". 29 September 2021.
15. "Michael Duffy fractures tibia on Derry return". 15 March 2022 – via rte.ie.
16. O'Hehir, Paul (15 March 2022). "Michael Duffy suffers fractured tibia on Derry City return". Irish Mirror.
17. "Michael Duffy heads Derry City into Europa Conference League third qualifying roundreturn". Irish Times. 3 August 2023.
18. "O'Neill 'not averse' to taking punt on starlet Parrott". RTÉ.ie . 26 August 2018.
19. "U-18 home grown squad announced". wnl.ie. Archived from the original on 27 April 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
20. "Wales edge out Ireland in U18 friendly". fai.ie. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
21. "3 Players Return From International Duty". derrycityfc.net. 17 September 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
22. "World Cup 2018: Tom Flanagan and Michael Duffy handed first NI call-ups". BBC Sport. 24 August 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
23. "Michael Duffy keen to declare for Ireland as soon as possible".
24. "'It wasn't meant to be on this occasion' – Dundalk's Michael Duffy reveals paperwork issue prevented Ireland call".
25. "Two-year wait over as Duffy's Republic switch approved". RTÉ.ie . 6 February 2021.
26. Michael Duffy at Soccerway
27. McKeever, Sam (16 September 2017). "EA Sports Cup Final Report: Shamrock Rovers 0 - 3 Dundalk". ExtraTime.ie. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
28. "Double-winner Michael Duffy named PFAI Player of the Year following stellar season with Dundalk". The 42. 11 November 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2019.

External links

• Michael Duffy at Soccerbase