Aiden Connor O'Neill (born 4 July 1998) is an Australian professional soccer player who currently plays as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundari ...

for

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most ...

and the Australia national team. Born in Brisbane, O'Neill played youth football for Kenmore F.C. (now called UQFC), then Brisbane Athletic and

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

before making his professional debut for the latter in 2016. He spent some time on loan to

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic be ...

and

Fleetwood Town Fleetwood Town Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Fleetwood, Lancashire. Established in 1997, the current Fleetwood Town F.C. is the fourth incarnation of the club; it was originally formed in ...

, scoring his first ever professional goal for the latter club. He returned to Australia, on loan, to play for

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional association football, soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast (New South Wales), Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League, A-League Men, under ...

in 2018. He has represented the Australian under-23 national team.

Early life

O'Neill is of Irish ancestry. He was born and raised in Brisbane, attending Nudgee Junior College before moving to

Brisbane Boys' College (Let Honour Stainless Be) , established = 1902 , type = Independent, single-sex, day and boarding , denomination = Presbyterian and Uniting Church , slogan = , headmaster = André Casson , city = Toowong , state = Queensland , count ...

before moving to England aged fourteen when his parents moved there for work.

Club career

O'Neill played youth football for Brisbane Athletic between 2008 and 2012. He moved to England as a teenager, where he sought to pursue a career in football. On 12 January 2016, O'Neill signed his first professional contract with then-

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

side

. He made his professional debut for the club on 20 August 2016, coming on as a late substitute against

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

as Burnley won 2–0. He made his full debut days later, starting in an extra time loss to

Accrington Stanley Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England. The club competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They have spent their complete his ...

in the EFL Cup. In January 2017, he joined EFL League One strugglers

on loan until the end of the season. He made a total of fifteen appearances for the Latics. In August 2017, he joined League One side

on a season-long loan deal. In January 2018, he returned to Burnley early having made twenty-seven appearances and scoring once against

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

. In August 2018, O'Neill returned to Australia to play for

in the A-League on a season-long loan.

Melbourne City

O'Neill signed a three-year deal with Melbourne City in September 2020. During the 22/23 season O'Neill had become a key player in the starting 11, scoring a brace in a 2-1 victory against

Brisbane Roar Brisbane Roar Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Brisbane, Queensland and has won the domestic title on three occasions, as well as holding the longest unbeaten record of 36 league matches without defeat. Brisba ...

on 12 March 2023. During the Melbourne Derby on the 17 December 2022, O'Neill scored the opening goal during the match, that was later abandoned due to player safety in the 22nd minute. During the resumption of the match on 5 April 2022, O'Neill scored a second goal completing his brace. His brace became the longest time between both goals in a brace with his first and second goal being 156,956 minutes apart.

International career

O'Neill has stated that his preference is to play for Australia, but had not been in any contact with

Football Federation Australia Football Australia is the governing body of soccer, futsal, and beach soccer within Australia, headquartered in Sydney. Although the first governing body of the sport was founded in 1911, Football Australia in its current form was only establ ...

when he made his Premier League debut in August 2016. He was later called up for an Australia under-23 camp in March 2017. He had previously been contacted by the Football Association of Ireland and the

Irish Football Association The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became the Northern Ireland national football team. ...

but reiterated that his preference was to play for Australia. On the 14th March 2023, O’Neill was called up to the

Socceroos The Australia men's national soccer team represents Australia in international men's soccer. Officially nicknamed the Socceroos, the team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is affiliated wit ...

team for the first time with friendlies against

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...

. He made his senior debut in a 3-1 win over Ecuador on the 24th March 2023.

Career statistics

Honours

Melbourne City * A-League Premiership: 2020-21, 2021–22, 2022–23 * A-League Championship:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Australia U23 * AFC U-23 Championship third place:

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

Individual * PFA A-League Team of the Season: 2022–23

References

External links

Aiden O'Neill profile
BurnleyFootballClub.com * * {{DEFAULTSORT:ONeill, Aiden 1998 births Living people Australian men's soccer players Australia men's international soccer players Burnley F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Fleetwood Town F.C. players Central Coast Mariners FC players Brisbane Roar FC players Melbourne City FC players Standard Liège players Men's association football midfielders Premier League players English Football League players A-League Men players Belgian Pro League players Expatriate men's footballers in England Australian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Australian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Australian expatriate men's soccer players Soccer players from Brisbane Australian people of Northern Ireland descent 2023 AFC Asian Cup players People educated at Brisbane Boys' College