Alan James Browne (born 15 April 1995) 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 le ...

who plays as a

central 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 boundarie ...

for

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

, whom he captains, and the Republic of Ireland national team.

Career

Cork City

Browne joined the

Cork City Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the island of Ireland. It is located in the south-west of Ireland, in the province of Munster. Following an extension to the city' ...

U19 squad prior to the start of the 2012–13 season, graduating to the senior squad the following season. He was named on the substitutes' bench twice in the 2013 season for games against

Sligo Rovers Sligo Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí Shligigh) is an Irish professional football club playing in the Premier Division of the League of Ireland. The club is based in Sligo in the west of Ireland. The club was founded in 1928 ...

and

Drogheda United Drogheda United Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Dhroichead Átha Aontaithe) is a semi-professional Irish association football club based in Drogheda, County Louth playing in the League of Ireland Premier Division. They play their home matches ...

, but he failed to make a first-team appearance for the club before leaving.

Preston North End

Browne signed an 18-month contract with

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

, joining them on 1 January 2014. He made his first-team debut on 25 March 2014, coming on as a substitute in a 3–1 victory against

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...

with the score at 1–1, with a contribution and work ethic that drew praise from manager

Simon Grayson Simon Nicholas Grayson (born 16 December 1969) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of Indian Super League club Bengaluru. As a player, he was a right back, but he was also utilised in m ...

. In 2015, Browne was involved in the play-off final win, which saw Preston promoted to the

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 ...

. Browne became a major part of the Preston squad throughout the 2017–18 season, scoring eight' goals. This led to him earning the clubs

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

award. From the 2020-21 season Browne was appointed club captain following the departure of Tom Clarke. On 13 January 2021, Browne signed a new three-and-a-half year deal with the club, seeing him under contract until the end of the 2023–24 season.

International career

On 24 March 2021, Browne scored his first competitive goal for Ireland, a header to give them the lead in a 3-2 defeat away to

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''As of match played 11 June 2022''. ''Ireland score listed first, score column indicates score after each Browne goal.''

Honours

Preston North End *

Football League One play-offs The EFL League One play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL League One table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , the play-offs comprise tw ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Individual * FAI Young Player of the Year 2019

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, Alan 1995 births Living people Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Republic of Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football midfielders Cork City F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players Association footballers from Cork (city) English Football League players Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers Republic of Ireland men's international footballers Republic of Ireland expatriate men's association footballers