Conor Gerard McLaughlin (born 26 July 1991) is a Northern Irish former

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 played as a right back.

Club career

Preston North End

Born in Belfast, McLaughlin turned professional with

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 ...

in January 2010. He made his début for Preston on 12 November 2010, in a 0–2 loss against Hull City. In December 2010, McLaughlin signed a contract extension, keeping him with Preston until 2013. He signed a two-month loan deal with Shrewsbury Town in March 2011. He was transfer-listed by the club in May 2012.

Fleetwood Town

McLaughlin joined

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 ...

on 20 July 2012. He signed a new three-year contract with the club in June 2014. He scored his first goal – for any club – in the Football League in February 2015.

Millwall

McLaughlin signed for Millwall in July 2017. He scored his first goal for Millwall in a 2–2 draw with Queens Park Rangers on 12 September 2017.

Sunderland

After leaving Millwall he moved to

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

on a free transfer on 1 July 2019. On 25 May 2021 it was announced that he would leave Sunderland at the end of the season, following the expiry of his contract.

Return to Fleetwood Town and retirement

He re-signed for

on a short-term deal in October 2021. On 14 January 2022, McLaughlin left Fleetwood for a second time following the expiration of his short-term deal, leaving the club as their all-time third highest EFL appearance maker. On 14 April 2022, McLaughlin announced his retirement "due to injury".

International career

McLaughlin has represented Northern Ireland at youth international level. He received his first call-up for the senior national team in October 2011, making his senior début later that month, in a 0–3 defeat against Italy on 11 October 2011. McLaughlin started Northern Ireland's first game of

Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

against Poland.

Personal life

Conor McLaughlin is the elder brother of

Ryan McLaughlin Ryan McLaughlin (born 30 September 1994) is a Northern Irish footballer who last played as a right back for Morecambe, and the Northern Ireland national football team. Club career Liverpool Liverpool signed 16-year-old Ryan McLaughlin in the su ...

; both have been capped by Northern Ireland.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''As of match played 9 November 2017. Northern Ireland score listed first, score column indicates score after each McLaughlin goal.''

Honours

Sunderland *

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

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 ...

Individual * EFL Team of the Season: 2016–17

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:McLaughlin, Conor 1991 births Living people Northern Ireland men's youth international footballers Northern Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Northern Ireland men's international footballers Men's association football defenders Preston North End F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Fleetwood Town F.C. players Millwall F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players English Football League players UEFA Euro 2016 players Association footballers from Belfast Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland