Corry Evans
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Corry John Evans (born 30 July 1990) is a Northern 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 ...
who plays as a
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 ...
or centre-back for EFL Championship side Sunderland. A
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
under-21 and senior international, he came through the Manchester United youth academy, like his older brother,
Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...
centre-back
Jonny Evans Jonathan Grant Evans (born 3 January 1988) is a Northern Irish professional footballer who plays as a defender for club Leicester City and the Northern Ireland national team. Evans started his career at Manchester United and progressed thr ...
. Corry Evans is capable of operating in defence or the centre of midfield. He has been used mainly as a midfielder for Blackburn Rovers.


Club career


Early career

Born in
Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
, Evans began his career with Greenisland Boys FC, where fellow Manchester United youth players Craig Cathcart and Conor Devlin also played before moving to England. However, when Evans' brother, Jonny, was signed by Manchester United, the whole family moved to Manchester.


Manchester United

Evans then joined the Manchester United youth team, and originally played as a schoolboy until he signed a trainee contract with the club on his 16th birthday in July 2006. By then, he had already become a regular in the club's Under-18 side, and he even made his debut for the reserve team on 31 October 2005, coming on as a substitute for Sam Hewson in a 5–1 away defeat by
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 ...
. He made 19 appearances and scored one goal for the Under 18s in 2006–07, but his next reserve team appearance did not come until November 2007, when he came on as a second-half substitute for David Gray in a 2–1 away win over
Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...
. After five more appearances for the reserves in 2007–08, Evans established himself as a regular in the reserve team in 2008–09, and was even given the captain's armband at one point. However, despite having been deployed as a central midfielder throughout his earlier career, Evans found himself increasingly used as a centre-back during the 2008–09 season. Towards the end of the season, along with James Chester and
Tom Cleverley Thomas William Cleverley (born 12 August 1989) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Watford. After starting his career in the youth set-up at Bradford City, Cleverley joined Manchester United at the age of 1 ...
, Evans was nominated by reserve team manager
Ole Gunnar Solskjær Ole Gunnar Solskjær (; born 26 February 1973) is a Norwegian professional football manager and former player who played as a forward who last managed Premier League club Manchester United. As a player, Solskjær spent the majority of his car ...
for the Denzil Haroun Reserve Player of the Year award, but lost out to Chester. Evans received his first call-up to the Manchester United first team on 24 May 2009, when he was named on the bench for the club's last game of the
2008–09 Premier League The 2008–09 Premier League (known as the Barclays Premier League for sponsorship reasons) was the 17th season since the establishment of the Premier League in 1992. Manchester United became champions for the 11th time on the penultimate wee ...
season against
Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...
. In July 2010, Evans was part of the United squad that toured North America. Although he was an unused substitute in the first match against Celtic, he came on as a substitute in the second half of the second game against Philadelphia Union, joining his brother Jonny on the pitch. On 22 October 2010, he joined Carlisle United on a one-month loan deal.


Hull City

On 14 January 2011, he joined
Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...
on loan. Making his debut on 22 January 2011, as a replacement for Cameron Stewart, and scoring in the 1–1 away draw against
Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...
. The move was made permanent following the close of the 2010–11 season. He made his first appearance since joining City on a permanent deal starting against
Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...
on 13 August 2011 at
Portman Road Portman Road is a football stadium in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, which has been the home ground of Ipswich Town F.C. since 1884. The stadium has also hosted many England youth international matches, and one senior England friendly internation ...
, with City winning 1–0. On 10 December 2011 against
Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...
at the
Ricoh Arena The Coventry Building Society Arena (often shortened to the CBS Arena or just simply Coventry Arena, and formerly known as the Ricoh Arena) is a complex in Coventry, England. It includes a 32,609-seater stadium which is currently home to footb ...
, a neat move down the left resulted in Dawson sending over a high cross which dropped for Corry Evans, who controlled the ball before sending a low volley past Joe Murphy and into the bottom corner of the net. On 29 December 2012, Evans scored the first goal in the Tigers' 2–0 victory over
Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...
, placing the ball into the bottom corner past Leeds goalkeeper Paddy Kenny.


Blackburn Rovers

After 97 appearances for Hull, Evans left to join
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 2013. Despite a groin injury delaying his debut for the club, Evans passed a medical and signed a three-year contract. On 31 August 2013, Evans scored his first goal for the club with a superb volley from 25 yards. In November 2015, he signed a contract extension which would keep him in the club till 2019. He was injured in December 2016 in a match against
Brighton and Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football leag ...
in December 2016 due to a recurring groin problem. As a result, he was substituted off in the second half. In March 2017, it was announced that he would be ruled out of action for the rest of the season as he would undergo a surgery for his groin problem. Evans' departure from Rovers was announced at the end of the 2020–21 season.


Sunderland

On 15 July 2021, Evans joined
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 ...
side Sunderland on a free transfer, signing a two-year deal with an option of an additional year. On 4 August, he was appointed club captain by manager Lee Johnson. He scored his first goal for the club on 5 February 2022 in a 2–1 loss to
Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...
.


International career

Evans began his international football career as a schoolboy international, playing for the Northern Ireland under-16 side; he scored one goal in three appearances for the team. In 2007, he progressed to the under-17 side, playing in five fixtures in the space of two months. However, the team went winless in those five matches, losing three and drawing the other two. By the end of 2007, Evans had joined the under-19 team, but they were just as the under-17s, losing four and winning just one of the six matches that Evans played in between October 2007 and October 2008. He made his debut for the under-21 side on 19 August 2008, but he was substituted after 72 minutes of the 1–0 defeat to
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
. He has since made four more appearances for the under-21s. Although the U21s failed to qualify for the Euro 2009, he was recalled for several Euro 2011 qualifiers. Evans received his first call-up to the Northern Ireland senior team on 20 May 2009; he was named in a 19-man squad that contained nine other uncapped players for the match against
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
in Pisa on 6 June 2009. He made his debut in that very game, playing 78 minutes of the 3–0 defeat before being replaced by
Shane Ferguson Shane Kevin Ferguson (born 12 July 1991) is a Northern Irish professional footballer who plays for Rotherham United and the Northern Ireland national team. He previously played for Newcastle United in the Premier League, where he had two spells ...
. On 3 September 2010, Evans scored his first international goal as he scored the winner with his first touch after coming on as a substitute in a 1–0 away win over
Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
in the first
UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying The qualifying competition for UEFA Euro 2012 was a series of parallel association football competitions held over 2010 and 2011 to decide the qualifiers for UEFA Euro 2012, held in Poland and Ukraine. The draw for the qualifying rounds was hel ...
game. Evans was included in the Northern Ireland squad for the 2016 UEFA Euro which took place in France. He was an unused substitute in its first match which saw Northern Ireland lose to Poland by a margin of 1–0. He played the whole of the country's last group stage match against
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
which produced a similar result due to which Northern Ireland was eliminated from the tournament. During the first leg of a two-game playoff against Switzerland in the qualifying tournament for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, Evans was penalised for handball after a shot from close proximity from Xherdan Shaqiri went off his side, leading to a penalty kick that would be converted for what would ultimately prove the deciding score, both on the day and on aggregate. His brother Jonny compared the decision to
Thierry Henry Thierry Daniel Henry (born 17 August 1977) is a French professional football coach, pundit, and former player who is an assistant coach for the Belgium national team. Considered one of the best strikers of all time and one of the best player ...
's handball against the Republic of Ireland in the 2010 qualification playoff.


Career statistics


Club


International

:''Scores and results list Northern Ireland's goal tally first.''


Honours

Blackburn Rovers * EFL League One runner-up: 2017–18 Sunderland *
EFL 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 t ...
:
2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...


References


External links

* * at irishfa.com
Northern Ireland progile
at NIFG * at redStat {{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Corry 1990 births Living people Association footballers from Belfast Association footballers from Northern Ireland Northern Ireland youth international footballers Northern Ireland under-21 international footballers Northern Ireland B international footballers Northern Ireland international footballers Association football defenders Association football midfielders Manchester United F.C. players Carlisle United F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players English Football League players UEFA Euro 2016 players People educated at Monkstown Community School