Edward McCallion (born 25 January 1979), commonly known as Eddie McCallion, is a former

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

defender from

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

, Northern Ireland.

Club career

Blackburn Rovers

Having played with local

Derry and District League The Derry and District League is an amateur football league in Derry. The league includes youth and senior football teams. The Senior Sunday league football, Sunday League has two divisions, the Premier and the First Division. The Youth Leagues ...

club, Oxford United, as a youth from 1995, McCallion was spotted by Blackburn Rovers in 1997 and moved to the English club that same year. Spending just a year at

Ewood Park Ewood Park () is a football stadium in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, and the home of Blackburn Rovers F.C., founding members of the Football League and Premier League, who have played there since 1890. It is an all seater multi-sports facili ...

, he never managed to break into the first-team whilst there.

Derry City

McCallion signed for his home town club from Blackburn Rovers in 1998 and made his debut away to Cork City on 6 September 1998. He was the first choice right-back and also performed at centre-back when required. Dropped from the side for Damian Brennan at the start of the 2005 season, he fought his way back into the team and by the end of the season he was the first choice right-back, helping his club to a second-place finish in the league. He scored an important goal against Kildare County in the

FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Extra.ie FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as Derry ...

that same season and his overlapping runs offered

Derry City FC Derry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Derry, Northern Ireland. It plays in the League of Ireland Premier Division, the top tier of league football in the Republic of Ireland, and is the League of Irela ...

another attacking option. In 2003, Eddie McCallion had a daughter called Macy McCallion often deputised in the role of captain when Peter Hutton was absent. McCallion had captained the side on 13 occasions by the end of the 2006 season - one of the most notable of these being Derry City's

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

First Round 0–0 draw against Paris Saint-Germain at the Brandywell Stadium on 14 September 2006. McCallion made 52 appearances in all competitions during the 2006 season, the most of any City player that season, and, once again, helped the club finish as runners-up in the league for a second season running, consolidating his position as a firm fan-favourite. Eddie has three sisters and 4 brothers Due to his years of service and refusal to let managers move him on, Eddie has acquired hero like status with the Brandywell faithful and is viewed by many fans as the one player who embodies the club values more than any other. The defender is one of the few brothers to have played in a winning

side, as he appeared with brother Tommy in the 2002 final team. After 14 years, Eddie made his final appearance for Derry against former longtime manager Stephen Kenny's

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí na Seamróige) is an Irish association football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most su ...

. He came on as a stoppage time substitute to thunderous applause from the Brandywell faithful. He would then join

Glenavon Glenavon Football Club is a Northern Irish semi-professional football club that competes in the NIFL Premiership. Founded in 1889, the club hails from Lurgan and plays its home matches at Mourneview Park. Club colours are blue and white. Gar ...

on a two-year contract.

Glenavon

McCallion signed for Glenavon on a 2-year deal in July 2012, and made a total of 112

NIFL Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northe ...

appearances for the club.

Bangor

He signed for NIFL Championship One club Bangor in the summer of 2014, and made 5 substitute appearances during the 2014/15 season.

International career

McCallion played for Northern Ireland at schoolboy, youth and under-21 level.Northern Ireland Soccer Yearbook 2011/2012, page 130

Honours

Derry City *

(2): 2002,

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

* League of Ireland Cup (6): 1999–2000,

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Glenavon *

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Ina ...

(1): 2013–14

References

External links

Player Profile - Official Derry City site
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCallion, Eddie 1979 births Living people Derry City F.C. players League of Ireland players Northern Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Association footballers from Derry (city) Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Glenavon F.C. players NIFL Premiership players Men's association football defenders