Emmett Diarnuid O'Connor (born September 13, 1992, in

Ajax, Ontario Ajax (; 2021 Canadian census, 2021 population: 126,666) is a town in Regional Municipality of Durham, Durham Region in Southern Ontario, Canada, located in the eastern part of the Greater Toronto Area. The town is named for , a Royal Navy cruiser ...

) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

professional

soccer 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 ...

player who last played 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 ...

for

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The club was founded as Crawley Football Club in 1896, changed its name to Crawley Town Football Club in 1958. The team co ...

Playing career

Before and during high school, O'Connor played six seasons for the Ajax Admirals, an amateur U21 team affiliated with the

Ontario Soccer Association The Ontario Soccer Association, founded in 1901, is one of the oldest and largest sport organizations in Canada. The OSA currently has more than 500,000 registered participants and provides development opportunities for players, coaches, refere ...

. During his time at

Archbishop Denis O'Connor Catholic High School Archbishop Denis O'Connor Catholic High School (abbreviated DO'C) is a Roman Catholic high school located in Ajax, Ontario, Canada, within the Durham Catholic District School Board. It is named for Archbishop Denis T. O'Connor, a priest who was ...

, O'Connor earned various honors with the school team including being named team captain and Male Soccer Player of the Year as a sophomore and junior, and winning four consecutive Lake Ontario Secondary School Athletics (LOSSA) championships between 2006 and 2009. After high school, O'Connor played

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United Kingd ...

for the St. Bonaventure Bonnies of St. Bonaventure University between 2010 and 2013. In total, O'Connor scored 17 goals and recorded a team-record 24 assists in 57 matches. After college, O'Connor played one season with Scarborough City Celtic of

Ontario Soccer League The Ontario Soccer League (OSL) is a competitive amateur soccer league in Ontario, Canada. The OSL is affiliated with and governed by the Ontario Soccer Association. According to the OSA, the OSL has Provincial Leagues, Regional Leagues and Multi-J ...

, the fifth tier of the

Canadian soccer league system The Canadian soccer league system, also called the Canadian soccer pyramid, is a term used in soccer to describe the structure of the league system in Canada. The governing body of soccer in the country is the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA), w ...

. Following his final season with the Bonnies, O'Connor was invited for a trial 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 ...

, the third tier of the

English football league system The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the Isl ...

, by manager John Gregory. The trial was arrange by former

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

player and manager

Kevin Keen Kevin Ian Keen (born 25 February 1967) is an English football coach and former player. Keen is currently the coach of West Ham United under-18 team. Keen began his career with Wycombe Wanderers before joining West Ham United in 1983. He spen ...

who was the father of one of O'Connor's teammates at St. Bonaventure. After a successful trial which included preseason appearances against

non-league Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

Billingshurst and Oakwood and

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

of 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 Foo ...

, he was offered a one-year contract to join the club on July 24, 2014. About O'Connor's early performances with the club, John Gregory said, "He was recommended to us, has come in and worked hard...He is the sort of kid that just wants to be a player, works hard at everything he does and gives everything at all times." O'Connor made his league debut on August 16, 2014, as an 86th-minute substitute for Gwion Edwards against

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at ...

. He made his first competitive start for Crawley Town on September 2, 2014, in a

Football League 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 Leag ...

match against

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They compete in EFL League one , the 3rd tier of the English football league system. The club is based at the Abbey Stadium on N ...

after making four previous substitute appearances. He earned his first league start four days later against

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

. On 24 March 2015, O'Connor was loaned to

Lewes F.C. Lewes Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Lewes, East Sussex, England. The men's first team are currently members of the and play at the Dripping Pan. History The club was established in a meeting at the Royal Oak pu ...

for the remainder of the

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 tea ...

season so that he could play competitive soccer. In total, he appeared in two league matches and scored a goal for Lewes before returning to Crawley Town. In June 2015, it was announced that O'Connor had been released by Crawley Town.

International career

In 2005, O'Connor played for a Canadian team at the Under-12 level as part of the squad that competed at the

Danone Nations Cup The Danone Nations Cup is a football tournament for children between the ages of 10 and 12 (U12s category); it is organized every year since 2000 on the initiative of Groupe Danone.Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. In the tournament, Canada finished 20th out of 32 teams and held both the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

to 1–1 draws in addition to a 0–1 defeat to the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

Personal

O'Connor also holds an Irish passport.

Statistics

References

External links

Crawley Town profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:OConnor, Emmett 1992 births Living people Men's association football midfielders Canadian men's soccer players Canadian expatriate men's soccer players Crawley Town F.C. players Sportspeople from Ajax, Ontario Soccer people from Ontario English Football League players Canadian expatriate sportspeople in England