Jack William O'Connell (born 29 March 1994) is an English 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 centre-back for club

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

. O'Connell began his career at

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 ...

and came to prominence after captaining

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 ...

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

from

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

in the 2013–14 season. He joined Championship club Brentford in February 2015, and remained there until July 2016 when signing for Sheffield United of

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 ...

. O'Connell was capped by England at under-18 and under-19 level, captaining the latter team.

Early and personal life

O'Connell was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, Merseyside, and was raised by his mother along with his three brothers. He moved to Málaga, Spain, with his family during his childhood, where he lived for four years before returning to England. He was a boyhood fan of

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has p ...

O'Connell is in a relationship with women's footballer Alex Greenwood, the two having met at

Savio Salesian College The Salesian Academy of St John Bosco (formerly known as Salesian College Grammar School, Savio Catholic High School and then Savio Salesian College) is a Roman Catholic secondary school in Bootle, Merseyside, England. The school is under the ca ...

, Bootle.

Club career

Early years

O'Connell began his career with the youth team at

Liverpool County Premier League The Liverpool County Premier League is a football competition based in Merseyside, England. It was founded in 2006 as a merger of the Liverpool County Football Combination and the I Zingari League. The league has three divisions, the Premier D ...

Premier Division club REMYCA United at the age of 16. He made seven appearances in the first team before being named their Youth Player of the Year for the 2010–11 season.

Blackburn Rovers

After having trials with

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 Fo ...

clubs Everton and

, O'Connell was signed by the

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

of the latter on a two-year contract in the summer of 2011. A left-sided centre-back and

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, he made 35 appearances and scored three goals for the academy and reserve teams during 2011–12 and was part of the academy team which reach the finals of the FA Youth Cup and the

Premier Academy League The Premier Academy League (sometimes abbreviated as FAPAL) was the top level of youth football in England before it was to be replaced by a new league proposed by the Elite Player Performance Plan in 2012, which was accepted by the 72 member ...

. O'Connell signed a two-year professional contract with Rovers in May 2012. After impressing on

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that ...

away from Ewood Park during the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

and 2013–14 seasons, O'Connell signed a new two-year contract in the summer of 2014. O'Connell received his maiden call into the first team squad on 12 August 2014, being named in the starting line-up for a

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

first round match versus Scunthorpe United. He played the full 90 minutes of the 1–0 defeat. He was called into the squad for the club's next two

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 ...

matches, before departing on loan. After his return, O'Connell's final involvement with the first team came on 3 January 2015, when he remained an unused substitute for a 2–1

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

third round victory over

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

. He departed Rovers on 2 February 2015, after making just one first team appearance in three-and-a-half years at Ewood Park. He made 49 appearances and scored three goals for the club's reserve and academy teams.

Rotherham United (loan)

On 22 November 2012, O'Connell signed on loan for

club

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

until 5 January 2013. O'Connell made the first senior appearance of his career on 24 November 2012, replacing Courtney Cameron in the 89th minute of a 1–0 away win against

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

. He made five appearances for Rotherham before returning to Blackburn.

York City (loan)

O'Connell joined another League Two team,

York City York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league sys ...

, on a one-month loan on 24 January 2013. He made his debut two days later in a 1–1 draw away to Gillingham. The loan was extended until the end of

on 25 February 2013. O'Connell made 18 appearances for York before returning to Blackburn after his loan expired.

Rochdale (loans)

O'Connell signed for League Two team

on 22 July 2013 on a six-month loan. Consistently good displays saw manager Keith Hill extend O'Connell's loan until the end of 2013–14 in December 2013. He was also named captain by Hill. O'Connell made 45 appearances as Rochdale earned automatic promotion to

after finishing third in League Two. On 1 September 2014, O'Connell rejoined Rochdale on a loan running until 3 January 2015. He scored the first senior goal of his career with a header in a 3–0 win over

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

on 25 October 2014. O'Connell returned to Blackburn Rovers after his loan expired, having made 19 appearances and scored three goals during his spell with Rochdale. Across his two spells at

Spotland Spotland ( ) is a district of Rochdale in Greater Manchester, England. The Rochdale ward name is Spotland and Falinge. The population of this ward at the 2011 census was 10,805. It lies on the River Spodden, and is the home of Spotland Stadium ...

, O'Connell made 64 appearances and scored three goals.

Brentford

On 2 February 2015, O'Connell signed for Championship club Brentford on a three-and-a-half-year contract. After a spell away on loan, he was an unused substitute on four occasions before the end of 2014–15. O'Connell made his long-awaited debut with a start at left back in Brentford's second match of 2015–16, a 4–0 League Cup first round defeat to

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and t ...

. A suspension to Harlee Dean in late November saw O'Connell come into the team and he headed his first Brentford goal to level the score at 2–2 in a

West London derby The West London derby is the name given to a football derby played between any two of Brentford, Chelsea, Fulham and Queens Park Rangers, all of whom are situated within West London. This particular derby is less prominent than other such derb ...

with Fulham on 12 December. Despite the departure of first-choice centre-back

James Tarkowski James Alan Tarkowski (born 19 November 1992) is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Everton. Tarkowski began his professional career at Oldham Athletic of League One, where he made 89 appearances across all ...

in January 2016, O'Connell remained as third-choice centre-back after being usurped by

Yoann Barbet Yoann Barbet (born 10 May 1993) is a French professional footballer who plays as a centre-back and left-back for Ligue 2 club Bordeaux. A product of the Bordeaux youth system, he signed his first professional contract with Chamois Niortais a ...

. He made sporadic appearances through to the end of the season and finished with 18 appearances and one goal.

Return to Rochdale (loan)

On 10 February 2015, O'Connell returned to League One team Rochdale on loan until the end of 2014–15. He made his third debut for the club in a 2–1 defeat to

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 ...

four days later. He made 12 appearances and scored two goals before being recalled by Brentford on 28 March. Earlier in the day he had celebrated the 100th professional appearance of his career with the winner in a 2–1 victory over Yeovil Town. Over the course of his three spells with Rochdale, O'Connell made 76 appearances and scored five goals.

Sheffield United

O'Connell signed for then League One club Sheffield United on 8 July 2016 on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee. He scored his first goal for Sheffield United in an EFL Trophy tie against

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...

on 9 November 2016. O'Connell made 50 appearances, scoring 6 goals, as Sheffield United were promoted to the Championship as League One champions. On 15 November 2017, O'Connell signed a new four-and-a-half-year contract with Sheffield United, keeping him at Bramall Lane until June 2022. On 28 April 2019 he saw his second promotion in three seasons with United, this time to the Premier League.

International career

O'Connell was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

once by the England under-18 team, playing the full 90 minutes of a 3–0 friendly victory over

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 ...

on 7 March 2012. He made his debut for the under-19s in a 3–0 2013 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification win over

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

on 26 September 2012. O'Connell won four further caps during the qualifying round, including three as captain. He won eight caps at under-19 level.

Career statistics

Honours

Sheffield United * EFL League One: 2016–17

References

External links

Profile
at the Sheffield United F.C. website {{DEFAULTSORT:OConnell, Jack 1994 births Living people Footballers from Liverpool Footballers from Málaga English footballers England youth international footballers Association football defenders Litherland REMYCA F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players York City F.C. players Rochdale A.F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players