James John O'Brien (born 28 September 1987) is a 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 le ...

who plays as a

central 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

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League (division), National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 2 ...

. His previous clubs include

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

and Ross County in Scotland, and

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

and

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

in England. Born in Scotland, he represented Ireland at youth international level.

Club career

Celtic and loans

Raised in

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990. Dumbarton was the ca ...

, O'Brien began his career in the

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if ...

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

. He was loaned out to

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently play in Scottish League One after being relegated from the 2021–22 Scottish Championship. Dunfermline ...

during the 2006–07 season. He made his debut in their 3–2

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Rangers on 7 January 2007. He scored his first goal in Dunfermline's 4–1 victory over Motherwell on 7 May 2007. He made his debut Celtic in a 2–1 victory over Gretna on 7 October 2007; he filled in as a right-back due to all of Celtic's recognised players in that position being injured. O'Brien joined Dundee United on loan on 31 January until May 2008.

Motherwell

On 8 August 2008, O'Brien signed for

. He scored four goals in 64 league appearances for Motherwell, earning selection for the

PFA Scotland The Professional Footballers' Association Scotland (PFA Scotland) is the association for professional footballers in Scotland. It was known as the Scottish Professional Footballers' Association (SPFA), but that organisation was dissolved and repla ...

team of the year in 2009–10.

Barnsley

On 7 May 2010, O'Brien signed a pre-contract agreement with English

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 ...

side

, then under the stewardship of

Mark Robins Mark Gordon Robins (born 22 December 1969) is an English football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Coventry City in the EFL Championship. As a player, he was a striker and is best known for his time in the Premier Leagu ...

. He scored his first goal for the club during a 5–2 win against

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 S ...

Oakwell Oakwell is a multi-purpose sports development in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England used primarily by Barnsley Football Club for playing their home fixtures, and those of their reserves. While the name 'Oakwell' generally refers to the main s ...

in September 2010. As of 5 April 2013, O'Brien had scored five and assisted eight goals for Barnsley. In May 2014, O'Brien rejected a new contract offer from Barnsley.

Coventry City

O'Brien completed a move to Coventry City on a two-year contract on 4 July 2014. He made his league debut on the opening day of the 2014–15 season in a 3–2 defeat to

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

. He scored a disputed first goal for the club against

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 ...

Sixfields Sixfields is an area of Northampton, Northamptonshire, England about west of the town centre along the A4500 St James Road and Weedon Road towards M1 junction 16 about further west. It is close to the Duston, Upton and St James areas o ...

(later credited as an own goal by ''Blades'' defender Bob Harris). His second goal for the club was less disputable as he scored from close-range to make the score 2–2 against

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 ...

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 ...

on 25 October 2014; the ''Sky Blues'' went on to win the game 3–2. On 15 February 2016, O'Brien was loaned out to

Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. The side currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The tea ...

on an emergency basis.

Shrewsbury Town and Ross County

On 17 June 2016, O'Brien completed a move to League One side

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

. He signed a two-year deal arriving as a free agent following his release from Coventry. A first-team regular during the first half of the season, he scored his first goal for the club in an

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 ...

second-round replay against

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 18 January 2017, O'Brien joined

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

side Ross County on loan from Shrewsbury until the end of the 2016–17 season. He made his debut for the club as a substitute in a

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

, scoring the final goal in a 6–2 victory. He left Shrewsbury by mutual consent in July 2017, despite having a year left to run on his contract. then signed a two-year contract with Ross County.

Bradford City and Notts County

In September 2018 he signed a short-term contract with

. He left the club in January 2019. On 8 January 2019, O'Brien signed for

the same day he was released by Bradford City. He was released at the end of the 2018–19 season, but rejoined the club on 1 August 2019. On 11 May 2021, O'Brien scored his first career

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in Notts County's 4–0 win away at

Maidenhead United Maidenhead United Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. They are currently members of and have played at York Road since 1871, making it the 'oldest senior football ground continuously ...

International career

Although O'Brien represented 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 ...

at under-19 and under-21 levels, he opted to switch allegiances and represent the nation of his birth, citing a chance to work with

Craig Levein Craig William Levein (born 22 October 1964) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He is currently a full-time advisor to the board of directors at Highland Football League club Brechin City. During his playing career ...

, who he also worked with while at Dundee United.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Jim 1987 births Living people Sportspeople from Dumbarton Footballers from West Dunbartonshire Barnsley F.C. players Celtic F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players Dundee United F.C. players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Scunthorpe United F.C. players Association football wingers Motherwell F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Ross County F.C. players Republic of Ireland association footballers Republic of Ireland youth international footballers Republic of Ireland under-21 international footballers Scottish people of Irish descent Scottish footballers Scottish Premier League players English Football League players Scottish Professional Football League players People educated at Our Lady & St Patrick's High School Bradford City A.F.C. players Notts County F.C. players Scotland youth international footballers National League (English football) players Association football midfielders