James Cleary (born on 27 May 1956) is a Northern Irish former

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 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

Enniskillen Rangers Enniskillen Rangers is a Northern Irish football club located in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh and play in the Fermanagh & Western League Division 1. The club are the current holders of the Irish Junior Cup and Fermanagh & Western Division O ...

Portadown Portadown () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population of a ...

and

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882. History Early history In 1914, Glentoran won the Vienna Cup, becoming the first United Kingdom team to win a European t ...

and the Northern Ireland national team.

Career

Cleary began his career with

before making the step up to the Irish League with

in 1975. He spent five seasons at

before moving to

in 1980. He scored in the first round of the

1981–82 European Cup The 1981–82 season of the European Cup football club tournament was won for the only time by Aston Villa in the final against Bayern Munich. The final is remembered mainly for the performance of young stand-in goalkeeper Nigel Spink who made a ...

. He is widely regarded as one of the best footballers to have represented Glentoran in the 1980s, as well as one of the best in the Irish League during this period. Cleary was noted for his passing and shooting skills with his left foot and an excellent scoring record from midfield.

won two Irish League championships and six Irish Cups during his nine-year stay, which also included a few notable European performances. Cleary was one of four Irish League players to be included in Billy Bingham's World Cup squad in 1982. He had five caps for the

Northern Ireland national football team The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international association football. From 1882 to 1920, all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team (1882–1950), Ireland natio ...

. He was named the

Ulster Footballer of the Year The Ulster Footballer of the Year is the older of two association football player of the year awards in Northern Ireland. (The other is the Northern Ireland Football Writers' Association award.) It is awarded by Castlereagh Glentoran Supporters ...

for the 1982/83 season.M. Brodie (ed.), ''Northern Ireland Soccer Yearbook 2009-2010'', p. 102. Belfast:Ulster Tatler Publications

References

External links

* *
Northern Ireland's Footballing Greats

Ireland's Saturday Night
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cleary, Jim 1956 births Living people Association footballers from Northern Ireland Ulster Footballers of the Year Association football midfielders Northern Ireland international footballers 1982 FIFA World Cup players NIFL Premiership players Portadown F.C. players Glentoran F.C. players