James Downey (born 19 October 1987 in

Gympie, Queensland Gympie ( ) is a city and a locality in the Gympie Region, Queensland, Australia. In the Wide Bay-Burnett District, Gympie is about north of the state capital, Brisbane. The city lies on the Mary River, which floods Gympie occasionally. The l ...

, Australia) is an Australian

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 currently plays for

Ballarat Red Devils Ballarat City FC is an Australian semi-professional association football club based in Ballarat, Victoria. For most of its history, the club's home ground was Trekardo Park, before making the move to the Ballarat Regional Soccer Facility in 2014 ...

in the National Premier Leagues Victoria Division 1.

Club career

Downey was with the

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

Academy of Sport between 2003 and 2004 before joining the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

in 2005. Downey holds the

AIS AIS may refer to: Medicine * Abbreviated Injury Scale, an anatomical-based coding system to classify and describe the severity of injuries * Acute ischemic stroke, the thromboembolic type of stroke * Androgen insensitivity syndrome, an intersex ...

football program

beep test The multi-stage fitness test (MSFT), also known as the beep test, bleep test, PACER (Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run), PACER test, FitnessGram PACER test, or the 20 m Shuttle Run Test (20 m SRT), is a running test used to estimate ...

record (16.3). In March 2007 Downey was signed by

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues. Founded in 19 ...

where he is contracted to the end of the 2009/2010

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

season. On 12 January 2010, it was announced he would be joining

North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...

for the rest of the 2009–10 season in a swap for striker

Daniel McBreen Daniel James McBreen (born 23 April 1977) is a former professional footballer who played as a striker. He played in the Romanian Divizia A for Universitatea Craiova, in the Scottish Premier League for Falkirk, in the Football League for ...

. He was released, along with all other North Queensland players. He signed up for Dutch Eerste Divisie side Sparta in July 2010. He has come back to Australia and is playing with local club the

Oakleigh Cannons Oakleigh Cannons Football Club is a soccer club based in the south-east Melbourne suburb of Oakleigh, Victoria, Australia. The club, established by members of Oakleigh's Greek Australian community, currently competes in the NPL Victoria. The cl ...

, in the

Victorian Premier League The National Premier Leagues Victoria, commonly known as NPL Victoria, is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level within the Victorian soccer leagu ...

in a bid to gain a professional contract with an

club. He scored his first goal for the club against St Albans Saints. He scored his second goal for the opening the scoring, against the Green Gully Cavaliers He was signed by New Zealand

team

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the ...

for the 2011–12 A-League season. Downey was released in June 2013. A persistent knee injury kept Downey out of professional football until January 2015 when it was announced that he had signed for

ahead of their maiden season in

National Premier Leagues Victoria 1 The National Premier Leagues Victoria 2, commonly referred to as NPL Victoria 2, is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is the second-highest in the Victorian league system, behind the National Premier Leagues Vi ...

, after training with the team for the entire 2014 NPLV season during his rehabilitation.Jimmy Downey overcomes injury to join Red Devils
Ballarat Courier

International career

Downey has played 13 games for the

Young Socceroos The Australia national under-20 soccer team, known colloquially as the Young Socceroos, represents Australia in international under-20 soccer. The team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia (FA), which ...

, scoring one goal. He has also been called up for the Australia under 17 team.

Career statistics

(''Correct as of 6 May 2011'')

References

External links

Perth Glory profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Downey, Jimmy 1987 births Living people People from Gympie Australian soccer players Australia youth international soccer players Australia under-20 international soccer players Australian expatriate soccer players Perth Glory FC players Sparta Rotterdam players A-League Men players Wellington Phoenix FC players Ballarat City FC players Northern Fury FC players Eerste Divisie players Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Australian Institute of Sport soccer players Association football defenders Association football midfielders