Lee Patrick O'Connor (born 28 July 2000) is an Irish 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 defender for

EFL 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 ...

club

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they adop ...

, and the Republic of Ireland national team. He has also spent time on loan at

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...

Club career

Early career

In 2016, O'Connor moved from Villa F.C. of

Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

to the Manchester United youth team, signing a three-year contract. On 6 August 2019, O'Connor played an

EFL 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 Le ...

match for Manchester United U21s away to

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 ...

, winning 2–0 at the

New York Stadium The New York Stadium (known as the AESSEAL New York Stadium for sponsorship purposes) is a football stadium in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. Opened in July 2012, it is the home ground of Rotherham United. Its name was inspired by the com ...

Celtic

In September 2019, O'Connor joined

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 ...

, signing a four-year contract until 2023.

Partick Thistle loan

In January 2020, O'Connor joined

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland Scotland (, ...

club

on loan, joining Ian McCall's side for the second half of the season. He made his debut in senior club football on 25 January 2020, in a 2–1 loss to

Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( gd, Obar Bhrothaig ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast some ENE of Dundee and SSW of Aberdeen. The ...

. He made five appearances in all competitions for the club before the season was ended prematurely due to the

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Tranmere Rovers

O'Connor joined

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 ...

club

on 17 August 2020 on a season-long loan. He made 42 appearances over the course of the season and returned to

for pre-season. O'Connor returned to

on another season long loan on transfer deadline day, 31 August 2021. The transfer was made permanent in January 2022.

International career

O'Connor made his international debut, and recorded an assist, for 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 ...

on 14 November 2019 in a

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

match against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. O'Connor was announced as the FAI Under-21 International Player of the Year for 2019 on 4 August 2020. O'Connor holds the record number of underage appearances for the Republic of Ireland with 78 appearances across all underage teams.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Individual * FAI Under-15 International Player of the Year: 2015 * FAI Under-19 International Player of the Year: 2018 * FAI Under-21 International Player of the Year: 2019

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:OConnor, Lee 2000 births Living people Association footballers from Waterford (city) Association footballers from County Waterford Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers Republic of Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Republic of Ireland men's international footballers Republic of Ireland expatriate men's association footballers Irish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England Irish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Men's association football defenders Manchester United F.C. players Celtic F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Tranmere Rovers F.C. players English Football League players