Liam Rory Delap (born 8 February 2003) 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 le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

club

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

, on loan from

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 Foo ...

club

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

Club career

Delap joined

's academy in 2019 from

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

, impressing from a young age and being capped at several youth levels with England. He scored a goal and set up two others in the final of the 2020 Under-18 Premier League Cup. On 24 September 2020, Delap made his first-team debut in a 2–1 home win against

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth () is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest division of English club football. Formed in 1899 as B ...

in the

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

, scoring his first senior goal in the 18th minute. After the match, manager

Pep Guardiola Josep "Pep" Guardiola Sala (; born 18 January 1971) is a Spanish professional football manager and former player, who is the current manager of club Manchester City. He is considered one of the greatest managers of all time and holds the re ...

praised him and confirmed Delap would continue training with the first team. Three days later, he made his

debut in a 5–2 home defeat by

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

, coming on as a substitute for Fernandinho in the 51st minute. In April 2021, Guardiola confirmed that Delap would be moved up to the first-team permanently before the following season. Delap won his first trophy on April 25, when City defeated Tottenham 1–0 in the League Cup final at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

. Delap, however, was not selected for the squad and instead had to follow the match in the stands. During the 2021 pre-season, Delap suffered an injury to his foot, which led to him missing the Community Shield against

, which Manchester City lost 1–0, and the

opener against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

, which they also lost 1–0. On 20 August, amid interest from several

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 ...

clubs looking to loan him, Delap signed a three-year contract extension, keeping him at the club until 2026. Following a number of injuries, he made his first appearance of the season as a substitute in the FA Cup 3rd Round tie against

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

in February 2022, and also came on during the 4–0 win over

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

in the Premier League, winning the penalty for the 4th goal. On 15 February 2022, Delap made his

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

debut in the first leg of the

round of 16 A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

tie as a substitute for

Bernardo Silva Bernardo Mota Veiga de Carvalho e Silva (; born 10 August 1994), known as Bernardo Silva or simply Bernardo, is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder, forward or a winger for club Manchester City and the P ...

, in a 5–0 away win over

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

champions

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

. On 18 August 2022, Delap joined

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

on loan for the 2022–23 season. He scored his first goal for Stoke in a 3–1 win over

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 ...

on 8 October 2022. After making 23 appearances for Stoke, scoring three goals, Delap was recalled by Manchester City on 12 January 2023 and was sent to

for the remainder of the 2022–23 season.

International career

Delap has represented England at youth level. He finished as top scorer at the 2019 Mercedes-Benz Aegean Tournament for U16 international sides in Turkey, and went on to play for the U17s. On 29 March 2021, Delap made his debut for England U18s during a 2–0 win away to Wales at Leckwith Stadium. On 23 March 2022, Delap made his U19 debut as a substitute in a 3–1 win over

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 ...

during

2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification The 2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-19 football competition that determined the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Slovakia in the 2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final ...

at the

Bescot Stadium Bescot Stadium, also known as the Poundland Bescot Stadium for sponsorship purposes, is a football stadium in Walsall, England, and the current home ground of Walsall Football Club. It was built in 1989–90, by GMI Construction, with a reporte ...

. On 17 June 2022, Delap was included in the England U19 squad for the

2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship The 2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-19 Euro 2022) was the 19th edition of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship (69th edition if the Under-18 and Junior eras are included), the annual international youth footba ...

. He scored the only goal of the match in their last group fixture. On 1 July 2022, Delap came off the bench during extra time in the final and helped

Aaron Ramsey Aaron James Ramsey (born 26 December 1990) is a Welsh professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ligue 1 club Nice and the Wales national team. Ramsey mainly plays as a box-to-box midfielder, but has also been deployed on the left ...

score the last goal of the game as England beat

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

3–1 to win the tournament. On 21 September 2022, Delap made his

England U20 England national under-20 football team, also known as England Under-20s or England U20(s), represents England in association football at an under-20 age level and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in Eng ...

debut and scored during a 3–0 victory over

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

at the

Pinatar Arena The Pinatar Arena is an association football stadium located in San Pedro del Pinatar, Murcia, Spain. The 3,000-seat stadium is part of the larger Pinatar Arena Football Center which also includes a sports club, hotel, training fields, and other a ...

Personal life

Delap was born in

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

, Hampshire, and is the son of former professional footballer

Rory Delap Rory John Delap (born 6 July 1976) is a former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Born in England, he made 11 appearances for the Republic of Ireland national team. Delap started his career at Carlisle United and impressed en ...

, who represented the Republic of Ireland national team. His grandfather and three great-uncles are originally from

Letterkenny Letterkenny ( ga, Leitir Ceanainn , meaning 'hillside of the O'Cannons'), nicknamed 'the Cathedral Town', is the largest and most populous town in County Donegal, a county in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland. Letterkenny lies on the R ...

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconne ...

Career statistics

Honours

England U19s *

UEFA European Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply UEFA Under-19 Championship or the UEFA Euro U-19, is an annual football competition contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Spain and England ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

References

External links

Profile
at the Manchester City F.C. website {{DEFAULTSORT:Delap, Liam 2003 births Living people Sportspeople from Winchester Footballers from Hampshire English footballers England youth international footballers Association football forwards Derby County F.C. players Manchester City F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players Premier League players English people of Irish descent English Football League players