Matthew Shiels (born 13 September 2000) is a Scottish 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

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Scottish League One The Scottish League One, known as cinch League One for sponsorship reasons, is the third tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish League One was e ...

side

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 ...

Early and personal life

Shiels was born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. His paternal grandparents were from Donegal in Ireland, and he grew supporting

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 ...

Club career

After playing youth football for Rangers, and spending loan spells at Edinburgh City,

and

Clyde Clyde may refer to: People * Clyde (given name) * Clyde (surname) Places For townships see also Clyde Township Australia * Clyde, New South Wales * Clyde, Victoria * Clyde River, New South Wales Canada * Clyde, Alberta * Clyde, Ontario, a tow ...

, as well as in the United States with

Orange County SC Orange County Soccer Club is an American soccer team based in the Orange County, California city of Irvine. Founded in 2010 as the Los Angeles Blues, the team currently plays in the second tier USL Championship. The team plays its home games at ...

, Shiels signed for

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish association football, football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire who currently compete in the Scottish Championshi ...

in summer 2021. Shiels left Hamilton in June 2023 and re-joined

in August 2023 scoring his first goal for the club in a 4–0 victory against Bonnyrigg Rose in November 2023, in a game where he also won a penalty and provided an assist. After impressing for the Sons, he left for

side Cove Rangers in January 2024 – scoring on his final appearance for the Sons in a 4–1 defeat to Rangers. He left Cove after just eight appearances, and returned to Dumbarton on a season long deal in the summer of 2024.

International career

Having previously been called up for Scotland at under-17 level, in November 2017 he was called up to the Republic of Ireland under-18 squad, making his debut on 9 November. He also played with the Republic of Ireland under-19s, before later reverting his international allegiance back to Scotland, playing ten games for the Scotland under-19 team.

Playing style

Shiels plays primarily as a

, but also played as a

left winger 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 ...

and striker for Rangers. On signing for

in August 2023 he said he preferred playing in a more attacking role.

Honours

Hamilton Academical *

Scottish Challenge Cup The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup,2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Raith Rovers 0–1 Hamilton Academical
Andrew Petrie,

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

, 26 March 2023

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shiels, Matthew 2000 births Living people Scottish men's footballers Rangers F.C. players Edinburgh City F.C. players Dumbarton F.C. players Clyde F.C. players Orange County SC players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Scottish Professional Football League players Men's association football fullbacks Scottish expatriate men's footballers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Scotland men's youth international footballers Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers Scottish people of Irish descent Footballers from Glasgow Cove Rangers F.C. players