Paul Francis McVeigh (born 6 December 1977) is a former
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
international
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 for
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 ...
,
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 ...
,
Burnley
Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...
and
Luton Town
Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...
in the English Leagues.
Club career
Born in
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
, McVeigh started his career at
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 ...
where he made 3 appearances scoring 1 goal against
Coventry City
Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...
. He joined
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 March 2000 on a free transfer. The following season he made 6 starts and 6 substitute appearances. He also scored his first goal for the club in a 1–0 home win against
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...
.
The following season he scored 10 goals as Norwich reached the final of the
Division One
The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...
play-offs. In the 2002–03 campaign he was the club's top scorer with 15 goals. Most of those goals came when he was partnering
Iwan Roberts
Iwan Wyn Roberts (born 26 June 1968) is a Welsh former professional footballer, who played as a striker from 1986 to 2005 for a number of clubs and the Welsh national team
)
, Association = Football Association of Wales (FAW)
, C ...
upfront, although later in the season Worthington decided to move him to left midfield. The following season he scored 5 goals in over 40 appearances and helped Norwich win promotion to the
FA 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 ...
. During the 2004–05 season in the Premier League, McVeigh made 20 first team appearances, and his highlight was when he scored at
Old Trafford
Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...
in Norwich's first away game.
McVeigh was made available for transfer by manager
Nigel Worthington
Nigel Worthington (born 4 November 1961) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who was most recently the manager of York City.
He played a defender and a midfielder, playing his club football for Ballymena United, Notts County, ...
at the start of the 2005–06 season although towards the end of 2005 injuries forced Worthington to start McVeigh. McVeigh played incredibly well for the remainder of the season scoring vital goals at Leeds, Leicester and Sheffield United. This helped gain him the player of the month award in December and January and he signed a one-year contract extension. He started off the 2006–07 season from the bench but got a run in the team by October. McVeigh made a bad first impression on new manager
Peter Grant when he was sent off for headbutting in injury time during the 1–0 win over Cardiff. McVeigh got very few opportunities under Grant and was loaned out to
Burnley
Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...
for the last few months of the season where he scored 3 goals helping them to survive in the championship. McVeigh was released by Norwich at the end of the 2006–07 season.
In July 2007 McVeigh trained with the Italian
Serie B
The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...
side
Pisa
Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...
before
Plymouth Argyle
Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...
manager
Ian Holloway
Ian Scott Holloway (born 12 March 1963) is an English professional football manager, former player, media personality and television pundit who was most recently the manager of Grimsby Town.
A midfielder, he notably played in the Premier League ...
gave him a trial with a view to signing him. A 6-month deal was offered but not accepted and the following month he signed for
Luton Town
Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...
, the ninth player Luton manager
Kevin Blackwell
Kevin Patrick Blackwell (born 21 December 1958) is an English former professional football goalkeeper who since retiring as a player has worked as a coach and a manager. He is currently the manager of Thai League 1 club Nakhon Ratchasima.
Ea ...
had signed in the summer.
McVeigh was offered a free transfer after Luton were relegated at the end of the 2007–08 season, but remained at the club as he was under contract until the end of the 2008–09 season. He featured in the game against
Bradford City
Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes.
Th ...
on 4 October, and then played regularly until late December, scoring his first goal for the club in the 2–1 victory against
Dagenham & Redbridge
Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club is a professional association football club based in Dagenham, Greater London, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Often known simply as Dag ...
. On 19 May 2009 he began a short trial with
MLS
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...
team
San Jose Earthquakes
The San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional soccer team based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete as a member club of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). Originally as the San Jose Clash, the franchise ...
in a bid to gain a contract after being released from Luton on a free transfer. The following season, 2009–2010, McVeigh began training with his old club Norwich City with City manager Bryan Gunn not ruling out signing McVeigh and on 22 July 2009, McVeigh re-signed for
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
on a one-year contract. McVeigh made his second debut for Norwich in their 5–2 victory over Wycombe. McVeigh started the first few games under Paul Lambert although and dropped down to the bench while the team went on a 20-game unbeaten run. He made his only appearance in 2010 coming on as a substitute in the 3–0 win over Bristol Rovers. He won his second league title with Norwich helping them gain promotion back to the Championship before calling a day on his professional career.
Norwich fans sing a song dedicated to the popular McVeigh; to the tune of
Frankie Valli
Francesco Stephen Castelluccio (born May 3, 1934), better known by his stage name Frankie Valli, is an American singer, known as the frontman of the Four Seasons beginning in 1960. He is known for his unusually powerful lead falsetto voice.
...
's ''
Can't Take My Eyes Off You
"Can't Take My Eyes Off You" is a 1967 song written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio. It was recorded as a single by Frankie Valli. The song was among his biggest hits, earning a gold record and reaching No. 2 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for a week ...
'', it notes the fans' love of him "despite your lack of height".
International career
Between 1999 and 2004 he was capped by
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
20 times, first by
Lawrie McMenemy
Lawrence McMenemy MBE (born 26 July 1936) is an English retired football coach, best known for his spell as manager of Southampton. He is rated in the ''Guinness Book of Records'' as one of the twenty most successful managers in post-war English ...
in the 1–1 home draw with Canada on 27 April 1999 whilst a youngster at Tottenham, then on 11 occasions by
Sammy McIlroy
Samuel Baxter McIlroy (born 2 August 1954) is a Northern Irish retired footballer who played for Manchester United, Stoke City, Manchester City, Örgryte (Sweden), Bury, VfB Mödling (Austria), Preston North End and the Northern Ireland natio ...
after McVeigh moved to Norwich and finally on eight more occasions by
Lawrie Sanchez
Lawrence Philip Sanchez (born 22 October 1959) is a Northern Irish football manager and former international footballer.
The defining moment of his playing career came in the 1988 FA Cup Final, when he scored the winning goal for Wimbledon ag ...
. He had previously won 11 caps for the under-21 side. McVeigh effectively retired from international football to concentrate on reviving his club career.
McVeigh called on the IFA to drop 'God Save the Queen' as the anthem for the Northern Ireland team.
Honours
*
Football League First Division
The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...
winner: 2004
*
Football League 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 Leag ...
winner: 2009
*
Football League One
The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...
winner: 2010
References
External links
Paul Mcveigh career statistics at SoccerbasePaul McVeigh's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:McVeigh, Paul
1977 births
Living people
Association footballers from Belfast
Association footballers from Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland youth international footballers
Northern Ireland under-21 international footballers
Northern Ireland international footballers
Association football forwards
Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players
Norwich City F.C. players
Burnley F.C. players
Luton Town F.C. players
Premier League players
English Football League players