Rhys Philip Elliot Murphy (born 6 November 1990) is a 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 ...

who plays as a striker for club

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

. He has played in the

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engl ...

for Brentford, Preston North End, Dagenham & Redbridge,

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic be ...

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The club was founded as Crawley Football Club in 1896, changed its name to Crawley Town Football Club in 1958. The team com ...

, AFC Wimbledon,

Forest Green Rovers Forest Green Rovers Football Club are a professional football club based in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England. The team compete in , the third tier of the English football league system, and have played their home games at The New Lawn since ...

and Gillingham. Murphy represented his native England at under-16, under-17 and under-19 international levels, but switched allegiance to the Republic of Ireland in 2011 and played for their under-21 team.

Club career

Youth and Arsenal

Murphy was born in

Shoreham-by-Sea Shoreham-by-Sea (often shortened to Shoreham) is a coastal town and port in West Sussex, England. The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to its west by the Adur Valley and to its south by the River Adur and Shoreham Beach on th ...

, West Sussex. He broke into the Arsenal reserve team as a schoolboy, while also scoring 17 goals in 21 matches for the

Arsenal Academy The Arsenal Academy was a military academy in Columbia, South Carolina, originally established in 1842 as an independent school by the state of South Carolina. In 1845, the academy became a component of the South Carolina Military Academy (now Th ...

. He was previously an academy player for Wimbledon before joining Arsenal Academy. He signed his first professional contract in July 2008. He won the

2008–09 Premier Academy League The 2008–09 Premier Academy League Under–18 season was the twelfth edition since the establishment of The Premier Academy League, and the fifth under the current make-up. The first matches of the season were played on 23 August 2008, and the s ...

with the Arsenal under-18 team, scoring the only goal in the play-off final versus

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

, and the

2008–09 FA Youth Cup The 2008–09 FA Youth Cup was the 57th FA Youth Cup. A record 474 clubs participated in the competition. The competition started in September 2008 with the preliminary round and concluded with the final on 22 and 26 May 2009. Arsenal knocked o ...

Brentford (loan)

He joined

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 ...

club Brentford on

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that ...

for three months on 24 November 2009. In August 2011, Murphy had a trial with Scottish Premier League champions Rangers and played for their reserve team. In January 2012, he had a trial with Hibernian, another SPL club.

Preston North End (loan)

He signed for League One club Preston North End on loan until the end of the 2011–12 season. On 22 May 2012, Murphy was released by Arsenal.

Telstar

Murphy joined

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as t ...

club

Telstar Telstar is the name of various communications satellites. The first two Telstar satellites were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962. It successfully relayed through space the fi ...

on 9 June 2012, signing a one-year contract with an option for a second. He made his debut on 10 August 2012 in a 2–1 home defeat to

Helmond Sport Helmond Sport is a professional association football club based in the city of Helmond, North Brabant, Netherlands, that competes in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of the Dutch football league system. The club was founded on 27 June 1967, as ...

. In the 67th minute, he was substituted for

Leandro Resida Leandro Resida (born 11 October 1989) is a Dutch professional footballer who played as a winger for Rayong in Thai League 1. He formerly played for Telstar and FC Emmen. Career In 2017, Resida played for Suwaiq Club Al-Suwaiq Club ( ar, ...

who scored three minutes after.

Dagenham & Redbridge

He signed for

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 Dagenham & Redbridge on 22 July 2013 on a two-year contract. He scored on his debut in the 3–1 defeat away to

Fleetwood Town Fleetwood Town Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Fleetwood, Lancashire. Established in 1997, the current Fleetwood Town F.C. is the fourth incarnation of the club; it was originally formed in ...

on 3 August 2013. He then scored his second goal for Dagenham in a 2–0 home win against

York City York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league sys ...

the following week.

Oldham Athletic

On 2 February 2015, Murphy signed for League One club

on a two-and-a-half-year contract for an undisclosed fee believed to be in the region of £20,000, to accelerate a pre-contract agreement set to activate in the 2015 summer transfer window. Manager Lee Johnson said of the arrival, "I'm really pleased to bring Rhys to the club and he is an exciting prospect for us, I'm looking forward to working with him and he will fit into our style of play seamlessly".

Crawley Town (loan)

He joined League Two club

on 17 September 2015 on a 93-day loan.

Forest Green Rovers

On 7 July 2016, Murphy signed for

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

club

for a nominal fee. His first goal for Forest Green came on 20 August 2016 in a 2–1 home win over York. He followed his first goal up by scoring twice in a 4–1 away victory over Maidstone United a week later on 27 August 2016.

York City (loan)

On 1 December 2016, Murphy joined Forest Green's divisional rivals York City on loan until 7 January 2017.

Crawley Town Return (loan)

On 31 January 2017, Murphy returned to League Two club Crawley Town on loan for the remainder of 2016–17. Five days later, Murphy made his Crawley return in a 2–1 home defeat against Stevenage, replacing Enzio Boldewijn with 12 minutes remaining.

Torquay United (loan)

On 19 September 2017, Murphy joined National League side

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

on a three-month loan deal. He had his contract with Forest Green cancelled by mutual consent on 9 January 2018.

Gillingham

Murphy signed for League One club Gillingham on 31 January 2018 on a short-term contract.

Chelmsford City

Murphy signed for National League South club

Chelmsford City Chelmsford City Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Chelmsford, Essex, England. Currently members of they play at the Melbourne Stadium. History Chelmsford Chelmsford Football Club was established in 1878 by members of ...

on 11 July 2018. On 26 December 2018, Murphy scored his first

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

for the club in a 5–1 win against rivals

Billericay Town Billericay Town Football Club is a football club based in Billericay, Essex, England. The club are currently members of and play at New Lodge. They are the second most successful club in FA Vase history, having won the competition on three o ...

. Murphy was released by Chelmsford at the end of the 2018–19 season, having been the club's top scorer with 28 goals in all competitions.

Yeovil Town

Murphy signed for newly relegated

club

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

on 26 June 2019 on a two-year contract.

Southend United

On 10 June 2021, after weeks of speculation, Murphy agreed a two-year deal to join recently relegated National League side

, officially joining the club on 1 July 2021 upon the expiration of his Yeovil contract.

International career

England

Murphy has played for the England under-16 and under-17 teams and was part of under-19 squad that reached the final of

2009 UEFA European Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship 2009 Final Tournament was held in Ukraine in the cities of Donetsk and Mariupol. Players born after 1 January 1990 were eligible to participate in this competition. Qualification Qualification for the final ...

Republic of Ireland

Before playing for England, Murphy represented the Republic of Ireland at under-15 level and after an approach from Irish under-21 Head Coach Noel King, he switched his allegiance back to the country of his grandfather. He was called up to the under-21 squad in August 2011, and made his debut on 1 September 2011 against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

at the Showgrounds, scoring the winner in a 2–1 victory.

Career statistics

Honours

Arsenal *

Premier Academy League The Premier Academy League (sometimes abbreviated as FAPAL) was the top level of youth football in England before it was to be replaced by a new league proposed by the Elite Player Performance Plan in 2012, which was accepted by the 72 member ...

: 2008–09 * FA Youth Cup: 2008–09 AFC Wimbledon *

Football League Two play-offs The EFL League Two play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from fourth to seventh in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are part of the annual Eng ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

England U19 *

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 ...

runner-up: 2009 Individual *

Player of the Year: 2018–19 *Chelmsford City Players' Player of the Year: 2018–19 *Chelmsford City Away Player of the Year: 2018–19

References

External links

Profile
at the Yeovil Town F.C. website
Profile
at the Football Association of Ireland website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Rhys 1990 births Living people People from Shoreham-by-Sea Footballers from West Sussex English footballers England men's youth international footballers Republic of Ireland association footballers Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers Republic of Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football forwards Wimbledon F.C. players Arsenal F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players SC Telstar players Dagenham & Redbridge F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Crawley Town F.C. players AFC Wimbledon players Forest Green Rovers F.C. players York City F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Chelmsford City F.C. players Yeovil Town F.C. players Southend United F.C. players English Football League players Eerste Divisie players National League (English football) players English expatriate footballers Republic of Ireland expatriate association footballers Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands English expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Irish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands English people of Irish descent