Roy Alan Chipolina (born 20 January 1983) is a Gibraltarian

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

Gibraltar Premier Division The Gibraltar Premier Division was a football league established by the Gibraltar Football Association (GFA) in 1905, and the top tier of football in Gibraltar. It originally contained eight member clubs, but it has grown over the years. In 19 ...

side Lincoln Red Imps and the Gibraltar national team, for which he serves as captain.

Club career

Chipolina has played for

side Lincoln Red Imps since 2006. He became the first Gibraltarian, and oldest player, to score in the fledgling

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Europa Conference League (abbreviated as UECL) is an annual football club competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. Clubs qualify for the competition based on their ...

when he scored in a 4–1 defeat to Slovan Bratislava on 4 November 2021.

International career

Chipolina made his international debut with the Gibraltar national team on 18 November 2013 in a 0–0 home draw with

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

, Gibraltar's first game since being admitted to

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

. Chipolina scored Gibraltar's first UEFA goal, in their second official game, on 1 March 2014 against the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

at Victoria Stadium, which they lost 4–1.

Personal life

Chipolina was born in Enfield, North London, but moved to Gibraltar at age 4. He moved back to England aged 12, and attended Southgate School, where he featured heavily for the school football team and their offshoot, the Southgate Saints. During his time at Southgate, he had a trial period of three months at Luton Town. He moved back to Gibraltar at age 18. Chipolina works as a Customs Officer in Gibraltar. Roy is a cousin of other Gibraltarian footballers:

Joseph Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

(born 1987) and

Kenneth Kenneth is an English given name and surname. The name is an Anglicised form of two entirely different Gaelic personal names: ''Cainnech'' and '' Cináed''. The modern Gaelic form of ''Cainnech'' is ''Coinneach''; the name was derived from a byna ...

(born 1994).

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Gibraltar's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Chipolina goal.''

Honours

Lincoln Red Imps *

(11): 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2017–18 *

Rock Cup The Rock Cup is Gibraltar's premier cup association football, football competition, and is organised annually by the Gibraltar Football Association (GFA). From 1894/95 Gibraltar's Cup Competition was known as "The Senior Merchant's Cup". In 1935 ...

(6): 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2013–14 * Gibraltar League Senior Cup: 2006–07, 2007–08, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2013–14

References

External links

* * * 1983 births Living people Gibraltarian footballers Gibraltar international footballers Association football defenders Lynx F.C. players Lincoln Red Imps F.C. players People from Enfield, London Gibraltar Premier Division players Gibraltar pre-UEFA international footballers Gibraltar National League players {{Gibraltar-footy-bio-stub