Shaun Benjamin MacDonald (born 17 June 1988) is a Welsh

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

midfielder 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 ...

for Cymru Premier club

Penybont Penybont (also sometimes spelled Pen-y-Bont) is a small village in Radnorshire, Powys, Wales. The population of the community at the 2011 census was 428. The community includes the settlement of Llandegley. Penybont colliery The Penybont colli ...

. A product of the

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

youth team, he earned four caps for

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

and is the current record caps holder for the Wales Under 21 team with 25 caps. As well as Swansea, MacDonald played club football for

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 loan),

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 ...

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

, Rotherham United and Crewe Alexandra.

Club career

Swansea City

MacDonald was born in

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

, and began his career with his home side

, making his way up through the youth ranks before being making his first-team debut on 31 August 2005 in a 3–1 defeat to

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

in the League Cup. He went on to make a total of 13 appearances in all competitions during his first season, including playing four times in the Football League Trophy as Swansea went on to win the trophy. He scored his first goals for the club during the 2008–09 season against

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

in the League Cup on 12 August 2008, but after making just six appearances during the season, he was allowed to join League One side

on a one-month loan deal on 27 January 2009. On his debut for the side, MacDonald scored the only goal of the game in a 1–0 win over Huddersfield Town, going on to make a total of four appearances before returning to Swansea. After making just three appearances during the start of the 2009–10 season, MacDonald returned to Yeovil Town on a three-month loan deal on 21 September. MacDonald impressed for Yeovil in his three-month loan spell starting all 12 of Yeovil's league games and grabbing 2 goals. Once he returned to Swansea, negotiation began with Yeovil regarding a loan deal back at Yeovil until the end of the 2009–10 season. The loan deal was agreed on 31 December 2009. In late August 2010, MacDonald returned to Yeovil on loan for the fourth time in less than two years until January 2011. He joined Yeovil on loan for the fifth time on 17 March 2011, until the end of the

2010–11 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 ...

season. He scored a first half hat-trick on 26 March 2011 in a 5–1 win over Leyton Orient.

AFC Bournemouth

MacDonald signed for

on 25 August 2011, for a fee believed to be in the region of £125,000. He scored his first goal for Bournemouth in a 4–1 Football League Trophy win over

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'The ...

on 30 August 2011. His first league goal for the club came on 21 April 2012 against Colchester United. He made five league appearances during Bournemouth's 2014–15 season after which they were promoted to the Premier League. MacDonald made his Premier League debut as a substitute against

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 ...

on 17 October 2015.

Wigan Athletic

MacDonald returned to the Championship and signed for newly promoted

on 13 August 2016. MacDonald scored his first goal for the club in a 1–1 draw against Leeds United on 18 October 2016. He missed all of the 2017-18 campaign after suffering a broken leg in a defeat at Reading in April 2017.

Rotherham United

On 3 June 2019, following his release from Wigan Athletic, MacDonald signed for League One side Rotherham United on a two-year deal. His time at the club was impacted by illness and injury, with a virus keeping him out of the side for a significant spell during the 2019–20 season, and a broken leg side-lining him for over two months in the middle of the 2020–21 season. On 17 May 2021, Rotherham United published their retained list, and confirmed MacDonald would be leaving the club at the end of his contract.

Crewe Alexandra

On 24 June 2021, it was announced that Macdonald had agreed to join Crewe Alexandra on a two-year deal. He made his Crewe debut on 7 August 2021, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 1–1 league draw against

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league syst ...

at Gresty Road. However, on 1 September 2021, Crewe confirmed that MacDonald had left the club after making just four appearances, having decided to retire from professional football.

Penybont

On 23 December 2021, MacDonald came out of retirement to sign for Cymru Premier side

on an 18-month deal.

International career

MacDonald has represented his country at under-19 and Under-21 levels. In June 2009 he was called into the full national squad for the World Cup qualifier in Azerbaijan in

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

. After playing his 22nd game at under-21 level he surpassed the Welsh appearance record previously set by James Thomas. MacDonald made his full international debut on 12 October 2010 against

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in Basel and earned his second cap against Israel in a 2016 European Championships qualifying match in 2015.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

;Swansea City * Football League Trophy: 2005–06 ;AFC Bournemouth *

Football League 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 En ...

: 2014–15 *

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 ...

Runners-up: 2011–12

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, Shaun 1988 births Living people Footballers from Swansea Welsh people of Scottish descent Welsh footballers Wales youth international footballers Wales under-21 international footballers Wales international footballers English Football League players Premier League players Swansea City A.F.C. players Yeovil Town F.C. players AFC Bournemouth players Wigan Athletic F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players Crewe Alexandra F.C. players Association football midfielders Penybont F.C. players Cymru Premier players