David James Connolly (born 6 June 1977) is a retired 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 played as a striker. He played for various clubs including

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

and

Excelsior Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...

in the Netherlands as well as

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, ...

and

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

in the

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 ...

. Born in England, Connolly represented the Republic of Ireland national team at international level. He was a member of Ireland's

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

squad that lost to

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

in the

knockout stage A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

where his penalty kick was saved by

Iker Casillas Iker Casillas Fernández (; born 20 May 1981) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper and currently works as a football commentator. Popularly dubbed "''San Iker''" ("Saint Iker") for his ability to produce spectac ...

during the shootout.

Club career

Connolly started his career with

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

where he scored 15 goals in 34 games. His goal scoring record, at club and international level, which included a hat-trick in World Cup qualifying, earned him a move to Dutch team

Feyenoord Rotterdam Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after it ...

. He had loan spells at

Excelsior Rotterdam Excelsior Rotterdam, commonly known as Excelsior, is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football from the 2022–23 season following promotion. The club was found ...

and

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 ...

(where he scored four goals in one game against Bristol City) before joining

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

in 2001 on a free transfer where he scored 42 goals in two seasons. Manager

Glenn Roeder Glenn Victor Roeder (13 December 1955 – 28 February 2021) was an English professional football player and manager. As a player, Roeder played as a defender for Arsenal, Leyton Orient, Queens Park Rangers, Notts County, Newcastle United, Watfo ...

signed Connolly for

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

for £285,000 in August 2003. Connolly scored on his West Ham debut in a 2–1 away win at

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

on 9 August 2003. He scored 14 goals in 48 games in all competitions for West Ham; his final game coming in the 2004 play-off final defeat to

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building * ...

in May 2004. Connolly signed for

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

in 2004 for £500,000, finishing as the club's top scorer in his first season. He managed a hat-trick against

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

in August 2005, prior to signing for

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

. On 31 August 2005, he joined newly promoted Premiership club

for £2 million (with the possibility of rising to £3 million if Wigan stayed in the Premiership, which they did). He scored on his debut for Wigan in a 2–1 win at

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

, but was hit by injuries for much of the rest of the 2005–06 season. and Leeds in the FA Cup. In 2006, also on 31 August, Connolly linked up with his former

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

teammate

Roy Keane Roy Maurice Keane (born 10 August 1971) is an Irish football pundit, coach and former professional player. He is the joint most successful Irish footballer of all time, having won 19 major trophies in his club career, 17 of which came during ...

. His first goal came against

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

on 18 November, when he came on as a sub and smashed the ball in off the post from about 18 yards out. Connolly ended up Sunderland's top scorer and was an integral part of their promotion in the 2006–07 season, scoring 13 goals in the campaign and scoring the final goal of the season for Sunderland against

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 ...

on 6 May 2007, in the match that made Sunderland champions of the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

. In the 2007–08 season, Connolly played just five games, three of them in the league. In the 2008–09 season, Connolly did not make a single appearance. He was released on 28 May 2009. After being released by Sunderland in the summer of 2009 he became a free agent. On 8 October 2009, Connolly signed a deal with League One side

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, lasting until the end of the 2009–10 season but capable of being extended by a further year if he hits an undisclosed number of appearances. He scored on his debut on 17 October 2009 against

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 ...

, and grabbed another in the next game against

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

, once again off the bench. He scored two in the FA Cup first round tie against

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been c ...

, in a 3–2 victory, his first start. Connolly's contract was then extended for the 2010–11 season. He struggled with injury in the 2010–11 season, but scored in an FA Cup match against

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

, and then scored a crucial goal in a 2–1 victory away at champions Brighton. He followed that up with a goal in a 3–0 win at

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 ...

and then on the final day of the season in a 3–1 win over

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

to end the season with four goals from 18 appearances in an injury-hit season. It was Connolly's late season form that helped Southampton clinch promotion. He also signed a new one-year deal with Saints. Following Southampton's promotion to the Championship, Connolly continued his goal scoring form into the 2011–12 season by scoring the final goal in Southampton's 3–1 victory over

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

in the first game of the season. He then netted the only goal in a 1–0 victory at

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

a week later. On 16 August, he scored against

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

at Portman Road as Saints won 5–2, with the third of the night making the score 3–0 to Southampton at half time. This result firmly planted Southampton on top of the Championship table with three wins from their first three matches. Connolly scored again for Southampton against

on 27 August, but this was not enough to prevent the Saints from slipping to their first defeat of the season, losing 3–2. However, in January 2012, after the arrivals of

Billy Sharp Billy Louis Sharp (born 5 February 1986) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker and captains club Sheffield United. He has also played for Rushden & Diamonds, Scunthorpe United, Southampton, Nottingham Forest, Reading, ...

and

Tadanari Lee is a Japanese football player of Korean descent who plays for Singapore-based Albirex Niigata. He has made 11 appearances for the Japanese national team. He is sometimes known as Chung, in reference to his Korean name, Lee Chung-sung. Lee is ...

, Connolly lost his place in the starting eleven, and was released at the end of the season. On 31 December 2012, Connolly signed a one-month contract with

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

. He made his debut a day later, against

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at ...

. He scored his first goal for Pompey on 26 February, against

. He scored his second goal on 2 March, in a 2–1 win against

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

. On 9 March, Connolly scored twice in a 2–0 win against

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

. He left the club by mutual consent on 15 January 2014. Connolly joined

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and th ...

on 31 January 2014 – deadline day – until the summer. He scored on his debut against

AFC Wimbledon AFC Wimbledon is an English professional Association football, football club, based in London Borough of Merton, Merton, London, that plays in the EFL League Two, after being relegated from the EFL League One following the 2021–22 EFL Leagu ...

, after coming on as a 46th-minute substitute. His goal against

Hartlepool Hartlepool () is a seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Borough of Hartlepool. With an estimated population of 90,123, it is the second-largest settlement in County ...

on 21 March 2014 at the age of 36 years, 9 months and 15 days made him the club's oldest scorer to date. On 15 January 2015 Connolly joined AFC Wimbledon, becoming the sixth player (the others being

Jermaine Darlington Jermaine Christopher Darlington (born 11 April 1974) is an English former professional footballer and current manager. He was most recently joint manager of Faversham Town. Career Playing career Darlington began his career as a trainee at Char ...

Marcus Gayle Marcus Anthony Gayle (born 27 September 1970) is a football coach and former professional player who serves as club ambassador at Brentford. Gayle's primary position was as a striker but also played as a winger and central defender towards ...

Jason Euell Jason Joseph Euell (born 6 February 1977) is a former professional association football, footballer who played as either a Forward (association football), forward or a midfielder. He spent much of his career playing in the Premier League, with ...

Roger Joseph Roger Anthony Joseph (born 24 December 1965) is an English former professional footballer who played as a right back, best remembered for his time in the Football League with Wimbledon and Brentford. He won two caps for England B at internat ...

and

Neil Sullivan Neil Sullivan (born 24 February 1970) is a professional football player and coach. He played as a goalkeeper from 1988 until 2013, playing in the Premier League for Wimbledon, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea, and represented Scotland internat ...

) to play for both the original

and AFC Wimbledon. On 21 February 2015, during one of his final games with AFC Wimbledon, Connolly scored a late winner against local rivals Luton Town to win the game 3–2. On 7 March 2015, Connolly retired from playing.

International career

Connolly was a regular member of the

national team, scoring nine goals in 41 caps. He made his debut on 29 May 1996 against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. He was sent off in 1997 after coming on as a substitute against

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

in the play-off for a place at the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

, with Ireland losing by an aggregate score of 3–2. Connolly was part of the

squad that lost to

in the

, where his penalty kick was saved by

during the shootout. He scored for Ireland in

Niall Quinn Niall John Quinn (honorary MBE; born 6 October 1966) is an Irish former professional footballer, manager, businessman and sports television pundit. As a player he was a striker who played top flight football for Arsenal, Manchester City and ...

's benefit match on 14 May 2002, against his former club, Sunderland as well as once in

Mick McCarthy Michael Joseph McCarthy (born 7 February 1959) is a professional football manager, pundit, and former player. He was last in charge of EFL Championship club Cardiff City. McCarthy began his playing career at Barnsley in 1977, and he later had ...

's testimonial on 26 May 1996 against

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 ...

. In the 2007–08 season Connolly failed to feature in any of

Steve Staunton Stephen Staunton (born 19 January 1969) is an Irish football manager, scout and former professional footballer. He played as a defender (association football), defender with two separate spells each with Premier League sides Aston Villa F.C., A ...

's squads, despite being Sunderland's top goalscorer, although he was called in to

Giovanni Trapattoni Giovanni Trapattoni (; born 17 March 1939), sometimes popularly known as "Trap" or "Il Trap", is an Italian football manager and former player, considered the most successful club coach of Italian football. A former defensive midfielder, as a p ...

's first 40-man squad in 2008 despite being injured at the time.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list the Republic of Ireland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Connolly goal.''

Honours

Sunderland *

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 ...

: 2006–07 Southampton *

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 ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

References

External links

* *
Official Sunderland FC ProfileCareer details
at www.11v11.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Connolly, David 1977 births Living people Republic of Ireland association footballers Republic of Ireland under-21 international footballers Watford F.C. players Feyenoord players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Excelsior Rotterdam players Wimbledon F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Wigan Athletic F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Southampton F.C. players Premier League players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Republic of Ireland international footballers 2002 FIFA World Cup players Republic of Ireland expatriate association footballers Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Irish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands British people of Irish descent Footballers from Willesden English Football League players People educated at Burnham Grammar School Portsmouth F.C. players AFC Wimbledon players Oxford United F.C. players Association football forwards

Club career

International career

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

See also

References

External links