Luke McCullough (born 15 February 1994) is a Northern Irish

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 centre-back and

defensive 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 boundari ...

for

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882. History Early history In 1914, Glentoran won the Vienna Cup, becoming the first United Kingdom team to win a European t ...

Club career

McCullough started his career with his local team, Loughgall Youth, before joining Dungannon Swifts where he played in the first team in the

IFA Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northe ...

at the age of 15.

Manchester United

He moved to England to play for Manchester United in July 2010. He captained the academy side throughout the 2011–12 campaign, making 25 appearances. On 25 January 2013, he joined

Football 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 ...

side

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 sy ...

on a one-month loan deal. He made his league debut on 16 February 2013, in a 1–1 draw with

Aldershot Town Aldershot Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in the spring ...

, coming on as a substitute for Steve Elliott.

Doncaster Rovers

After spending time on trial during

pre-season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

, McCullough signed a two-year deal with

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

on 25 July 2013. He made his debut for Doncaster when he started in Rovers' 3–1 defeat to

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

in the Championship on 2 November 2013. On 23 July 2016, McCullough signed a new three-year contract. However, less than a month later, on 2 August 2016, it was announced that McCullough would miss the entire season with a

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in a toy Jacob's la ...

injury. He was released by Doncaster at the end of the 2018–19 season after spending much of it on loan at

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

Tranmere Rovers

McCullough re-signed for Tranmere on no-contract terms on 6 January 2020. The deal was made permanent 24 days later.

Glentoran

McCullough returned to his native Northern Ireland on 1 August 2020, by signing for East Belfast side,

International career

McCullough first represented Northern Ireland at under-16 level where he became captain. He was also captain of the under-17s. Although named in the squad twice before, his first appearance for the under-19s was a start in the 8–1 victory away to

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnistr ...

on 15 October 2012. Although he didn't score in that game, he was credited with two assists. On the same day he signed a contract with Doncaster Rovers, he also received a call-up to play for the under-21 squad in the Milk Cup. McCullough senior debut came in a friendly loss against

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

. McCullough has since become a regular feature of the Northern Irish squad, going to

Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...

. He did not make an appearance at the tournament.

Personal life

McCullough is a

angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the pr ...

fan. His father, Dean McCullough, was also a footballer who played for Glenavon and

Portadown Portadown () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population of a ...

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

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Northern Ireland profile
at Irish FA {{DEFAULTSORT:McCullough, Luke 1994 births Living people Association footballers from County Armagh Sportspeople from Portadown Men's association football central defenders Men's association football midfielders Manchester United F.C. players Cheltenham Town F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Tranmere Rovers F.C. players NIFL Premiership players English Football League players Northern Ireland men's youth international footballers Northern Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Northern Ireland men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2016 players Glentoran F.C. players Dungannon Swifts F.C. players