Nigel Ian Callaghan (born 12 September 1962) is a former 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 lea ...

Playing career

Callaghan played on the right-wing for a number of clubs including;

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club in Derby, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. One of the 12 founder members of the English Football ...

and

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

. Internationally, he represented England at Under-21 level and played one game for England B in November 1984 (alongside fellow Watford player

Luther Blissett Luther Loide Blissett (born 1 February 1958) is a former professional association football, footballer and coach (sport), manager who played for the England national football team, England national team during the 1980s. Born in Jamaica, Bliss ...

). Callaghan came on as a half time substitute to take part in a 2–0 win against a full New Zealand side. Whilst at Watford, he played in the 1984 FA Cup Final where they lost to Everton. He had broken into their first team during the 1980–81 season and helped them win promotion to the First Division a year later. He also helped them finish second in the league in 1983. In total, he played 223 league games for the Hornets and scored 41 goals, before being transferred to Derby County in February 1987. He scored four goals in 18 Second Division games for the Rams in the 1986–87 season as they cruised to the division championship and a return to the First Division after seven years away. Callaghan was ever present for Derby as they secured their top-flight status in 1987–88, and he began the 1988–89 season well as Derby emerged as surprise title challengers (though they eventually had to settle for a fifth-place finish). He scored twice in 18 league games before moving to

in February 1989 and making 16 league appearances for them (scoring once) as they secured their First Division survival a year after promotion. He played just eight games for Villa the following season, however, as they finished second and were beaten to the league title by

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. He played just twice in the 1990–91 season and was loaned back to Derby County. He also had loan spells with Huddersfield Town and Watford before new manager

Ron Atkinson Ronald Frederick Atkinson (born 18 March 1939) is an English former football player and manager. Nicknamed "Big Ron", he was regarded as one of Britain's best-known football pundits in the 1990s and early 2000s. Nicknamed "The Tank" during his ...

finally gave him a free transfer at the end of the 1991–92. Aged still only 29, his professional career was over, although he did continue playing for a while at non league level with Stafford Rangers.

Retirement

Callaghan retired from football to work as a Disc jockey, DJ. While working in a Greek island (Corfu) night-club during the early-1990s he was featured on a television documentary. He currently lives in

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingd ...

Illness

In November 2009 Callaghan was diagnosed with

bowel cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel ...

.BBC Derby: Former Ram facing cancer battle
/ref> An operation to remove the main

tumour A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue (biology), tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tiss ...

was undertaken in January 2010, however, some traces of cancer had moved elsewhere into his body and he subsequently faced a course of

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...

, which started in late March 2010. In September 2010 it was announced that a benefit match between former stars of two of Callaghan's old teams Derby County F.C. and Watford F.C. would take place at Pride Park Stadium during the close season.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Callaghan, Nigel 1962 births Living people English men's footballers England men's under-21 international footballers England men's B international footballers Men's association football midfielders Watford F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Derby County F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Stafford Rangers F.C. players Hellenic F.C. players English Football League players English expatriates in Singapore English expatriate men's footballers