Aiden Connor O'Neill (born 4 July 1998) is an Australian professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who currently plays as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

New York City FC New York City Football Club (often referred to as NYCFC) is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in New York City. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern C ...

and the Australia national team. Born in Brisbane, O'Neill played youth football for Kenmore F.C. (now called UQFC), then Brisbane Athletic and

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

before making his professional debut for the latter in 2016. He spent some time on loan to

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional association football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. As of the 2025–26 EFL League Two, 2025–26 season, the team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the Eng ...

and

Fleetwood Town Fleetwood Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Fleetwood, Lancashire, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system. Established in 1997, the current Flee ...

, scoring his first ever professional goal for the latter club. He returned to Australia, on loan, to play for

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Mar ...

in 2018. He previously represented the Australian under-23 national team.

Early life

O'Neill is of Irish ancestry. He was born and raised in Brisbane, attending Nudgee Junior College before moving to

Brisbane Boys' College Brisbane Boys' College (BBC) is an independent, Presbyterian and Uniting Church, day and boarding school for boys, located in Toowong, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

before moving to England aged fourteen when his parents moved there for work.

Club career

O'Neill played youth football for Brisbane Athletic between 2008 and 2012. He moved to England as a teenager, where he sought to pursue a career in football. On 12 January 2016, O'Neill signed his first professional contract with then-

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 sys ...

side

. He made his professional debut for the club on 20 August 2016, coming on as a late substitute against

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 ...

in the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

as Burnley won 2–0. He made his full debut days later, starting in an

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

loss to

Accrington Stanley Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England, that compete in the , the fourth level of the English football league system. They have spent their entire history playing a ...

in the

EFL Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

. In January 2017, he joined

EFL League One The English Football League One, known as Sky Bet League One for sponsorship reasons, or simply League One, is a professional association football league in England. EFL League One is the second-highest division of the English Football League an ...

strugglers

on loan until the end of the season. He made a total of fifteen appearances for the Latics. In August 2017, he joined League One side

on a season-long loan deal. In January 2018, he returned to Burnley early having made twenty-seven appearances and scoring once against

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

. In August 2018, O'Neill returned to Australia to play for

in the

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

on a season-long loan.

Melbourne City

O'Neill signed a three-year deal with Melbourne City in September 2020. During the 22/23 season O'Neill had become a key player in the starting 11, scoring a brace in a 2–1 victory against

Brisbane Roar Brisbane Roar Football Club is a professional soccer club based in Brisbane, Queensland. competing in Australia's premier men's competition, A-League Men, which is the top tier Australia's football pyramid. When Queensland Lions F.C. were ...

on 12 March 2023. During the Melbourne Derby on the 17 December 2022, O'Neill scored the opening goal during the match, that was later abandoned due to player safety in the 22nd minute. During the resumption of the match on 5 April 2023, O'Neill scored a second goal completing his brace. His brace became the longest time between both goals in a brace with his first and second goal being 156,956 minutes apart.

International career

O'Neill has stated that his preference is to play for Australia, but had not been in any contact with

Football Federation Australia Football Australia is the governing body of soccer, futsal, and beach soccer within Australia, headquartered in Sydney. Although the first governing body of the sport was founded in 1911, Football Australia in its current form was only establ ...

when he made his Premier League debut in August 2016. He was later called up for an Australia under-23 camp in March 2017. He had previously been contacted by the

Football Association of Ireland The Football Association of Ireland (FAI; ) is the governing body for association football in the Republic of Ireland. Organisation The FAI has an executive committee of five members under the president, who receive expenses, as well as a p ...

and the

Irish Football Association The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team (1882–1950), Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became t ...

but reiterated that his preference was to play for Australia. On 14 March 2023, O’Neill was called up to the Socceroos team for the first time with friendlies against

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. He made his senior debut in a 3–1 win over Ecuador on 24 March 2023. On February 3, 2024, O'Neill received his first international red card against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

in extra-time at the quarter-finals of the

2023 AFC Asian Cup The 2023 AFC Asian Cup was the 18th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It involved 24 national teams after its expansion in 20 ...

. The game would end in a 1–2 loss. He has since become a mainstay in the Socceroos squad, featuring prominently in Australia's third round of 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Melbourne City *

Premiership: 2020-21, 2021–22,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Championship:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Australia U23 *

AFC U-23 Championship The AFC U-23 Asian Cup, previously the AFC U-22 Championship (in 2013) and AFC U-23 Championship (between 2016 and 2020), is a biennial international football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-23 n ...

: 3rd place

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

Individual * PFA A-League Team of the Season:

References

External links

Aiden O'Neill profile
BurnleyFootballClub.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:ONeill, Aiden 1998 births Living people Australian men's soccer players Australia men's international soccer players Burnley F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Fleetwood Town F.C. players Central Coast Mariners FC players Brisbane Roar FC players Melbourne City FC players Standard Liège players New York City FC players Men's association football midfielders Premier League players English Football League players A-League Men players Belgian Pro League players Expatriate men's footballers in England Australian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Australian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Australian expatriate men's soccer players Soccer players from Brisbane Australian people of Northern Ireland descent 2023 AFC Asian Cup players People educated at Brisbane Boys' College 21st-century Australian sportsmen

Early life

Club career

Melbourne City

International career

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

See also

References

External links