John Anthony James O'Sullivan (born 18 September 1993) is an Irish 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 ...

who plays as an

attacking 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 Shelbourne.

Club career

In the summer of 2009, O'Sullivan, aged 15, joined

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 ...

side

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 ...

from Dublin-based

Belvedere Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to: Places Australia *Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region Africa * Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco * Belvedere, Harare, Zi ...

, a youth club that's well known for its youth system which has successfully produced dozens of players who have gone on to play football throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. Working his way through the ranks at Rovers, from the Academy to the Reserves, O'Sullivan begun to be featured in match day squads as an unused substitute during the

2012–13 Football League Championship The 2012–13 Football League Championship (known as the npower Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the ninth season of the league under its current title and twentieth season under its current league division format. The season began on 1 ...

campaign, the club's first season return in the second tier of English football having been relegated from the Premier League in May 2012. On 4 May 2013, O'Sullivan made his senior professional debut for Rovers in their final game of the season, coming on as a second-half substitute against

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

. On 9 January 2014, O'Sullivan joined

Conference Premier The National League, officially known as Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in England. The National League is the first division of the National Leagues and step 1 of the National Le ...

side

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

on a one-month loan deal. On 2 February, the loan was extended until the end of the season. He scored his first goal for Southport on 22 February 2014 in a 3–1 away defeat against

Forest Green Rovers Forest Green Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. Formed in October 188 ...

. On 19 September 2014, O'Sullivan joined League Two outfit

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 ...

on a one-month loan deal. On 20 October 2014, the loan was extended until 20 December 2014. O'Sullivan scored 4 goals in 13 appearances. In January 2017, it was announced that O'Sullivan and Blackburn Rovers had agreed to mutually terminate the player's contract, ending his eight-year association with the Lancashire outfit. In total, O'Sullivan made six first-team appearances for Rovers, having spent a majority of his last three-years with the club out on-loan at Southport, Accrington Stanley,

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

and Bury. In the same month, following his release from Blackburn Rovers, O'Sullivan signed for League Two side

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team currently compete in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They have played their ...

on an 18-month-deal. He was released by Carlisle at the end of the 2017-18 season, having made 35 league appearances for the Cumbrian club, finding the net on two occasions. In June 2018, O'Sullivan linked up once again with former Rovers academy and first-team manager

Gary Bowyer Gary David Bowyer (born 22 June 1971) is an English professional football coach and former player who is the manager of Burton Albion. As a player, he made 52 league appearances for Hereford United, Nottingham Forest and Rotherham United in a p ...

at League One

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

, signing a one-year deal with the Tangerines. On 4 September, O'Sullivan scored his first goal for Blackpool in a 3-3 draw against Macclesfield Town in the

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Motors, Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English association football, football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and ...

. In late January 2019, O'Sullivan, joined

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, also known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Scotland and the highest level of the Scottish football league system. Th ...

club

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

on loan until the end-of-the-season. He left Blackpool at the end of the season, following the expiration of his contract with the Seasiders. Blackpool had opted against activating the clause in O'Sullivan's contract to extend his stay by a further year. On 2 July 2019, O'Sullivan joined League Two outfit

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, on Morecambe Bay, part of the Irish Sea. In 2011 the parish had a population of 34,768. Name The first use of the name was by John Whit ...

, agreeing to a two-year deal with the side. On 17 June 2021, it was announced that O'Sullivan had agreed to join League One side Accrington Stanley on a three-year deal upon the expiration of his contract with newly promoted Morecambe, having turned down an offer from Morecambe to join rivals Stanley. It meant that the move was to be the first time O'Sullivan had linked up with Stanley on a permanent basis, having previously had two loan-spells with the club. On 10 June 2022, John returned home to

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

to sign for

League of Ireland Premier Division The League of Ireland Men's Premier Division (), also known as the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in the Republic of Ireland and the highest level of the Republic of I ...

side

Bohemians Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a f ...

. On 8 December 2023, O'Sullivan would join Bohemian's rivals Shelbourne for the 2024 season. O'Sullivan would win the

with the ''Shels'' at the end of the 2024 season.

International career

O'Sullivan made his debut for the Ireland national under 15 team in 2008, he won international u16 player of the year. He has been called up at all age groups to the Republic of Ireland U21s. In 2011, he featured in all the games for Ireland u19 team that reached the semi-final of the euro finals.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Morecambe *

EFL League Two play-offs The EFL League Two play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from fourth to seventh in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are part of the annual Engl ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Bohemians * Leinster Senior Cup:

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 ...

Shelbourne *

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

President of Ireland's Cup The President of Ireland's Cup, also known simply as the President's Cup, is an association football super cup featuring clubs from the Republic of Ireland football league system. It is a one-off match between the winners of the previous season's ...

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

References

External links

*
Blackburn Rovers Reserve team profileBlackburn Rovers 1st team profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:OSullivan, John 1993 births Living people Association footballers from County Dublin Men's association football midfielders Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Belvedere F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Southport F.C. players Accrington Stanley F.C. players Barnsley F.C. players Rochdale A.F.C. players Bury F.C. players Carlisle United F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players Dundee F.C. players Morecambe F.C. players Bohemian F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players League of Ireland players Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers Republic of Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Scottish Professional Football League players Republic of Ireland expatriate men's association footballers Irish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England Shelbourne F.C. players 21st-century Irish sportsmen