Stefan Ramone Sewell O'Connor (born 23 January 1997) is an English 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 ...

who played as a defender for

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 ...

club

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

. O'Connor started his career with Premier League club

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, signing a professional contract in October 2013. He had

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

spells with League Two club

York City York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system, as of the 2024–25 seas ...

and

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship reasons, while ...

club

MVV Maastricht Maatschappelijke Voetbal Vereniging Maastricht (), commonly known as MVV Maastricht (, ) or simply as MVV, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from the city of Maastricht. Founded on 2 April 1902, MVV Maastricht currently ...

. He signed for Newcastle United in July 2017.

Club career

Arsenal

O'Connor was born in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...

, London. He joined

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

in 2010 having previously been at

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 buildin ...

, and signed scholarship forms with the club in the summer of 2013. After impressive performances for the Arsenal U21s and for the U19s in the

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the under-19 teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions Le ...

, he signed his first professional contract for the club on 10 October 2014. On 9 December 2014, O'Connor made his debut for Arsenal in a

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

match against

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

, replacing

Mathieu Debuchy Mathieu Debuchy (; born 28 July 1985) is a French former professional Association football, footballer who played as a right-back. Debuchy started his senior career at Lille OSC, Lille, where he won a Ligue 1 and Coupe de France double in the 2 ...

with 13 minutes to play as Arsenal won 4–1 away to finish second in their group. On 26 November 2015, O'Connor joined

of League Two on

until 6 January 2016. He made his debut two days later after starting York's 5–1 home defeat 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 which he conceded a

penalty Penalty, The Penalty, Penalization, Penalisation, Penalize or Penalise may refer to: Sports * Foul (sports) ** Penalty (golf) ** Penalty (gridiron football) ** Penalty (ice hockey) ** Penalty (rugby) ** Penalty (rugby union) ** Penalty kick (assoc ...

that was scored by

Josh Windass Joshua Dean Windass (born 9 January 1994) is an English professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder and forward for club Sheffield Wednesday. After playing youth football for Huddersfield Town, Windass began his senior career ...

. He started at

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

, but was moved to

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

later in the match due to an injury to

Jordan Lussey Jordan Lussey (born 2 November 1994) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Bootle. He has played for Liverpool, Bolton Wanderers, York City, Southport, Telford United, Chorley, Nuneaton Borough, Curzon Ashton and ...

, and continued to play for York in this position. He finished his loan at York with four appearances. On 5 July 2016, O'Connor joined

club

on loan until end of the 2016–17 season. Having made only four appearances, the loan was ended prematurely on 14 April 2017. He was released by Arsenal at the end of 2016–17.

Newcastle United

O'Connor signed for Premier League club

on 6 July 2017 on a free transfer, to play in their under-23 team. Although he had been released by the club in June 2019, he signed a short-term contract on 5 July in order to recuperate from an

Anterior cruciate ligament injury An anterior cruciate ligament injury occurs when the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is either stretched, partially torn, or completely torn. The most common injury is a complete tear. Symptoms include pain, an audible cracking sound during in ...

he sustained in January.

International career

O'Connor was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the e ...

for the England national under-17 team, playing two

friendlies An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the playe ...

against

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

in 2014.

Style of play

He plays predominantly at centre back, but can also play at right back.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:OConnor, Stefan 1997 births Living people Footballers from the London Borough of Croydon People from Croydon English men's footballers England men's youth international footballers Men's association football defenders Crystal Palace F.C. players Arsenal F.C. players York City F.C. players MVV Maastricht players Newcastle United F.C. players English Football League players Eerste Divisie players Black British sportsmen English expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands English expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands People educated at Woodcote High School 21st-century English sportsmen