Ryan McGivern

At 34 years old, Ryan McGivern has this physical status:

Ryan McGivern (born 8 January 1990) is a Northern Irish footballer who plays for Linfield, Northern Ireland's Premiership team.

He can play as a left-back or a central defender, and has represented Northern Ireland in international football. He started his career with Manchester City and was the FA Youth Cup winner with the club in 2008.

He spent time on loan at Morecambe, Leicester City, Walsall, Crystal Palace, Bristol City, and Hibernian.

He spent the 2012-2013 season on loan at Hibernian, playing on the losing team in the 2013 championship of the Scottish Cup, before joining the team permanently for a one-year stay in the Scottish Premiership.

He joined Port Vale in June 2014 and made 55 appearances for the club in two seasons.

He joined Shrewsbury Town in June 2016 and had his deal ended by mutual agreement 14 months later.

In November 2017, he began a short-term deal with Northampton Town before heading to Swindon Town four months later.

In July 2018, he returned to Northern Ireland to sign for Linfield. Before winning his first senior cap in August 2008, he gained caps for Northern Ireland under the age of 16, under-17, under-19, and under-21.

In an eight-year international career, he earned a total of 24 caps.

He has also competed for the Northern Ireland B team.

Source

Club career

McGivern, who was born in Newry, is a member of the Manchester City youth teams. He was part of Chelsea's 2008 FA Youth Cup final victory over Chelsea. He scored in the 2007-08 Premier Academy League semi-final victory over Sunderland before being named on the team that lost to Aston Villa in the play-offs.

McGivern joined Morecambe on loan on October 25, 2008; "Shrimps" boss Sammy McIlroy said, "I've seen Ryan play a few times and been impressed by what I've seen." He made his international debut on October 25th and defeated Port Vale 21-0 in a 2–1 loss at Vale Park, defeating him 2–1. In a 2–0 victory over Aldershot Town at Christie Park on Monday, he scored his first senior goal. In total, he appeared in five League Two games and made one appearance in the League Trophy. McGivern was promoted to Manchester City's first team squad for their Premier League match against Fulham on April 12, 2009, and was an unused substitute.

McGivern joined Leicester City on loan until January 2010. In a 2–0 victory over Crystal Palace at the King Power Stadium on October 20, he made his debut for Nigel Pearson's "Foxes." Despite scoring an own goal in a 1-1 draw with Ipswich Town on January 10, the following day his loan was extended until the end of the 2009–10 season. He appeared in a total of twelve league games for Leicester, but was not selected for the Championship play-off semi-finals, which were lost to Cardiff City.

McGivern was loaned to Walsall's League One team in Chris Hutchings for the 2010–11 season, losing to other clubs for his services. He was a regular in the first team before being sent off for a "reckless two-foot challenge" during a 1–1 draw with Fleetwood Town in the FA Cup on Sunday. During his time at Bescot Stadium before being recalled on January 20 in 2011. He made 16 appearances for the "Saddlers" during his time in the Bescot Stadium. McGivern was handed his first team debut at Manchester University Stadium on Monday, against Sunderland in a Premier League match against Sunderland, where he was used as a 70th-minute replacement to replace Dedryck Boyata in a match that City defeated 5–0.

McGivern made a 28-day loan transfer to Crystal Palace on August 3, 2011 after signing a new contract and keeping him at City until 2013. Jonathan Parr was aided by Jonathan Parr on his home debut for Dougie Freedman's "Eagles" at Selhurst Park, who beat Burnley 2–0 on Wednesday. McGivern moved to Bristol City for the remainder of the 2011–12 season after his loan spell at Palace came to an end. In a 1–0 loss to Brighton & Hove Albion at Ashton Gate Stadium on September 10, he made his debut for Derek McInnes' "Robins." He made 32 appearances for Bristol City, assisting the club in finishing outside of the Championship relegation zone.

McGivern joined Pat Fenlon's Scottish Premier League side Hibernian on loan until January 2013. After being an unutil replacement for two games, he made his debut against Aberdeen in a 2–1 loss at Pittodrie Stadium. He soon joined "Hibs" as a left-back starter, replacing Maybury, who would play in the right-back role. His playing time had been extended, and his loan contract was signed until the 2012–13 season. McGivern said after being loaned longer, he would determine his destiny beyond that date. McGivern was fined for a foul foul on Gary Mackay-Steven, which resulted in a penalty kick for United, even though television coverage indicated the incident was clearly outside the penalty zone. McGivern chastised referee Alan Muir and his assistant Graham McNeillie for their decision after the match. McGivern scored his first goal for Hibernian three days later, in a 2–2 draw with Kilmarnock at Easter Road.

After his two-year deal with Hibernian came to an end, McGivern's employment with the city came to an end. In the 2013-14 season, he made 38 appearances, when the club was relegated to the Championship under Terry Butcher's stewardship.

McGivern agreed to a two-year deal with Port Vale, after newly appointed Hibernian boss Alan Stubbs agreed to dismiss him from the remaining 12 months of his deal. He began the 2014–15 season with Richard Duffy, a center-back partnership. In a 2–0 loss to Coventry City in Vale Park on December 13, he fractured his arm; the injury necessed a plate to be fitted in his arm and a six-week recovery period.

He was out of the first team picture in the first two months of the 2015–16 season before returning to the starting eleven due to injuries to Ryan Inniss and Remie Streete. At the end of the season, he was released after his deal came to an end.

McGivern joined Shrewsbury Town in June 2016 as a member of Port Vale's A-Jay Leitch-Smith and Louis Dodds. In a 0-1 home loss to Milton Keynes on the first day of the season, he made his club debut. McGivern was recalled to the Northern Ireland squad for the first time in nearly two years, but subsequent call-ups limited his first-team opportunities at Shrewsbury, despite manager Micky Mellon's departure from the club. In 0–0 draws against former club Port Vale and Fleetwood Town, he was brought back to the team by new manager Paul Hurst, but a shoulder injury sustained him in the next game, a 10 win over Millwall in December, kept him out of action for at least three weeks. He was not in the team's future plans nor was he assigned a squad number ahead of the following season. McGivern's employment was terminated by mutual consent on August 31.

McGivern signed a two-month deal with Northampton Town, on November 3rd. "With Regan Poole playing a lot of football lately and Leon Barnett recovering from injury, and Ash Taylor and Aaron Pierre have excelled, but they haven't had to play a lot of football recently and haven't had the benefit of football in their respective positions," manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink said. Ryan provides that information, and we've had the pleasure of seeing him on the training ground with us for a while, and the company has already integrated well with him." On the date of his deal's termination, he was released by the "Cobblers" following his release.

McGivern signed Swindon Town on a contract until the end of the 2017-18 League Two season on March 15, 2018. He was Phil Brown's first signing as the "Robins' boss." He was given a new deal by Swindon at the end of the season, but he never signed it and instead left the club on June 28 after Brown revealed that the offer had been withdrawn.

McGivern, who was released from Swindon, returned to Northern Ireland on July 23, 2018 to join Linfield in the Northern Ireland Premiership on a three-year contract. McGivern will "make a major contribution to the club," says manager David Healy of the "Blues." However, due to injury, he appeared just five times in the 2018-19 championship winning season since making his debut in a 1–0 win over Ballymena United on February 23. Linfield defeated Ballymena United in the final of the Northern Ireland Football League Cup, where he was an unused substitute. He made 12 appearances during the 2019-20 season before being self-isolating after finding positive for Coronavirus disease 2019 on March 10th. After the season came to an end early due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Northern Ireland, Linfield was crowned league champions on points per game. In a 5–1 victory over Carrick Rangers at Windsor Park, he appeared just four times in the 2020-2021 campaign, scoring one goal.

He signed a two-year contract with Newry City, his hometown club, on June 8, 2021. He was dismissed after a 2–0 victory over Ards in November. In the 2021-2022 season, he made 21 appearances in league as Newry defeated the Championship crown and gained promotion into the Northern Ireland Premiership.

International career

McGivern was a regular at various under-18 levels for Northern Ireland, winning caps at a younger age in 2006 and escorting to the under-19 set-up in 2007. At their 2008 Milk Cup victory, he was playing in the Northern Ireland elite team.

McGivern was called by Steve Beaglehole to the Northern Ireland Under-21 squad in Ukraine on 19 and 20 August 2008, but he did not make his under-21 debut as Nigel Worthington decided McGivern to the full Northern Ireland squad as a replacement for the injured George McCartney during a friendly international against Scotland on August 20. He made his debut in the match as a starter but referee Nicolai Vollquartz suspended him for two bookable offences. He made his competitive debut for Northern Ireland in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Slovenia on October 11th; the match ended in a 2–0 loss. He continued to make occasional appearances for the national team, including three more 2010 World Cup qualifying games, though he appeared in only one Euro 2012 qualifying game and two 2014 World Cup qualifying matches. He did not appear for Northern Ireland in their Euro 2016 campaign, but he was recalled to the squad in September 2016 for the first 2018 World Cup qualifier against the Czech Republic. McGivern made his first international appearance since 2014 as a half-time replacement in a 3–0 loss to Croatia on November 15, 2016.

Source