Paddy McCarthy

McCarthy was born in Dublin. He joined Leicester City in March 2005 for a fee of £100,000 from Manchester City, signing a three-year contract. He had never played for Manchester City's first team but had enjoyed loan spells at Boston United and Notts County during 2002 and 2003. Boston had made a bid to sign McCarthy on a permanent basis in February 2003. McCarthy became a favourite with the Leicester fans, due to his no-nonsense style of play, and in July 2006 was named club captain for the 2006–07 season. His season was cut short when he dislocated his shoulder in a training accident in February 2007. Nonetheless, McCarthy expressed his wish to leave Leicester before the start of next season, despite being offered a new contract. McCarthy moved to Charlton Athletic for a fee of £650,000 in June 2007, but spent only a year at The Valley, moving across south-east London to sign for Crystal Palace in the summer of 2008, with Mark Hudson travelling in the opposite direction. McCarthy was troubled by a series of shoulder injuries which restricted him from playing in much of the 2008–09 and the 2009–10 seasons, but this did not stop him being named Palace captain in the run-up to the 2010–11 season. McCarthy missed the entire 2012–13 season with a groin injury, and made only one appearance in the subsequent Premier League season. Despite this, he signed a one-year contract extension with Palace in September 2014. Despite being given a new deal, first-team chances remained…

McCarthy represented the Ireland Under-16 team at the 2000 UEFA European Under-16 Championship and the Under-19 team at the 2002 UEFA European Under-19 Championship. He appeared for the Under-21 and B side too. In September 2009 McCarthy received a call up by then manager Giovanni Trapattoni for a friendly against South Africa played in Limerick, where he was an unused substitute.

On 2 December 2016, six months after his retirement from playing, McCarthy was appointed under-18s coach at Crystal Palace, replacing Ken Gillard, who left the club in November to join Arsenal. McCarthy was promoted to Under-23s Head Coach in summer 2021. On 17 March 2023, after the sacking of manager Patrick Vieira, the club announced that McCarthy would take over as first-team manager on an interim basis. His only match in charge was a 4–1 away loss to league leaders Arsenal. Following the re-appointment of Roy Hodgson as first-team manager, McCarthy became his assistant manager. On 19 February 2024, McCarthy was once again appointed caretaker manager following the resignation of Hodgson, and over-saw his only game, being a 1–1 away draw against Everton that same day. McCarthy immediately became part of the coaching team for Oliver Glasner who had been confirmed the permanent Palace manager just before the Everton match.

As a player

As a manager

As of match played 19 February 2024