Ryan McGivern

Manchester City

Born in Newry, McGivern is a product of the Manchester City youth teams. He played in the club's 2008 FA Youth Cup final win over Chelsea. He scored in the 2007–08 Premier Academy League play-off semi-final win over Sunderland, before featuring in the side that lost to Aston Villa in the play-offs. On 25 October 2008, McGivern joined Morecambe on loan; "Shrimps" manager Sammy McIlroy stated that "I have seen Ryan play a few times and been very impressed by what I've seen". Having already won international caps, he made his debut in the Football League on 25 October, featuring in a 2–1 defeat to Port Vale at Vale Park. He scored his first ever senior goal in a 2–0 victory over Aldershot Town at Christie Park on 1 November. In total he played five League Two games and made one appearance in the Football League Trophy. McGivern was promoted to Manchester City's first-team squad for their Premier League game versus Fulham on 12 April 2009 and was an unused substitute. On 29 August 2009, McGivern joined Championship side Leicester City on loan until January 2010. He made his debut for Nigel Pearson's "Foxes" in a 2–0 win over Crystal Palace at the King Power Stadium on 20 October. Despite scoring an own goal in a 1–1 draw with Ipswich Town on 10 January, the following day his loan was extended until the end of the 2009–10 season. He played a total of twelve league games for Leicester but was not selected for the Championship play-off semi-finals, which…

McGivern was a regular at various under-age levels for Northern Ireland, winning caps at under-17 level in 2006, before elevation to the under-19 set-up in 2007. He played in the Northern Ireland elite side during their 2008 Milk Cup win. Steve Beaglehole called McGivern to the Northern Ireland Under-21 squad for a mini-tournament in Ukraine on 19 and 20 August 2008. He did not make his under-21 debut as Nigel Worthington instead promoted McGivern into the full Northern Ireland squad as a replacement for the injured George McCartney for a friendly international against Scotland on 20 August. Aged 18, he made his debut in that match as a starter, but was sent off for two bookable offences by referee Nicolai Vollquartz. On 11 October 2008, he made his competitive debut for Northern Ireland, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Slovenia; the match ended in a 2–0 defeat. He continued to make occasional appearances for the national team, featuring in three further 2010 World Cup qualifying games. However, he played in just one Euro 2012 qualifying game and two 2014 World Cup qualification matches. He did not feature for Northern Ireland in their Euro 2016 campaign but was recalled to the squad in September 2016 for their first 2018 World Cup qualifying match against the Czech Republic. McGivern made his first international appearance since 2014, as a half-time substitute in a 3–0 defeat to Croatia, on 15 November 2016.

McGivenr joined the coaching staff at Portadown in July 2025.

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International statistics