Damien Delaney

Cork City

Delaney scored in the final of Cork's winning 2000 FAI Youth Cup side and was promoted to the senior squad for the upcoming 2000–01 League of Ireland Premier Division season under Derek Mountfield. He scored on his senior debut in a FAI Super Cup game in July 2000. He made his European debut in the 2000–01 UEFA Cup playing both legs against FC Lausanne-Sport Delaney made his League of Ireland debut on 13 August 2000 and made a further eight league appearances before his transfer to Leicester for £50,000.

Leicester City and Hull City

He was brought to England by Peter Taylor at Leicester City, where he made eight FA Premier League appearances. He had spells on loan at Stockport County, Huddersfield Town and Mansfield Town. Whilst at Stockport, he scored his first English career goal in a match against Rotherham United. Taylor later made Delaney his first signing for Hull City, on 16 October 2002, for a fee of £50,000. After a rocky start to his career at Hull, during which time he was tried in midfield and at left-back, Delaney was played regularly at centre back and began to grow in stature and consistency. He was voted Player of the Year in the 2003–04 promotion-winning season, additionally his strike against Rochdale was voted Goal of the Season. In the 2005–06 season in the Championship, he played mainly at centre back, but also at left-back when two players in that position were injured, and in midfield when the manager felt that more height…

On 13 May 2008, Delaney was called up to the Republic of Ireland squad for the first time by the new manager Giovanni Trapattoni. On 4 May 2011, he was called into the Irish squad for the 2011 Nations Cup games against Northern Ireland and Scotland. On 24 May 2011, he started and played the full 90 minutes against Northern Ireland as Ireland beat them 5–0. On 11 October 2013, he made a belated competitive debut in a World Cup qualifier against Germany.

Club

As of match played 1 July 2019

International

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Born in Cork, Delaney attended Coláiste Chríost Rí and began his career at local club Avondale United at schoolboy level before moving on to Cork City. He also played Gaelic football with the Cork minor team. Delaney was a Munster minor football winner with the team in 1999 and shone for his club, St Michael's. He struck 2–2 in an All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Mayo that year, before he committed fully to the association code of football.