Jon Daly

Stockport County

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Daly started his football career at Irish amateur side Cherry Orchard, before signing for Stockport County when he was fifteen years old in May 1998. When Daly first started at the club, he made an immediate impact scoring regularly for the youth and reserve team. On 2 October 1999, Daly then made his professional football debut against Walsall and become Stockport County's second youngest player when he came off the bench, in a 2–1 win. He went on to make three appearances for the club, all coming on as a substitute in the 1999–00 season. Daly began to make an impression on manager Andy Kilner during Stockport City's pre-season tour of Scandinavia. After coming on a substitute against Landskrona BoIS, he impressed Kilner and the youngster was awarded with a start against Kristianstads, in which he scored his first senior goal after "lobbing" the Kristianstad keeper. Over the next two seasons, Daly appeared five times in the first team. On 30 October 2001, he made his first team return in over a year, coming on as a 78th-minute substitute, in a 2–0 loss against Walsall. On 16 January 2002, Daly scored his first senior goal in his professional career against Bolton Wanderers in the FA Cup, as the club loss 4–1. Shortly after, he received a four match suspension for an "unprofessional conduct" during the match for Stockport City's reserve team. On 26 February 2002, Daly made his return to the first team from suspension,…

Having represented Republic of Ireland starting from U14, U15 to Republic of Ireland U16, Daly received his first call up for the Republic of Ireland U19 squad in July 2001. On 5 November 2001, he scored twice on his U19 national team debut, in a 3–0 win against Latvia U19. His involvement for the U19 national side saw Republic of Ireland U19 qualify for the UEFA European Under-19 Championship in Norway, including a brace against Croatia U19. His talent was recognised when he picked up Republic of Ireland's 2001 Youth Player of the Year award. In May 2002, Daly was called up to the Republic of Ireland U20 squad for the first time ahead of the Toulon Tournament. He played three times in the tournament, as the U20 national side were eliminated in the group stage. Two months later, Daly was called up to the Republic of Ireland U19 squad for the UEFA European Under-19 Championship in Norway. On 22 July 2002, he scored twice for the U19 national side, in a 2–1 win against Belgium U19. This was followed up by scoring in a 3–2 victory over England U19 that saw Republic of Ireland U19 qualify for the semi–finals. However, Daly started the whole game in the semi–finals against Slovakia U19, as the U19 national side loss 2–1. In March 2002, Daly was called up to the Republic of Ireland U21 for the first time. On 26 March 2002, he made his debut for the U21 national side, coming on in the 70th minute in a 3–2 win against Denmark U21. On 20 August 2002, Daly scored his first goal for…

Heart of Midlothian

On 4 November 2015, Daly agreed to join Hearts as coach of their under-20 team when his contract with Raith Rovers expired in January 2016. Upon doing so, he announced his retirement from professional football. Daly revealed that he has a UEFA B Licence and intended to finish his UEFA A Licence the following year. After playing two matches for Raith Rovers in January, he started his coaching job at Hearts. Following Robbie Neilson's departure, Daly was announced as joint interim manager of Heart of Midlothian with Andy Kirk. The pair coached their first match as manager of the club, in a 2–2 draw Ross County on 3 December 2016. Daly went back to his previous role after Ian Cathro was appointed as new manager of Hearts. Daly was again placed in interim charge of the first team at Hearts on 2 August 2017, after the departure of Ian Cathro. Following his first match as an interim manager at the club came in a 4–1 loss against Celtic three days later, he was criticised manager Brendan Rodgers after he made comments about Hearts, regarding the sacking of Ian Cathro. Daly coached the club four more matches throughout August until his former manager Craig Levein took the manager role instead. Following the appointment of Levein, he went back to his previous role. It was later revealed that Daly was considered for the manager but Hearts' chairwoman Ann Budge was reluctant to choose him, citing as a "poisoned chalice". Five months later, he later reflected…

Growing up, Daly had known Seán Dillon since they were young and "grew up together on the streets of Dublin and were team-mates at Cherry Orchard throughout their teenage years". They were reunited when they joined Dundee United in January 2007 and were teammates at the club for six years. He also grew supporting Manchester United. Daly is married to Linda and has two daughters. Since moving to Scotland, he resided with his family. During his time as the TPS Turku's assistant manager, Daly learned the Finnish language. Though he was described as the first Irish Catholic to join Rangers, Daly is not religious and believes that the media coverage of that transfer was exaggerated.