David Connolly

David Connolly was born on 6 June 1977 in Willesden, London, and is a former football player who played for the Republic of Ireland. As a striker, he played in England and the Netherlands for nearly twenty years and took part in the 2002 World Cup with the national team.

Club career

He started his professional career at Watford. In 1997, he was transferred to the Dutch club Feyenoord; As he had difficulty finding time here, he was first loaned to Wolverhampton Wanderers and then to Rotterdam's small club Excelsior. He proved his scoring ability by scoring 42 goals in 48 matches in two seasons at Excelsior. He returned to England in 2001 and joined Wimbledon, where he scored 42 goals in 63 matches.

In the following years, he played for West Ham United, Leicester City and Wigan Athletic. He moved to Sunderland in 2006 and won the Championship in the 2006-07 season. He then played for Southampton and Portsmouth, and went on loan to Oxford United in 2014. The last stop of his career was AFC Wimbledon; He retired from football in 2015. He scored 178 goals in a total of 460 league matches in his club career.

national team

Although he was born in England, he chose the Republic of Ireland due to family ties and scored 9 goals in 41 matches between 1996-2005. He was in the 2002 World Cup squad; His shot was saved by Iker Casillas in the penalty shoot-out of the last 16 round match against Spain.

Although Connolly played for many clubs, he is especially remembered for his goal productivity during the Excelsior and Wimbledon periods.