Neil McCafferty

Neil McCafferty

Personal information
Full name	Neil McCafferty
Height	5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Position(s)	Midfield
Team information
Current team	Finn Harps
Number	?

Neil McCafferty (born July 19, 1984, Derry City, Northern Ireland) is a footballer currently playing in the Eircom League with Finn Harps.

Career

McCafferty began his career at Charlton Athletic in 2000-01. He can play either central midfield or on the right-hand side. In 2001, McCafferty was called into Charlton's first-team squad to face Manchester United at Old Trafford at just 16 years of age. He was a regular in both Charlton's under-19 and reserve teams and was captain of the reserve side in 2004-2005. Whilst under contract with Charlton, McCafferty also had loan spells at both Cambridge United and Rushden & Diamonds.

At international level, the player was a regular at youth levels from Under-16 to Under-19 with the Republic of Ireland. His appearances for Ireland included the 2003 Oporto Youth Tournament held in Portugal where he represented the Under-19s.

During his spell with Rushden & Diamonds, McCafferty helped the club avoid relegation from the Football League. Having originally signed a one-month deal at Nene Park toward the end of January 2005, his stay was soon extended to three months after a number of impressive performances which aided in steadying the sinking ship.

McCafferty was so popular with Rushden & Diamonds fans that when he was released by Charlton Athletic at the end of the 2004-05 season after failing to break into Alan Curbishley's first-team plans, he was signed by the club that had previously loaned him.

McCafferty signed for his home-town club in July 2006 and made his debut away to Bray Wanderers on August 4, 2006. However, he only managed this one appearance as a substitute before injury ruled him out of the 2006 season. Prior to this and upon his arrival at the club, the Derry City manager at the time, Stephen Kenny was quoted as saying:

Neil is yet another member of a generation of young players who have come of age over the past few seasons at Derry City. Players such as Paddy McCourt, Barry Molloy, Mark McChrystal, Ruaidhri Higgins and Kevin Deery are all the same age as Neil and they all played in the Derry and District Youth Leagues before graduating to senior players be it here or in England. Therefore, when I came to Derry I had targeted a number of those players who had been playing in England - Barry Molloy, Ruaidhri Higgins, Paddy McCourt and McCafferty. At the start it was difficult to persuade them to return home but over the past season or so, a return to the Brandywell is now considered a viable option should their careers come to a halt across the Irish Sea.

McCafferty only managed to make eight league appearances for the Candystripes, five coming from the bench.

Late in 2007, McCafferty spent time with Gillingham on trial. He eventually signed for Grays Athletic on January 1, 2008.

Personal life

McCafferty was once the boyfriend of Girls Aloud singer, Nadine Coyle.

References

• [1] Harps Sign McCafferty

External links

• [2] Harps Sign McCafferty
• Neil McCafferty at Soccerbase
• McCafferty's player profile on CityWeb