David Healy
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50%Born
1979 (44 years old)
Birth Place
Killyleagh, Northern IrelandPosition
Centre-Forward
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173 cm
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SoccerTeam
_Retired Soccer
2nd Team
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David Jonathan Healy MBE (born 5 August 1979) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer and now football manager who is in charge at NIFL Premiership club Linfield.
A striker, he is the all-time leading scorer for Northern Ireland with 36 goals, and also shares the record for the highest scoring tally during a UEFA European Championship qualifying campaign of 13 goals, shared with Robert Lewandowski. He began his career as a youth player at Manchester United in 1995, turning professional in 1999, but signed for Preston North End two years later after a short loan spell. He spent three years with Preston, maintaining a healthy goals to games ratio, before transferring to Leeds United in 2004. After three years to Leeds he moved on to Fulham for a season, before settling at Sunderland in 2008. He moved north to Scotland to play for Rangers in January 2011. He helped the club to the SPL title in 2010–11 and also played in the 2011 League Cup final victory, before departing at the end of the 2011–12 season, when his contract expired. He joined Bury for a one-season spell in August 2012. In addition to these clubs he has also played for Port Vale, Norwich City, Ipswich Town, and Doncaster Rovers on loan. He was released by Bury in May 2013, and chose to retire in November 2013 after failing to find a club. Before representing his country at a senior level, he also played for both the under-21 team and the B team.
He began his management career with Linfield in October 2015, and led the club to a NIFL Premiership, Irish Cup and County Antrim Shield treble in 2016–17. The following season proved a disappointment, before they secured the league title and the Northern Ireland Football League Cup in 2018–19. They retained the Premiership trophy in 2019–20, and would win another Premiership and Irish Cup double in 2020–21. He then guided Linfield to a fourth consecutive league title in the 2021–22 season.
He made his début for Northern Ireland on 23 February 2000, putting a brace past Luxembourg. He was still only 20 years old; having made his début for Manchester United the previous October, he had just joined Port Vale on loan. His competitive international début came in September 2000, in a World Cup qualifying game against Malta, and he scored his first competitive goal for his country a month later against Denmark.
On 6 June 2004, in a friendly game away to Trinidad and Tobago (his 35th international), he scored his 13th and 14th goals for Northern Ireland, thus equalling and overtaking Colin Clarke's record for the country. In September that year, Healy was controversially sent off in Northern Ireland's 2–2 draw with Wales. After celebrating the goal he scored to put Northern Ireland 2–0 up, he made a hand gesture towards the fans. The referee sent him off but Healy later explained that he was celebrating towards his family and that was how he always celebrated when scoring for his then-club, Preston North End.
On 7 September 2005, at Windsor Park, Healy secured a famous victory for his country against England in a World Cup qualifier when he scored the only goal of the game. This was his nation's first win over the English since 1972.
He achieved his 50th cap and 20th international goal against Finland in August 2006, also playing as captain. A month later, on 6 September 2006, Healy became the first man since Colin Clarke to score a hat-trick for Northern Ireland and the first since George Best to do so in Belfast. His three goals gave Northern Ireland a historic 3–2 victory over Spain. Healy followed this feat with the winner against Latvia on 11 October 2006. In the following international game, against Liechtenstein, he scored a second hat-trick, thus becoming the first player ever to score two hat-tricks for Northern Ireland.
He scored both of Northern Ireland's goals in a 2–1 win against Sweden on 28 March 2007, and two more against Liechtenstein on 22 August, followed by a penalty away to Iceland on 12 September. On 17 November 2007, when he scored against Denmark, it was his 13th goal in the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying Group F tournament (in eleven games). This made him the highest-ever goalscorer in a UEFA European Championship qualifying campaign. The previous record, of twelve goals in ten games, had been set by Davor Šuker of Croatia in 1996. As a result, Healy was presented with the award by Michel Platini, who quoted: "David Healy's record goes down in history and he beat a world-class striker in Davor Suker to do so. The outstanding performance of David in the qualifying competition of the European Championship and his goal tally of 13 goals is a new record and deserves to be recognised. I am sure that this record will last for some time to come and will be hard to beat. This is why I will be presenting him with a special award to celebrate his fantastic achievement."
In October 2008, Healy received several death threats after he welcomed an international goal he had scored by saying 'the famine is over'. The goal had come after an uncharacteristic drought at the time. Healy's comments were interpreted as a reference to Rangers fans' chant – "'the famine is over, why don't you go home?" Healy claimed to be oblivious to the fact that he had offended anyone saying, "I'm so disappointed and upset that anyone could even try and make this link. And when told about this I was totally bemused." Despite finding a new club, Healy was left out of the Northern Ireland squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in 2012 by new manager Michael O'Neill. On 14 November 2012, he marked his return to international duty with an equalising goal from the bench against Azerbaijan – it was his first international goal in four years.
He won a total of 95 senior caps, making him Northern Ireland's third most capped outfield player and fourth overall in the nation's all-time appearances chart behind goalkeeper Pat Jennings (119), Aaron Hughes (112) and Steve Davis (108). His 36 international goals make him the nation's all-time leading goalscorer by a considerable distance.
Healy is married to Emma and they have three children: daughters Taylor and Taluulah, and son Jude. He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours for services to football.
Career Honours
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Former Youth Teams
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1998-2001 |
2001-2004 |
2004-2007 |
2007-2008 |
2008-2011 |
2011-2012 |
2012-2013 |
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| Manchester United | Appearances | English Premier League | 2000-2001 | 1 |
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| Preston | Appearances | English League Championship | 2000-2001 | 22 |
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| Preston | Goals | English League Championship | 2000-2001 | 9 |
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