D.O.B. :04/04/1986
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Aiden McGeady (born April 4, 1986 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a professional football player for Celtic and represents the Republic of Ireland in international football.
McGeady can play in a variety of attacking positions. For Celtic, he usually plays as an attacking midfielder/winger on the left hand side. Due to McGeady being right footed, playing in this position allows him to come inside playing in 'the hole' between the two strikers. McGeady is also extremely able playing as an out and out winger on either side. His agility, pace and dribbling skills make him one of the brightest young talents in this position.
Junior career
He was educated at primary level at Our Lady of the Missions Primary school and at secondary level at the nearby St Ninian's High School, on the south side of Glasgow. For a short spell in his young teens, McGeady played for amateur club Queen's Park, before the club allowed him to move to the team he supported, Celtic.
McGeady went onto captain Glasgow Catholic Schools, and played alongside now Celtic teammate Mark Wilson. He has been described as the most coveted schoolboy footballer in the UK. He signed a lucrative boot deal with Adidas at the age of only thirteen.
Club career
McGeady made his senior debut for Celtic in 2004 during a Scottish Premier League match against Hearts, in which he scored in a man of the match performance.
Since then McGeady's career at Celtic has flourished particularly under their newest manager, Gordon Strachan, displaying a Man of the Match performance against Rangers on 23 September 2006.McGeady has worn the same squad number at Celtic since his début: 46.
He was awarded the SPFA Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year on 20 April 2008, only the second player ever to receive both awards in the same season, as voted by his fellow players. He contributed seven SPL goals and nineteen assists, as Celtic won the SPL, winning three titles in a row for the first time since Jock Stein was manager and was one of five players who scored a hat-trick in the 2007/08 season.
On 16 December 2008, Gordon Strachan fined McGeady two weeks' wages and suspended him for the club's next two fixtures due to a breach of club discipline.
International career
Packie Bonner, who knew of McGeady's Irish lineage (McGeady's paternal grandfather was Irish), invited him to play for the Irish Under 15s schoolboys team, and he has since gone on to be a full Republic of Ireland international. In interviews, McGeady and his father have stated he always intended to play for Ireland, due to the family's cultural heritage and Aiden's self-identification.
Since then he has gone though all the levels up to the Under-21s, playing under Brian Kerr on a number of occasions. His form for Celtic in season 2003/'04 saw him included in the Ireland Senior squad for the first time for the summer internationals. Aiden won his first cap when playing against Jamaica June and now returns to the squad for this international against the Czech Republic this evening.
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Debut:2 June 2004 v Jamaica
Clubs:Glasgow Celtic
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