Niall McGinn (born 20 July 1987) is a Northern Irish professional footballer who plays for Irish Premiership club Glentoran. McGinn has also played for Dungannon Swifts, Derry City, Celtic, Brentford, Aberdeen (two spells), Gwangju and Dundee. He made his debut for Northern Ireland in 2008 and has gone on to make over sixty international appearances.
Club career
Dungannon Swifts
McGinn began his football career at Dungannon Swifts in his native county. In his first full season, the club finished in 10th place.
Derry City
McGinn was signed by Derry City manager Stephen Kenny in January 2008 for an undisclosed fee from Dungannon Swifts in the Carnegie Premier League, who in turn signed him from Donaghmore Celtic. His decision to sign a professional football contract meant that McGinn retired from playing Gaelic football for Donaghmore and Tyrone U-21s. A very promising young talent, McGinn mainly plays on the left or right side of midfield but he can also be employed as a secondary striker. On 14 March 2008, McGinn made his debut for the club in a 2–1 win over Finn Harps. On 25 March 2008, McGinn scored his first goal for the club in a 4–1 win over University College Dublin. On 1 June 2008, McGinn scored his second goal in a 3–2 loss against Cork City. On 25 July 2008, McGinn scored his third goal in a 4–0 win over Galway United and scored again (fifth) in the second meeting on 2 November 2008 in a 2–0 win. On 9 August 2008, McGinn scored his fourth goal in a 3–0 win over Cobh Ramblers and scored again (sixth) in the second meeting on 14 November 2008 in a 4–2 win.
During 2008, he attracted interest from such clubs as Celtic and Championship sides Ipswich Town and Swansea City. He also attracted interest from Birmingham City.
Celtic
McGinn signed for Celtic on 1 January 2009. On 12 September 2009, McGinn made his first team debut for Celtic against Dundee United. Although the game ended in a 1–1 draw, McGinn was awarded the official Man of the Match award. On 17 September 2009, McGinn made his Europa League Groupstage debut in a 2–1 loss against Hapoel Tel Aviv. In the last Groupstage game with Celtic out, they faced Austrian side Rapid Wien to finished third place. The match ended 3–3 which Celtic finished third. During the match, McGinn started the match and provided assist for Marc-Antoine Fortuné to score the second goal in a match before coming off for Graham Carey.
On 31 October 2009, McGinn scored his first goal for Celtic coming on as a 66th-minute substitute in a 3–0 win over Kilmarnock at Celtic Park. McGinn scored his second goal for Celtic against Hamilton Academical on 26 December 2009 by driving a right footed shot into the top corner. He scored his first goal in the Scottish Cup and his third of the 2009–10 season to put Celtic 1–0 ahead against Greenock Morton on 19 January 2010. In the January transfer window, McGinn was a transfer target for Premier League side Wigan Athletic but wished to stay at Celtic. At the end of the season, McGinn suffered an injury during the end of the last training session of the season on 17 May 2010 after breaking a metatarsal bone in his right foot and would be out for two months. After recovering from his injury, McGinn said manager Neil Lennon played a big role in helping him recover from his injury.
After being on the substitute's bench without coming on, McGinn scored in twice his first game of the 2010–11 season, a 3–2 win over St Johnstone in the Scottish League Cup on 27 October 2010. Three days later on 30 October 2010, he scored twice against the same opponent again but this time in the 3–2 league win. In the next match against Aberdeen (a 9–0 victory which broke the record as the biggest ever win in the SPL, as well as being the biggest ever defeat in the history of Aberdeen), McGinn provided an assist for Gary Hooper to score his second goal. Later on the season, McGinn would play less and usually be on the bench.
Before the start of the 2011–12 season rumours flowed that there was a fall-out between McGinn and Lennon with McGinn being unhappy over being left out of the pre-season tour of Australia. Lennon denied this and explained the leaving out of McGinn was due to his international commitments at the Nations Cup in May. McGinn signed a new one-year extension on his contract at the start of the 2011–12 season before moving to Brentford. After his loan move to Brentford, McGinn says moving to Brentford could be an end of his Celtic career after a phone-call conversation from Lennon.