Darren O'Dea

Later that month he scored his first goal in a match against Dundee United, with his rebound of a 78th-minute free kick by Shunsuke Nakamura tying the match 2–2.

Darren O'Dea (born 4 February 1987) is an Irish retired professional football player, who is currently the coach of Celtic B team.

O'Dea has played as a centre back for clubs in Scotland, England, Canada, Ukraine and India, and represented the Republic of Ireland internationally.

O'Dea began his career on the youth team of Celtic, with whom he played from 2006 to 2012.

During his time on Celtic, he was loaned to Reading, Ipswich Town and Leeds United.

While playing for Leeds, O'Dea won the Ireland Young International Player of the Year Award.

After making his way through the reserves and academy side, he made his first-team debut for Celtic in the Scottish League Cup against St Mirren in September 2006.

A month later, O'Dea made his league debut against Inverness Caledonian Thistle, where he played the last thirty minutes after substituting for Gary Caldwell.

His UEFA Champions League debut was on 6 December against Danish club F.C. Copenhagen as a substitute for the injured Stephen McManus.

O'Dea made his first league starting appearance against Dunfermline Athletic four days after his Champions League debut.

O'Dea's first season saw him also score against Livingston in the run to the 2006–07 Scottish Cup.

After playing 16 times for Celtic, O'Dea signed a three-year contract in March 2007 and considered it a "reward for the hard work" he had done.

In his second season he contributed to Celtic winning the league championship, although he did not feature in the title winning match against Dundee United.

After O'Dea did not play for two months (since his last Champions League match against FC Spartak Moscow), the BBC reported in October that he would be recalled to the injury-plagued team as a replacement for Gary Caldwell, and he played the entire league match against Rangers on 20 October 2007.

That season, he primarily played centre-back.

During the 2008–09 season O'Dea made a total of sixteen appearances, scoring twice.

After being capped by the youth national teams of the Republic of Ireland, O'Dea made his senior-team debut in 2009 and has been capped 20 times.

His extra-time goal in the 2009 Scottish League Cup Final gave Celtic the trophy.

After playing fifty times for the club, O'Dea was loaned to championship club Reading in September 2009 for more first-team experience and he called it a "massive chance" to represent Celtic.

He made his debut in a 0–0 draw against Doncaster Rovers, with his second-half shot saved by Doncaster goalkeeper Neil Sullivan.

In a September interview, O'Dea was reluctant to return to Celtic for rare match opportunities.

Returning from Reading in January 2010, he started all five games that month.

O'Dea was appointed stand-in captain after Stephen McManus went on loan to Middlesbrough and Gary Caldwell left for Wigan.

At the start of the following season, again finding himself superfluous at Celtic, he was loaned to Ipswich Town on 18 August 2010 until January 2011 and made his Ipswich debut against Crystal Palace on 21 August.

In January O'Dea said he was uncertain if his loan would be extended because of the sacking of Ipswich manager Roy Keane, expressing his desire to stay.

New manager Paul Jewell unexpectedly extended his loan to the end of the season.

Vital Football praised O'Dea's performance in a league cup match against Arsenal, with Jewell calling it "tremendous and crucial in the result".

Two months later, he expressed a desire to return to Celtic instead of signing permanently with Ipswich.

O'Dea said he would play for another club if he did not have first-team opportunities at Celtic, since he felt that playing was "not about sitting on a bench".

In May 2011, he said he "may quit Celtic" to play regularly and represent the national team at the 2012 UEFA Euro qualifiers.

The following month Leeds United signed him on loan until the end of the season, and he said his objective on his new club was to win promotion to Premier League.

O'Dea made his Leeds debut in a 3–1 loss to Southampton.

He represented Ireland at the 2012 UEFA European Championship.

Born in Dublin, O'Dea played for Home Farm before he was signed by Celtic as a teenager.

For more first-team opportunities he switched clubs and countries, joining Toronto FC of Major League Soccer for a year until 2013.

The following season, he represented FC Metalurh Donetsk in Ukraine.

O'Dea's stint was cut short due to the Ukrainian political situation, and he returned to England with Blackpool.

In July 2015, he signed with Indian Super League club Mumbai City FC.

After three years with Dundee, O'Dea retired from playing professionally in 2019.

He then became a coach at Motherwell, while playing semi-professionally for East Kilbride.