| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Gerard McMahon | ||
| Date of birth | 29 December 1973 | ||
| Place of birth | Belfast, Northern Ireland | ||
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||
| Playing position | Midfield | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Glenavon | ||
| Number | 7 | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1991–1992 | Glenavon | 7 | (3) |
| 1992–1996 | Tottenham Hotspur | 16 | (0) |
| 1994 | → Barnet (loan) | 10 | (2) |
| 1996 | → Stoke City (loan) | 4 | (0) |
| 1996–1998 | Stoke City | 48 | (3) |
| 1998–2000 | St. Johnstone | 50 | (1) |
| 2000– | Glenavon | 234 | (47) |
| National team | |||
| 1995–1997 | Northern Ireland | 17 | (2) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
|||
Gerard "Gerry" McMahon (born 29 December 1973 in Belfast) is a Northern Irish football midfielder. He currently plays for Glenavon in the Irish Premier League.
McMahon started with Glenavon as a 14-year-old, and had only broken into the first team in the second half of the 1991–92 season, making his Irish League debut against Newry in February 1992. He established himself in the side for the rest of the season, and it was his performance in the 4–0 Irish Cup sixth-round replay win against Glentoran that saw scouts from some of England’s biggest clubs enquiring about him, and by the middle of March a transfer had been agreed with Tottenham Hotspur. Glenavon comfortably cruised to the final of the Irish Cup, and, in his last game before his £100,000 move to White Hart Lane, McMahon scored the free-kick which defeated Linfield 2–1.
After his move to London, it took him quite a while to settle, with the departure of Terry Venables and the arrival of Ossie Ardiles. McMahon, however, persevered and was eventually rewarded when his long-awaited first-team chance came at the end of the 1994–95 season. McMahon’s Spurs debut came in May 1995, and he was a regular in the first-team squad throughout the following season, without really establishing himself in the starting eleven. He scored his first and what turned out to be only goal for Spurs against Östers IF in their ill-fated 1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup campaign.[1]
In May 1995 he won the first of his seventeen caps when he played for Northern Ireland against Canada in Edmonton.
McMahon found his first-team opportunities at White Hart Lane limited, so in September 1996 he stepped down a division in order to further his career. Stoke City manager, Lou Macari, paid £450,000 for his signature, and made McMahon a regular in the starting eleven, but with Brian Little replacing Macari in the summer of 1997 it seemed that McMahon did not belong in Stoke’s first-team plans either.
In February 1998, St. Johnstone signed McMahon from Stoke for £85,000. Again, however, McMahon found himself out of the first team following a change of manager, with Paul Sturrock leaving McDiarmid Park the following year, and in the summer of 2000, when his contract expired, McMahon was allowed to leave.
After trials with Notts County and Macclesfield, McMahon returned to Glenavon in August 2000, initially on a short-term contract, but after a month Colin Malone convinced him to sign a permanent deal. It proved a productive move as the Lurgan Blues finished as IFA Premier League runners-up.
McMahon was appointed club captain for the 2001–02 season, and nearly earned a surprise international recall when Sammy McIlroy came to watch him in a UEFA Cup tie against Kilmarnock. In December 2002, in a home game against Glentoran, a tackle on McMahon led to both the bones in his leg being broken. He required three operations, and he was ruled him out of football for two seasons.
McMahon has since returned to fitness, helping Glenavon, who were relegated at the end of the 2002–03 campaign, regain their Premier League position as play-off winners in 2005, and subsequently consolidate their top-flight position the following season.
On 25 July 2009, Glenavon hosted St. Johnstone for McMahon's testimonial match, nine years after he left the Saints.[2]