Rory Fallon

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Rory Fallon

Fallon playing for Plymouth Argyle in 2009
Personal information
Full nameRory Michael Fallon[1]
Date of birth (1982-03-20) 20 March 1982
Place of birthGisborne, New Zealand
Height1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Playing positionForward
Youth career
Mount Albert Grammar
Barnsley
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
1999–2003Barnsley52(11)
2001–2002→ Shrewsbury Town (loan)11(0)
2003–2006Swindon Town77(22)
2005→ Yeovil Town (loan)6(1)
2006–2007Swansea City44(13)
2007–2011Plymouth Argyle149(22)
2010–2011→ Ipswich Town (loan)6(1)
2011Yeovil Town5(0)
2011–2013Aberdeen37(3)
2013–2014St. Johnstone8(1)
National team‡
2009–New Zealand17(4)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 17:04, 31 January 2014 (UTC).

† Appearances (Goals).

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 11:51, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

Rory Michael Fallon (born 20 March 1982) is an English-New Zealand footballer who is currently unattached having left St. Johnstone. He has previously played for Barnsley, Shrewsbury Town, Swindon Town, Yeovil Town, Swansea City, Plymouth Argyle, Ipswich Town, Yeovil Town and Aberdeen. After originally representing England at youth level, he has been capped by New Zealand at international level and scored the goal that took them to the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He was born and raised in Gisborne. His father Kevin managed New Zealand over a four-year period in the 1980s.

Playing career

Club career

Born in Gisborne, Fallon started his career at Barnsley, becoming a professional in 1999 after moving up through their trainee programme. He had just begun to cement his place in the first-team when he suffered a stress fracture of his foot, which saw him struggle to regain his place.

Fallon was signed for an undisclosed fee by Swindon Town in November 2003 after a number of impressive performances against them with Barnsley, which caught the eye of manager Andy King. After breaking into the team he scored a number of important goals in the 2003–04 campaign; including an overhead kick from the edge of the box to secure a point against Bristol City.[2]

Despite the departure of Tommy Mooney, Fallon found himself regularly on the bench in the 2004–2005 season. He was loaned out to Yeovil Town to increase his confidence and he scored on his debut against Scunthorpe.[3] He failed to score in the remainder of the season, but a red card for kicking Huddersfield Town defender David Mirfin in the face meant he missed the opening two games of the following season. After Sam Parkin was sold in summer 2005, Fallon was given greater opportunities to play at Swindon, scoring on his return to action against Nottingham Forest.

He signed for League One team Swansea City in January 2006 for a fee believed to be £300,000, the second highest fee ever paid by the Welsh club. A productive year followed for the striker, scoring 13 goals in all competitions from 48 appearances. This prompted interest from Championship side Plymouth Argyle and they paid £300,000 for Fallon on 19 January 2007.[4]

Fallon had only started a handful of games for Plymouth Argyle, and had struggled to get in to the team. He went without a competitive goal at Home Park until 19 January 2008, exactly 1-year after he signed for the club, when he scored a second half equaliser for Plymouth vs. Southampton. It was only his 4th goal for the Pilgrims. The 2007/2008 campaign saw Fallon continue to be a regular bench warmer, but he continued with his optimistic attitude that he can become a first team regular, and even rejected a £250,000 move to League One side Southend United,[5] in January 2008.

On 29 September 2009 Fallon scored the winning goal for Argyle against Peterborough United earning the Pilgrims their first win of the season after seven straight defeats, lifting them off the bottom of the table. Fallon then scored the opening goal in Argyle's next game against Scunthorpe United which they also won 2–1.

On the opening day of the 2010–11 season, Fallon played the full 90 minutes and was the provider for Luke Summerfield's winning goal in Plymouth's 1–0 win over Pre-season promotion favourites Southampton. On 25 November he was signed on loan to Ipswich Town until January.[6] He returned to Plymouth on 17 January 2011.[7]

On 2 August 2011, Fallon signed a one-month contract with Yeovil Town after a short trial. Despite featuring in all five of Yeovil's games, he was released on 31 August 2011.

On 14 September 2011, he signed a two-year deal with Scottish Premier League club Aberdeen. [8] With only two league goals in his first season at Aberdeen, Fallon's performances in the Scottish Cup earned him much greater acclaim. After scoring in Aberdeen's 4–0, 4th round victory over Forfar Athletic,[9] he setup Aberdeen's opener in the 5th round 2–1 win over Queen of the South.[10] Fallon then scored both goals in the 2–1 quarter final win against Motherwell[11] to become the Player of the Round.[12] Although Aberdeen lost the semi-final 2–1 against Hibernian,[13] Fallon's second half equaliser went on to be voted the PFA Goal of the Season.On the 13th of May 2013 Fallon was released by Aberdeen.[14]

On July 12, 2013, Fallon joined Scottish Premier League side St. Johnstone on a free transfer,[15] the deal was completed in time for Fallon to play a part, if called upon, in St. Johnstone's UEFA Europa League second qualifying round tie against Norwegian Tippeligaen side Rosenborg.[16] On 31 January 2014, Fallon left St. Johnstone by mutual consent.[17]

International career

Despite being born in New Zealand and having a father who coached New Zealand at the 1982 World Cup,[18] Fallon chose to represent England at junior level. He played international football for England at U16, U17, U18, U19 and U20 levels and switched when FIFA changed the eligibility rules.[19]

He did, however, represent New Zealand in an unofficial U-16 World Cup in France in 1998 where Wynton Rufer was the coach. Shortly after, he departed for England to be an apprentice at Barnsley.

In January 2006, New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert suggested that Fallon might still get a chance to represent New Zealand at senior level. Herbert claimed that the only reason why Fallon wasn’t picked was due to lack of correspondence from FIFA regarding this matter. Fallon had until he was 21 years old to get clearance from FIFA to change nationalities. It found, however, that Fallon did not apply in the 2004 window to change allegiance for over-21s players. This year-long window was made available by FIFA upon introduction of a rule which allows players with dual nationality to switch their allegiance before their 21st birthday. Under this criterion Fallon could not be available for New Zealand.

On 3 June 2009, FIFA Congress passed a motion removing the age limit for changing associations for players who had already played for a country's national team at youth level under article 18 of the Regulations Governing the Application of the FIFA Statutes. This allowed for the possibility of Fallon again representing New Zealand.[19]

In August 2009, Fallon was called up to the New Zealand squad for a friendly against Jordan the following month and the crucial two-legged World Cup play-off matches against Bahrain later in the year.[20] Fallon scored on debut in the match against Jordan, which New Zealand won 3–1.

On 14 November 2009, Fallon scored the only goal in the second leg of New Zealand's World Cup qualifier against Bahrain, to send New Zealand to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, their first appearance at the finals in 28 years.[21] Fallon played in all three of New Zealand's finals games.

International goals
# Date Opponent Final Score Result Competition
1 9 September 2009  Jordan 1–3 Win Friendly
2 14 November 2009  Bahrain 1–0 Win 2010 World Cup qualification
3 4 June 2010  Slovenia 3–1 Loss Friendly
4 20 November 2013  Mexico 2-4 Loss 2014 World Cup qualification
Last updated 20 November 2013

Personal life

Fallon's mother, Mere, is of Māori descent.[22] He has a brother called Sean and a sister called Bianca.[22] He married Carly-Marie Llewellyn (who is originally from Swansea and who studied on the Legal Practice Course at Cardiff University Law School during 2003–2004) in early 2008.[23]

Rory Fallon is a Christian who is involved with the charity faith and football. He has revealed that he moves clubs based on what God tells him. He told the Guardian: "One club has come in for me, but I don't feel the Lord wants me to go. I will wait on what the Lord says. I don't feel I have got a clear message to leave yet, so I'm staying. I'm instructed by the Lord, and I keep telling people this. They probably think I'm mad, but I know full well that when Paul Sturrock came in and wanted me to go to Southend I had a dream and the Lord told me to stay at Plymouth. I have had no instructions since so I stay at Plymouth." The newspaper then sarcastically commented that Fallon did not realise the Plymouth Argyle chairman, Roy Gardner, is only a 'Sir' and not a 'Lord'.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "List of Players". FIFA. Retrieved 2010-06-16. 
  2. ↑ "Fallon Overhead Kick". YouTube. 31 October 2006. 
  3. ↑ "Yeovil 4–3 Scunthorpe". BBC. 22 February 2005. Retrieved 19 February 2010. 
  4. ↑ "Fallon completes Plymouth switch". BBC Sport. 19 January 2007. Retrieved 2008-08-12. 
  5. ↑ Charlton striker joins Southend
  6. ↑ "Ipswich Town sign Rory Fallon and Gianni Zuiverloon". BBC Sport. 25 November 2010. Retrieved 25 November 2010. 
  7. ↑ "Loan striker Rory Fallon leaves Ipswich Town early". BBC Sport. 17 January 2011. Retrieved 17 January 2011. 
  8. ↑ "Rory Fallon is now a Don". Aberdeen Football Club. 14 September 2011. Retrieved 14 September 2011. 
  9. ↑ "Forfar 0 – 4 Aberdeen". BBC Sport. 7 January 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2013. 
  10. ↑ "Queen of the South 1 – 2 Aberdeen". BBC Sport. 14 February 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2013. 
  11. ↑ "Motherwell 1 – 2 Aberdeen". BBC Sport. 11 March 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2013. 
  12. ↑ "Player of the Round". Scottish Football Association. Retrieved 4 January 2013. 
  13. ↑ "Aberdeen 1 – 2 Hibernian". BBC Sport. 14 April 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2013. 
  14. ↑ "PFA Scotland Awards". stv.tv. Retrieved 4 January 2013. 
  15. ↑ http://www.perthstjohnstonefc.co.uk/newsitemsdetail.php?param=2603
  16. ↑ http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/season=2014/matches/round=2000466/match=2012289/prematch/player-lists/index.html
  17. ↑ "TRANSFER DEADLINE DAY BUSINESS UPDATE". perthstjohnstonefc.co.uk. 31 January 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2014. 
  18. ↑ "Fallon keen to play for All Whites". NZPA. 13 July 2009. 
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 "Protect the game, protect the players, strengthen global football governance # Change of association". FIFA. 3 June 2009. 
  20. ↑ "Fallon earns New Zealand call-up". BBC Sport. 3 August 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-04. 
  21. ↑ "New Zealand 1–0 Bahrain". BBC Sport. 14 November 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-14. 
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 "Rory Fallon: Playing on the side of God". The Herald. 10 April 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-08. 
  23. ↑ http://www.nzwomansweekly.co.nz/celebrities/celeb-stories/rory-fallons-game-love/story/4103677/

External links

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