PÁDRAIG AMOND – Men’s Soccer

A little over a year ago, Pádraig Amond made the shock announcement that he was leaving professional football in the lower echelons of the Football League pyramid in England to come back home to sign for Waterford.

Since then, the man known mainly for his giant killing goals over the last ten years in the FA Cup hasn't looked back, sharing the Golden Boot last season as he scored 14 goals in 36 appearances at the Blues last season, picking up two assists in the process.

He was nominated for the PFAI Premier Division Player of the Year and was also named in the PFAI Team of the Season. The 36 Year old was Player of the Month for May as well as the Soccer Writers Ireland Player of the Month.

Amond started off his career in Carlow, mainly playing for New Oak before making the move to start his League of Ireland career with Shamrock Rovers. He had a brief loan spell at Kildare County before going to Sligo Rovers. In 2010, he jetted off to Portugal where he had a two year spell at Pacos de Ferreira and after never making a first team start, made the move over to Accrington Stanley to begin his EFL career.

The next five years would see Amond star at Grimsby, Morecambe and Hartlepool before eventually settling at Newport County in 2017 where his giant killing would become famous with goals against sides like Middlesbrough, Leicester, Spurs, Man City and Watford amongst others.

In 2021 he went on loan to Exeter before moving to Woking the following year.

Some may have thought he was winding down his career with the move but Amond showed that he has plenty of life left in him with the highlight of his season coming when he scored a 13 minute hat-trick against Drogheda in May. He signed a new contract to extend his stay with the Blues for another two years and he was recently announced as club captain for the 2025 season.