Anthony Stokes

This article is about the Irish footballer. For the Guernsey cricketer, see Anthony Stokes (cricketer). For the English footballer, see Tony Stokes.

Anthony Stokes
Stokes with Persepolis in 2020
Personal information
Full name Anthony Christopher Stokes[1]
Date of birth (1988-07-25) 25 July 1988 (age 36)[2]
Place of birth Dublin, Ireland
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)[3]
Position(s) Striker
Youth career
2002–2003 Shelbourne
2003–2005 Arsenal
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2005–2007 Arsenal 0 (0)
2006–2007 → Falkirk (loan) 16 (14)
2007–2009 Sunderland 36 (3)
2008–2009 → Sheffield United (loan) 12 (0)
2009 → Crystal Palace (loan) 13 (1)
2009–2010 Hibernian 40 (22)
2010–2016 Celtic 135 (58)
2016 → Hibernian (loan) 14 (5)
2016–2017 Blackburn Rovers 8 (1)
2017–2018 Hibernian 18 (7)
2018 Apollon Smyrni 4 (0)
2018–2019 Tractor 23 (11)
2019 Adana Demirspor 6 (1)
2020 Persepolis 1 (0)
2020 Livingston 0 (0)
Total 326 (123)
International career‡
2006–2010 Republic of Ireland U21 10 (4)
2008 Republic of Ireland B 1 (0)
2007–2014 Republic of Ireland 9 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 16:19, 16 July 2019 (UTC)

Anthony Christopher Stokes (born 25 July 1988) is an Irish former professional footballer who played as a striker.

He began his senior career with Arsenal, and established himself with a successful loan spell with Falkirk in 2006, scoring 14 goals in 16 SPL games.[4] He then signed for Sunderland in a £2 million deal,[5] but struggled to hold down a place in the Sunderland first team. He moved back to Scottish football when Hibernian signed him for £500,000 in August 2009, and he scored over 20 goals in his only full season there.[6] Stokes then moved to boyhood heroes Celtic for a fee of around £1.2 million.[7] He played regularly for Celtic under the management of Neil Lennon and enjoyed success, but fell out of favour under Ronny Deila. In the latter part of the 2015–16 season, he was loaned to Hibernian, who he helped win the 2015–16 Scottish Cup.

After a season with Blackburn Rovers, Stokes joined Hibernian for a third time in 2017, but was released in 2018. He then had short spells with Greek club Apollon Smyrni, Iranian clubs Tractor and Persepolis, and Turkish club Adana Demirspor, before returning to Scotland with Livingston in 2020. Stokes also represented the Republic of Ireland at under-21 level, and played in nine full internationals for the senior team between 2007 and 2014.

  1. ^ "Anthony Christopher Stokes". Turkish Football Federation. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  2. ^ "Anthony Stokes". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  3. ^ "Anthony Stokes: Overview". Premier League. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference GoldenShot was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Sunderland clinch £2m Stokes deal". BBC Sport. 8 January 2007. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Soccerbase was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "New Bhoy Anthony Stokes insists Celtic can claim domestic clean sweep after European exit". Daily Record. 10 September 2010. Retrieved 21 July 2011.