Shane Duffy

Everton signed Shane Duffy up for the Everton Academy from Foyle Harps in November 2008.

Despite being only 16, Duffy was a monstrous 6' 4" defender but as the new arrival, he had to prove himself to his coaches and his team-mates and he quickly made his presence felt in the Everton Under-18 squad.

He headed the winner in the Under-18 Merseyside derby against Liverpool and continued to shine for the under-18s, winning the Academy Player of the Month award for January 2009; he was even promoted to the reserve side for some games toward the end of the season.

Duffy also caught the attention of the Northern Ireland manager, who propelled the young Everton player  through the ranks from Under-17 to Under-19 and eventually into the Under-21 squad, despite still only being 17.

Duffy's second season with the Blues saw him play for the first-team in some pre-season friendlies. He played for 90 mins in the 2-1 defeat to Bury, for 60 mins in the 4-1 defeat of Rochdale (where he scored the opener) and for the final 30 mins  in the 2-1 defeat to Blackpool.

Shortly after breaking into the Under-18 side, Duffy suffered a horrendous injury which appeared to threaten his chances at the club. A hefty last-ditch challenge from Duffy saw him fracture his hip bone and this ruled him out for approximately 6 weeks. "It was so scary. I thought I'd broken my back", he recalls.

The young man from Derry had gone from playing in his local gaelic and soccer youth teams to playing with and against top professional footballers in the space of just 2 years. He was only 17 when he made his senior Everton debut (albeit forced by injuries) a little more than a year later at centre-back in the defence.

Duffy was given a Premier League squad number for the 2009-10 season and featured on the bench for plenty of senior games before making his debut for the Toffees amidst the rain and the mud of Athens in a Europa League match. Everton suffered three more injuries to an already depleted side and Duffy was thrown on after just 15 mins when Sylvain Distin pulled up with an injured hamstring. He went on to play a significant role in maintaining a rare clean sheet as Everton secured their position in the knock-out stage of the competition.

His full debut came a couple of weeks later in another Europa League game,  the dead rubber against BATE Borisov when David Moyes chose to rest most of the senior team and go with his reserve and academy players.  Duffy looked decent next to Tony Hibbert in the centre of defence and did well, saving a certain goal, but was unfortunate to deflect the only goal of the game past Carlo Nash.

By 2010, Shane was a regular in the Republic of Ireland U-21 setup, having controversially switched his international allegiance south of the border. He remained on the fringes of the senior side despite not yet having broken into the first team at Everton but near tragedy struck as he turned out for an Ireland XI against the Republic's Juniors side in a practice match that May.  The young defender collided with an opponent during his first training session with the RoI squad, and it resulted in life-threatening injury.

Duffy suffered a severed artery near his liver and required an emergency operation to save his life. At one point there was 3.6 litres of blood in his abdomen.

Following his recovery, he remained on the fringes of the Blues' first-team setup, had a six-week loan spell at Burnley, during wich he only got one game, and was rewarded for his maturing displays in the Everton Reserves with some places on the first team bench the following season before being farmed out on loan in the 2011-12 season to continue his development at Scunthorpe United.

Strong in the tackle and dependable in the air, Shane was considered as a potential replace ment for either Phil Jagielka or Sylvain Distin, if called upon. He did get that chance in January 2012, returning from loan after Jagielka damaged his knee, and the lad looked remarkably confident and composed in a couple of league games.

A new three-year contract with Everton, signed in September 2012, was indicative of the promise the Irishman showed but opportunities at senior level remained elusive with the Jagielka-Distin partnership as strong as ever and John Heitinga occupying the third-choice slot in Moyes's pecking order.

Duffy continued to impress at reserve-team level, however, captaining Everton U21s through a six-month unbeaten run that earned them a place in the playoffs in 2012-13, scoring a number of goals from centre half in the process. 

On 26 September 2013, Duffy joined Football League Championship side Yeovil Town on an initial month loan which was eventually extended until the end of the season where he established himself as a first-team regular at the heart of the Glovers' defence.

Though he would receive acclaim for being one of the best centre halves in the Championship that season, Duffy could not prevent Yeovil from being relegated that season but returned to Everton in the summer of 2014 looking forward to the challenge of trying to break into Robertoi Martinez's first team set-up.

He was deemed surplus to requirements, though, and was sold at the start of September to Blackburn Rovers, offering him another chance to build his career in the Championship while also remaining in the north west of England.

He was a solid enough asset for Rovers over the next two years but turned down an extension to his contract so that he could sign a 4-year deal with Brighton & Hove Albion for an undisclosed fee,  the transfer cost for the Seagulls rumoured to be a club record fee of £4 million.

It was only in later years that he established himself as a Premier League centre-back after being ever-present in the Brighton side gaining promotion from the Championship in 2017. At the age of 26, the form of the Irish international at the heart of their defence is considered to be one of the main reasons the Seagulls are looking set for a second season in the top flight.