Full name David James Mulligan Role Footballer Number 7 Height 1.73 m | Years Team Position Midfielder Name Dave Mulligan Current team Waitakere United | |
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Date of birth (1982-03-24) 24 March 1982 (age 33) Place of birth Fazakerley, Liverpool, England Playing position Similar People Tony Lochhead, Mark Paston, Tim Brown, Leo Bertos, Ben Sigmund | ||
David James Mulligan (born 24 March 1982) is a former New Zealand international footballer and who is now head coach of Northern League club East Coast Bays.
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Born in England, he made over 180 appearances in the English Football League between 2000 and 2008. His career began at Barnsley in 2000, where he played 66 league games in three years. He spent two years at Doncaster Rovers, making close to 100 appearances, before signing with Scunthorpe United in 2006. Less of a regular with "Scunny", he enjoyed a quick spell with Port Vale in 2008, before moving to New Zealand to play for the country's only professional club, Wellington Phoenix. He joined Auckland City in 2010, and helped the club to two successive OFC Champions League titles, before he moved to Waitakere United in 2012, and Hawke's Bay United in 2013. He returned to Waitakere United the next year.
He earned national representation at under-17, under-20, under-23 and full international level. He was selected for two FIFA Confederations Cup competitions, and was also named in the 2010 FIFA World Cup squad.
He began his coaching career as head coach at East Coast Bays in October 2016.
Club career
Mulligan started his club career at Barnsley in 2000, making his professional debut in a 3–0 defeat to Manchester City on 31 October 2001. The "Tykes" were relegated at the end of the season, but Mulligan retained his place in the first 11 for the 2002–03 campaign.
The next season, he lost his first team place and was released by Barnsley in October 2003, despite having been offered a new contract just five months earlier. He joined Doncaster Rovers five months later in February 2004, initially on a match-to-match basis, then on a short term contract, before he was rewarded with a two-year contract to sign at the season's end.
He quickly established himself at Rovers, but again ran into trouble early into the season, being placed on the transfer list by "Donny" in November 2004. He went nowhere however and was a regular starter in both 2004–05 and 2005–06. The utility player was offered a contract in the summer of 2006, but the two sides failed to agree terms.
In June 2006, Mulligan signed for League One side Scunthorpe United. He failed to establish himself at the club despite making 29 appearances throughout the whole of his first season, and due to differences with the manager Nigel Atkins over his international commitments with New Zealand he was later snubbed by the club. He joined Grimsby Town on a one-month loan in November 2007, and then joined Port Vale on a free transfer in January 2008. He stayed until the end of the season, but his stay was to prove a relatively short one as manager Lee Sinnott declined to offer Mulligan a longer contract.
Mulligan signed a two-year contract with the Wellington Phoenix FC in July 2008, however he struggled to make an impact and made just three appearances for the club in two seasons before his contract was not renewed at the end of the 2009–10 season.
Mulligan soon signed on with New Zealand Football Championship club Auckland City FC for the 2010–11 season. He made his debut in the opening round match against Waikato FC in which he scored two goals in the second half, allowing Auckland City a 3–2 victory to start of their campaign. He played both legs of the 2011 final of the OFC Champions League, as Auckland beat Amicale 6–1 on aggregate. Auckland won the Champions League for a second successive season in 2012, and this time Mulligan scored one of the goals in a 3–1 aggregate win over A.S. Tefana. He switched to rivals Waitakere United in July 2012. The club won the Premiership in 2012–13. He moved on to Hawke's Bay United in October 2013, and helped the club to a third-place finish in 2013–14. He returned to Waitakere United for the 2014–15 season, who finished the season in fourth place.
Coaching career
Mulligan was appointed as head coach at Northern League club East Coast Bays in October 2016.
International career
Mulligan played for NZ Under-17 at the 1999 FIFA U-17 World Championship and scored two goals in their two pool matches against the United States and Poland. Mulligan played for NZ Under-23 at the 2004 Athens Olympics qualification tournament for the Oceania Football Confederation, however New Zealand lost out to Australia and did not qualify for the Olympics.
He earned his "All Whites" debut in an international friendly against Estonia on 13 October 2002. Mulligan was named as part of the New Zealand team to travel to the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in June 2009 and made two starting appearances against Spain and South Africa as well as a substitute appearance against Iraq. On 10 May 2010, Mulligan was named in New Zealand's final 23-man squad to compete at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.