{"id":944136,"date":"2026-10-28T16:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T16:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944136\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T16:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T16:28:10","slug":"james-mcclean-former-republic-of-ireland-international-leaves-derry-city-after-contract-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944136\/","title":{"rendered":"James McClean: Former Republic of Ireland international leaves Derry City after contract dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"

James McClean says Derry City “will always hold a special place in my heart” after he and the club mutually agreed to terminate his contract with immediate effect.<\/p>\n

McClean returned to his hometown club from Wrexham in January but had not been included in a matchday squad since July.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the 37-year-old described an earlier attempt by the League of Ireland club to terminate his contract as “incomprehensible”<\/a> and said his exile from the squad was “one of the most difficult periods in my life, personally and professionally”.<\/p>\n

But in a joint statement released on Wednesday, the club and McClean said they are “satisfied with the outcome and are pleased to move forward constructively”.<\/p>\n

“I am pleased that we have reached a resolution to settle these matters,” said McClean.<\/p>\n

“While my return to the club did not work out as I had hoped, Derry City FC will always hold a special place in my heart.<\/p>\n

“I want to thank the fans for their support, and I wish the squad, the management, staff, and the supporters the very best for the future.”<\/p>\n

McClean also wished the team luck in the FAI Cup final against Waterford on 8 November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James McClean says Derry City “will always hold a special place in my heart” after he and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-944136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=944136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}