{"id":250637,"date":"2026-01-18T04:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T04:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/250637\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T04:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T04:58:08","slug":"mcclean-agrees-deal-to-return-to-derry-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/250637\/","title":{"rendered":"McClean agrees deal to return to Derry City"},"content":{"rendered":"

James McClean has left English Championship club Wrexham and made a sensational return to Derry City on a multi\u2013year deal.<\/p>\n

McClean made over 100 appearances after joining Wrexham in August 2023 and helped the Welsh club win back-to-back promotions from League Two and League One.<\/p>\n

The winger, who earned 103 caps for the Republic of Ireland, left Derry City for Sunderland in 2011 for a fee of \u00a3350,000, making his debut later that season under Martin O’Neill.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old went on to represent Wigan twice, West Brom and Stoke City before moving to the Welsh club, owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.<\/p>\n

McClean made 79 appearances for Derry from 2008-2011 having joined from Irish League side Institute. He scored 16 goals before moving to the Black Cats.<\/p>\n

\"James
\nJames McClean is action for Derry City in 2009<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Derry City website, McClean said: “Its a bit surreal that it’s here and it’s happened, but I can’t wait to get started.<\/p>\n

“Wrexham and how they have dealt with this, absolute touch of class, they made it as easy as possible to come home. I spoke to the manager.. and I told him, the place I want to go is home.<\/p>\n

“I like challenges in my career and this is now probably one of the best challenges I get to take on.<\/p>\n

“This is the last club of my career, this is where I am ending my career. If I was to win a league title here and go out in that way I couldn\u2019t write the script any better.”<\/p>\n

Candystripes manager Tiernan Lynch said of his high-profile signing: “From my end and the team’s end, it was a no-brainer. What he has done in the game, it speaks for itself, it does not need me to tell them.<\/p>\n

“However, what he is going to bring to our changing room \u2013 that experience and that discipline \u2013 I am absolutely delighted to get him in.<\/p>\n

“It just raises the level for everything that we do. All you have to do is have a conversation with him to understand that. The big thing now is that we have to do the work.”<\/p>\n

McClean\u2019s younger brother Patrick signed with the Brandywell club on Friday in a two-year deal.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the defender\u2019s third spell with the club after representing a number of clubs in the League of Ireland and Irish League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James McClean has left English Championship club Wrexham and made a sensational return to Derry City on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-250637","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}