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Derek Riordan

Derek George Riordan (born 16 January 1983) is a Scottish association football player who currently plays for Scottish Premier League club . Riordan started his career with Hibernian, where he established himself as one of the top young players in the Scottish game. He won both young player of the year awards in 2005 and represented the Scotland national football team once. He signed for in 2006, but he failed to hold down a regular place in their first team. Riordan returned to Hibernian in 2008.

Club career

Hibernian

Riordan signed for in 2000 and made his debut the following year. It took a few years for Riordan to establish himself in the first team, and he spent a brief spell on loan at in January 2003. He was finally given an opportunity towards the end of the 2002–03 season, as Hibs finished in the bottom half of the Scottish Premier League. He took this opportunity well, and he was the club's top goalscorer for each of the next three seasons, with 18, 23 and 20 goals respectively. This success earned him recognition in the form of the Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year award in 2005, and selections for the full Scotland international squad during 2005.

At the end of the 2004–05 season, Riordan rejected an offer of an extension to his contract, and Hibs decided to make him available for transfer. A £500,000 fee was agreed with in August 2005, but Riordan rejected the move. During the January 2006 transfer window, made a £400,000 bid for Riordan that was turned down. Bids from Lokomotiv Moscow and Kaiserslautern were accepted by Hibs, but Riordan rejected these moves because he did not want to move overseas.

Riordan caused controversy in 2005 when he appeared in a video that showed him singing that 's Rudi Skacel was a "refugee", but Riordan later apologised for his actions.

Celtic

Riordan signed for Celtic in a £170,000 deal in June 2006. The fee was reduced from the previous offers because Riordan's contract with Hibs was due to expire in October 2006, and Riordan had already made a pre-contract agreement to sign for Celtic on a free transfer in January 2007. Riordan had difficulty obtaining a place in the Celtic side. As of 4 October 2006, he had only played three minutes in league matches for Celtic out of a possible 810. He was sometimes not even selected as a substitute. He finally made his full debut for Celtic against in the CIS Cup, as Gordon Strachan fielded a side containing many players who were not first team regulars.

Riordan publicly aired his disappointment at not being given more opportunities in the Celtic first team in April 2008, and he subsequently trained with the reserve team. made a £400,000 offer for Riordan in January 2008 that was rejected by Celtic. Hibernian made an offer to Celtic to take Riordan back on loan in August 2008, but this was also rejected by Celtic.

Hibernian

Riordan returned to Hibernian on the final day of the 2008 summer transfer window. Edinburgh rivals Hearts were also keen to sign Riordan, but they pulled out when they realised that their interest in the striker was 'not reciprocal'. Riordan was given the unusual squad number 01, as number 10 had already been allocated to Colin Nish. Riordan made his second debut for Hibernian on 13 September, when he came on as a 61st minute substitute for Joe Keenan against . He then scored the only goal of a game against on 20 September, which was described by BBC Sport as follows:

Riordan had been on the park for a mere 40 seconds when [he] smartly gathered a cross from Ian Murray and curled a tremendous shot into the far top corner of the net from 18 yards.