peoplepill id: rory-fallon
RF
New Zealand
1 views today
1 views this week
Rory Fallon
New Zealand footballer

Rory Fallon

The basics

Quick Facts

Intro
New Zealand footballer
Work field
Gender
Male
Place of birth
Gisborne, New Zealand
Age
42 years
Stats
Height:
188 cm
The details (from wikipedia)

Biography

Rory Michael Fallon (born 20 March 1982) is a retired New Zealand footballer. He played predominantly as a forward. Fallon previously played for Barnsley, Shrewsbury Town, Swindon Town, Swansea City, Plymouth Argyle, Ipswich Town, Yeovil Town, Aberdeen, St Johnstone, Bristol Rovers, Scunthorpe United, Dorchester Town. He was also capped by New Zealand a total of 24 times, scoring 6 goals. He represented his country at both the 2010 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Nations Cup. He was born and raised in Gisborne. His father Kevin managed New Zealand over a four-year period in the 1980s. He retired from professional football in November 2017.

Playing career

Club career

Born in Gisborne, Fallon started his career at Barnsley, becoming a professional in 1999 after moving up through their trainee programme. He had just begun to cement his place in the first-team when he suffered a stress fracture of his foot, which saw him struggle to regain his place.

Fallon was signed for an undisclosed fee by Swindon Town in November 2003 after a number of impressive performances against them with Barnsley, which caught the eye of manager Andy King. After breaking into the team he scored a number of important goals in the 2003–04 campaign; including an overhead kick from the edge of the box to secure a point against Bristol City.

Despite the departure of Tommy Mooney, Fallon found himself regularly on the bench in the 2004–05 season. He was loaned out to Yeovil Town to increase his confidence and he scored on his debut against Scunthorpe United. He failed to score in the remainder of the season, but a red card for kicking Huddersfield Town defender David Mirfin in the face meant he missed the opening two games of the following season. After Sam Parkin was sold in summer 2005, Fallon was given greater opportunities to play at Swindon, scoring on his return to action against Nottingham Forest.

He signed for League One team Swansea City in January 2006 for a fee believed to be £300,000, the second highest fee ever paid by the Welsh club. A productive year followed for the striker, scoring 13 goals in all competitions from 48 appearances. This prompted interest from Championship side Plymouth Argyle and they paid £300,000 for Fallon on 19 January 2007.

Fallon had only started a handful of games for Plymouth Argyle, and had struggled to get into the team. He went without a competitive goal at Home Park until 19 January 2008, exactly one-year after he signed for the club, when he scored a second half equaliser against Southampton. It was only his fourth goal for the Pilgrims. The 2007–2008 campaign saw Fallon continue to be a regular bench warmer, but he continued with his optimistic attitude that he can become a first team regular, and even rejected a £250,000 move to League One side Southend United, in January 2008.

On 29 September 2009, Fallon scored the winning goal for Plymouth against Peterborough United earning the Pilgrims their first win of the season after seven straight defeats, lifting them off the bottom of the table. Fallon then scored the opening goal in Argyle's next game against Scunthorpe United which they also won 2–1.

On the opening day of the 2010–11 season, Fallon played the full 90 minutes and was the provider for Luke Summerfield's winning goal in Plymouth's 1–0 win over pre-season promotion favourites Southampton. In November, he joined Ipswich Town on short loan, returning to Plymouth in January.

In August 2011, Fallon signed a one-month contract with Yeovil Town after a short trial and featured in all five of Yeovil's games during that period.

In September 2011, he signed a two-year deal with Scottish Premier League club Aberdeen. Fallon's time at Aberdeen was notable for his performances in the 2011–12 Scottish Cup. After scoring in Aberdeen's 4–0, 4th round victory over Forfar Athletic, he set up Aberdeen's opener in the 5th round 2–1 win over Queen of the South. Fallon then scored both goals in the 2–1 quarter final win against Motherwell to become the Player of the Round. Although Aberdeen lost the semi-final at Hampden Park 2–1 against Hibernian, Fallon's second half equaliser went on to be voted the PFA Goal of the Season. On 13 May 2013 Fallon was released by Aberdeen having scored three league goals in 35 appearances.

Fallon joined Scottish Premier League side St Johnstone in July 2013 on a free transfer, the deal was completed in time for Fallon to play a part, if called upon, in St Johnstone's UEFA Europa League second qualifying round tie against Norwegian Tippeligaen side Rosenborg. On 31 January 2014, Fallon left St Johnstone by mutual consent.

In February 2014, Fallon joined Crawley Town until the end of the 2013–14 season.

In September 2014, Fallon joined Scunthorpe United on a short-term deal. Fallon scored on his Scunthorpe début in a 3–2 loss to Oldham Athletic on 27September 2014.

In January 2016, Fallon joined Bristol Rovers on non-contract terms until the end of the season. He made his debut as a 76th-minute substitute, in a 1–0 loss to Accrington Stanley F.C.. In the summer of 2016, he Joined National League South club, Truro City F.C. as a player-coach but had his contract cancelled by mutual consent in December 2016.

On 26 July 2017, Fallon joined National League side Torquay United, on non-contract terms, ahead of the 2017–18 season. He played one match for Dorchester Town.

International career

Despite being born in New Zealand and having a father who coached New Zealand at the 1982 World Cup, Fallon chose to represent England at junior level. He played international football for England at U16, U17, U18, U19 and U20 levels and switched when FIFA changed the eligibility rules.

He did, however, represent New Zealand in an unofficial U-16 World Cup in France in 1998 where Wynton Rufer was the coach. Shortly after, he departed for England to be an apprentice at Barnsley.

In January 2006, New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert suggested that Fallon might still get a chance to represent New Zealand at senior level. Herbert claimed that the only reason why Fallon wasn't picked was due to lack of correspondence from FIFA regarding this matter. Fallon had until he was 21 years old to get clearance from FIFA to change nationalities. It found, however, that Fallon did not apply in the 2004 window to change allegiance for over-21s players. This year-long window was made available by FIFA upon introduction of a rule which allows players with dual nationality to switch their allegiance before their 21st birthday. Under this criterion Fallon could not be available for New Zealand.

On 3 June 2009, FIFA Congress passed a motion removing the age limit for changing associations for players who had already played for a country's national team at youth level under article 18 of the Regulations Governing the Application of the FIFA Statutes. This allowed for the possibility of Fallon again representing New Zealand.

In August 2009, Fallon was called up to the New Zealand squad for a friendly against Jordan the following month and the crucial two-legged World Cup play-off matches against Bahrain later in the year. Fallon scored on debut in the match against Jordan, which New Zealand won 3–1.

On 14 November 2009, Fallon scored the only goal in the second leg of New Zealand's World Cup qualifier against Bahrain, to send New Zealand to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, their first appearance at the finals in 28 years. Fallon played in all three of New Zealand's finals games.

He recalled into the New Zealand camp for their World Cup play-off loss to Peru. On November 2017, following the matches, he announced his international retirement.

Coaching career

After retiring, Fallon worked with Plymouth Argyle's under-14 players. In mid-October 2019, Fallon was appointed manager for the New Zealand national football team under manager Danny Hay.

Career statistics

Club

Reference

ClubSeasonLeagueNational CupLeague CupOtherTotal
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Barnsley1999–2000First Division0000000000
2000–011000000010
2001–0290001000100
2002–03Second Division267101010297
2003–04164001010184
Barnsley total52111030205811
Shrewsbury Town (loan)2001–02Third Division110000000110
Swindon Town2003–04Second Division196000021217
2004–05League One313302031394
2005–0625121110212914
Swindon total77224130739126
Yeovil Town (loan)2004–05League Two6100000061
Swansea City2005–06League One174000031205
2006–07248301000288
Swansea total41123010314813
Plymouth Argyle2006–07Championship151000000151
2007–08297102000327
2008–09445101000475
2009–10335201000365
2010–11League One284101010314
Plymouth total1492250501016022
Ipswich Town (loan)2010–11Championship6100000061
Yeovil Town2011–12League One5000100060
Aberdeen2011–12Scottish Premier League212541100277
2012–13141210000162
Aberdeen total353751100439
St Johnstone2013–14Scottish Premiership81101020121
Crawley Town2013–14League One8000000080
Scunthorpe United2014–15League One4300001053
Bristol Rovers2015–16League Two3000000030
Truro City2016–17National League South120000020140
Torquay United2017–18National League5000000050
Dorchester Town2017–18Southern League Premier Division1000001020
Career total4237621615119447887

International goals

New Zealand score listed first, score column indicates score after each Fallon goal.
No.DateVenueCapOpponentScoreResultCompetition
19 September 2009King Abdullah II Stadium, Amman, Jordan1 Jordan2–13–1Friendly
214 November 2009Wellington Regional Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand3 Bahrain1–01–02010 FIFA World Cup qualification
34 June 2010Ljudski vrt, Maribor, Slovenia7 Slovenia1–11–3Friendly
419 November 2013Wellington Regional Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand17 Mexico2–32–42014 FIFA World Cup qualification
528 May 2016Sir John Guise Stadium, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea19 Fiji2–03–12018 FIFA World Cup qualification
631 May 2016Sir John Guise Stadium, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea20 Vanuatu4–05–02016 OFC Nations Cup

Personal life

Fallon's mother, Mere, is of Māori descent. He has a brother called Sean and a sister called Bianca.

Fallon owns a business selling ice cream for businesses and events across Yorkshire and Devon.

The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
Lists
Rory Fallon is in following lists
comments so far.
Comments
From our partners
Sponsored
Credits
References and sources
Rory Fallon
arrow-left arrow-right instagram whatsapp myspace quora soundcloud spotify tumblr vk website youtube pandora tunein iheart itunes