Seamus Coleman has announced that his Everton playing career ends this month.
The Killybegs, Co. Donegal native joined from Sligo Rovers in 2009 and has played 433 times for the Merseyside club, with 372 of those being Premier League games, in which he scored 22 goals.
Coleman has not indicated yet if his days as a player are over, which opens the possibility that the 37-year-old might move down a division in England or perhaps transfer to a League of Ireland club.
"I want to have some time over the summer to focus on what's next, for me and for my family," Coleman said.
"The club have been unbelievable with me. They've offered me an opportunity to stay on with the football club,” he said, referring to what’s understood as a senior coaching position. “The manager has been great, the staff have been great.”
He said that he intends to play for the Republic of Ireland in its summer friendly games, extending his haul of 79 caps so far.
Coleman, who began as a Gaelic footballer, was talented spotted playing in 2006 for St. Catherine’s, the local soccer side in Killybegs, a fishing port. He played more than 50 games for Sligo Rovers before being signed by Everton boss David Moyes for just £60,000 in January 2009. He got his start in a European game in the fall and was Man of the Match in his Premier League debut, coming on as a first-half substitute against Spurs.
He was loaned out to Blackpool in 2010 for a time before returning to Goodison Park, where he soon became a first-team regular.
Moyes, who returned to manage the club in 2025 after a dozen years away, has gone on the record about his admiration for Coleman. So that relationship might be a factor in the latter choosing to stay with Everton.
The Donegal man got his first senior Republic of Ireland cap in a 3-0 Nations Cup win over Wales in 2011 and continued with the national team up through the recent World Cup playoff campaign that ended with the penalty shootout defeat to the Czech Republic in Prague.
Coleman initially played as a right midfielder when he broke into the Everton first team in the 2010-2011 season, but as long-term captain of both club and country he has been better known for filling the right fullback slot.
Despite periods of injury he has signed a series of short-term contracts over the past five years, with the last running out at the end of the 2025-26 season this month.
Coleman and his wife Rachel, who is also from the Killybegs area, have three children.
