Niall McGinn (born 20 July 1987) is a Northern Irish professional footballer who plays as a forward for Scottish League One club Peterhead, and also serves as the club's first team coach. McGinn has also played for Dungannon Swifts, Derry City, Celtic, Brentford, Aberdeen (two spells), Gwangju, Dundee, Glentoran and Greenock Morton. He made his debut for Northern Ireland in 2008 and has gone on to make over seventy international appearances.
McGinn began his football career at Dungannon Swifts in his native county. In his first full season, the club finished in 10th place.
McGinn was signed by Derry City manager Stephen Kenny in January 2008 for an undisclosed fee from Dungannon Swifts in the Carnegie Premier League, who in turn signed him from Donaghmore Celtic. His decision to sign a professional football contract meant that McGinn retired from playing Gaelic football for Donaghmore and Tyrone under-21s. McGinn mainly plays on the left or right side of midfield but he can also be employed as a secondary striker. On 14 March 2008, McGinn made his debut for the club in a 2–1 win over Finn Harps. On 25 March 2008, McGinn scored his first goal for the club in a 4–1 win over University College Dublin. On 1 June 2008, McGinn scored his second goal in a 3–2 loss against Cork City. On 25 July 2008, McGinn scored his third goal in a 4–0 win over Galway United and scored again (fifth) in the second meeting on 2 November 2008 in a 2–0 win. On 9 August 2008, McGinn scored his fourth goal in a 3–0 win over Cobh Ramblers and scored again (sixth) in the second meeting on 14 November 2008 in a 4–2 win.
During 2008, he attracted interest from such clubs as Celtic and Championship sides Ipswich Town and Swansea City. He also attracted interest from Birmingham City.
McGinn signed for Celtic on 1 January 2009. On 12 September 2009, McGinn made his first team debut for Celtic against Dundee United. Although the game ended in a 1–1 draw, McGinn was awarded the official Man of the Match award. On 17 September 2009, McGinn made his Europa League debut in a 2–1 loss against Hapoel Tel Aviv. In the last group stage game, with Celtic already eliminated, they faced Austrian side Rapid Wien. The match ended 3–3 which meant Celtic finished third in their group. McGinn started the match and provided an assist for Marc-Antoine Fortuné to score the second goal before being substituted for Graham Carey.
On 31 October 2009, McGinn scored his first goal for Celtic coming on as a 66th-minute substitute in a 3–0 win over Kilmarnock at Celtic Park. McGinn scored his second goal for Celtic against Hamilton Academical on 26 December 2009 by driving a right footed shot into the top corner. He scored his first goal in the Scottish Cup and his third of the 2009–10 season to put Celtic 1–0 ahead against Greenock Morton on 19 January 2010. In the January transfer window, McGinn was a transfer target for Premier League side Wigan Athletic but wished to stay at Celtic. At the end of the season, McGinn suffered an injury during the end of the last training session of the season on 17 May 2010 after breaking a metatarsal bone in his right foot and would be out for two months. After recovering from his injury, McGinn said manager Neil Lennon played a big role in helping him recover from his injury.
After being on the substitute's bench without coming on, McGinn scored in twice his first game of the 2010–11 season, a 3–2 win over St Johnstone in the Scottish League Cup on 27 October 2010. Three days later on 30 October 2010, he scored twice against the same opponent again but this time in the 3–2 league win. In the next match against Aberdeen (a 9–0 victory which broke the record as the biggest ever win in the SPL, as well as being the biggest ever defeat in the history of Aberdeen), McGinn provided an assist for Gary Hooper to score his second goal. Later on the season, McGinn would play less and usually be on the bench.
Before the start of the 2011–12 season rumours flowed that there was a fall-out between McGinn and Lennon with McGinn being unhappy over being left out of the pre-season tour of Australia. Lennon denied this and explained the leaving out of McGinn was due to his international commitments at the Nations Cup in May. McGinn signed a new one-year extension on his contract at the start of the 2011–12 season before moving to Brentford. After his loan move to Brentford, McGinn says moving to Brentford could be an end of his Celtic career after a phone-call conversation from Lennon.
On 7 July 2011, McGinn signed for English League One club Brentford on a season long loan deal. On 6 August 2011, McGinn made his debut for the club in a 2–0 win against Yeovil Town where he made his first start before coming off in the second half. On 16 August 2011, McGinn provided an assist for Clayton Donaldson to make it 2–0 against Exeter City, only for the game to end in a 2–1 win. On 20 August 2011, McGinn scored his first goal for the club in a 5–0 win over Leyton Orient. On 17 September 2011, he scored his second goal for the club in a 2–0 win over Preston. On 10 December 2011, McGinn scored his third goal for the club in a 2–1 win over Hartlepool United. On 14 February 2012, McGinn scored his fourth goal for the club in a 2–1 loss against Colchester United. On 3 April 2012, McGinn scored his fifth goal for the club in a 2–1 win over Oldham Athletic and in the first meeting of the season, McGinn set up a goal for Myles Weston in a 2–0 win on 24 September 2011.
On 4 July 2012, McGinn signed for Scottish Premier League club Aberdeen on a two-year contract after his deal with Celtic expired. After his move, McGinn revealed the club's aim to challenge his former club Celtic and gain a place in Europe. McGinn joined up with his teammates as they headed out to Germany for a pre-season tour which included games against Werder Bremen and FC St. Pauli. He scored his first goal for the Dons in the friendly against St. Pauli, rounding the goalkeeper after picking up the ball from a poor back pass.
He went on to make his competitive debut for Aberdeen in an opening day 1–0 defeat away to SPL champions Celtic. The following weekend, he made his home debut against newly promoted side Ross County. The game finished 0–0 and also saw McGinn stretchered off towards the end of the game after an accidental collision with veteran defender Grant Munro. Manager Craig Brown spoke after the game, ruling McGinn out of the Northern Ireland squad that was due to face Finland on 14 August. The former Scotland manager said: "We can't tell the length of the recovery period but he will certainly be out in the immediate future."
After being out for four weeks due to an ankle injury, McGinn featured as a substitute in a 1–1 draw with Inverness Caledonian thistle. The next week he came on as a substitute against Motherwell and scored his first competitive goal for the club, helping Aberdeen come back from 1–3 down to draw 3–3. He then went on to score in his next two appearances for the Dons. A 2–1 victory at home to Hibernian and helped the Dons come back to beat Kilmarnock 3–1 at Rugby Park. A fortnight later, he scored his thirtieth goal in four matches at Tannadice in a 1–1 draw with Dundee United. On 27 October 2012, McGinn became the first Aberdeen player in twenty years to score in five successive league matches, netting the opening goal in a 2–0 win over Dundee. The following week, in a 2–1 loss to Ross County in Dingwall, McGinn scored in his sixth straight league match, breaking Duncan Shearer's record. McGinn headed a late equaliser in a Scottish Cup tie with Motherwell to level the match and set up a replay at Fir Park.
McGinn then bagged the first hat-trick in his professional career in a convincing 3–1 victory over Dundee at Dens Park, on 29 December 2012; this brought his goal tally to 14 before the turn of the year. He scored a free kick in a 2–2 draw with Dundee United at Pittodrie three days later, his 14th goal in 19 league games. On the last day of the transfer window, McGinn revealed he offers from three clubs in England's Championship which he rebuffed, to return the faith shown in him by Craig Brown. Later in the 2012–13 season, McGinn's impressive display earned him a nomination for PFA Scotland Players' Player of the Year.