Cheat Sheet: Your guide to Ireland’s most in-form striker Adam Rooney

Aberdeen striker Adam Rooney has scored 19 times in 34 appearances so far this season, including 13 in last 16 games, making him the current in-form Irish striker in the run-up to the March friendlies against Switzerland and Slovakia. Here is everything you need to know about the Irish striker.

1. Rooney started his professional career with Stoke City in the Championship. He made 19 appearances for the Potters but only started twice. Just over a week after the Dubliner turned 18, he scored his first professional hat-trick on the final day of the 2005/06 season against Brighton. That hat-trick still stands as the youngest ever scored by a Stoke player.

2. After struggling to cement a place in Stoke’s first-team, Rooney had spells on-loan at other Football League sides Yeovil Town, Chesterfield and Bury between 2007 and 2008. The Dubliner scored a total of 9 goals in 43 appearances away from the Britannia Stadium. However, he was deemed surplus to requirements by Tony Pulis before joining Scottish Premiership side Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the summer of 2008.

3. Rooney was relegated in his first season with Inverness scoring just six times in 36 appearances. The demotion to the Scottish Championship proved rather fruitful for Rooney as he would go on to have his most prolific season of his career to that point, scoring 26 times in 42 games. His 24 league goals would also make him the division’s top scorer and earned him the Player of the Year award as his side won promotion.

4. The goals kept coming the following season as Rooney scored 21 goals with 15 coming in the Scottish Premiership. When his Inverness contract expired at the end of the season, Adam Rooney decided to return to England after a three-year break by signing for newly-relegated Birmingham City in the Championship.  Birmingham, who were League Cup winners, had been relegated from the Premier League the previous season.

5. The move to Birmingham also lead to Rooney making his European debut in the Europa League where he made five appearances and scored the winning goal against Maribor in the group stages. Rooney found the back of the net on seven occasions for his new club with only four coming in the league, as Birmingham failed to bounce back to the Premier League.

6. A loan spell with Paulo Di Canio’s Swindon Town followed the next season and Rooney would never play for Birmingham again. Rooney scored a respectable 10 goals in 34 appearances for the League One side.

7. The next season saw Rooney make the permanent move to Oldham Athletic but his stay was short-lived as he made the move back to Scotland with Aberdeen in January 2014.

8. Nine goals including one on his debut and a goal to end Celtic’s 26-match unbeaten run in the Scottish Premiership made it a happy to start to life with Aberdeen for Rooney. He also converted the winning penalty in the League Cup final against former club Inverness to secure Aberdeen’s first trophy in 19 years.

9. The next season was yet more evidence that Rooney is most productive and prolific in Scotland, as he went on to become the league’s top scorer with 18 goals. He scored 28 goals in total, including six strikes in the Europa League qualifiers during his 47 appearances. This led him being nominated for Scottish Player of the Year before losing out to Celtic’s Stefan Johansen.

10. Although the Aberdeen striker has been called-up several times by Martin O’Neill to the Republic of Ireland squad, he has yet to make his senior international debut. He has played at underage level for Ireland and has nine caps for the U21 side where he played with Séamus Coleman, Robbie Brady and Alan Judge, however he failed to score a goal for the U21’s.