Aidan Nesbitt

Aidan Nesbitt
Personal information
Full name Aidan Robert Nesbitt[1]
Date of birth (1997-02-05) 5 February 1997 (age 27)
Place of birth Scotland
Position(s) Attacking midfielder
Team information
Current team
 Falkirk
Number 10
Youth career
2014–2015 Celtic
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2015–2017 Celtic 1 (0)
2016 → Partick Thistle (loan) 7 (0)
2016–2017 → Greenock Morton (loan) 30 (3)
2017–2019 Milton Keynes Dons 19 (2)
2019 Dundee United 7 (0)
2019–2021 Greenock Morton 42 (7)
2021– Falkirk 108 (17)
International career‡
2013–2014 Scotland U17 10 (1)
2015–2016 Scotland U19 6 (2)
2016 Scotland U21 2 (0)
2017 Scotland U20 5 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 13:20, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 01:08, 1 September 2017 (UTC)

Aidan Robert Nesbitt (born 5 February 1997) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Scottish Championship club Falkirk.

He has previously played for Partick Thistle, Dundee United, Milton Keynes Dons and Greenock Morton, after progressing through the Celtic youth academy.

Club career

Celtic

Nesbitt is a product of the academy system at Celtic.[2] On 21 May 2015, Nesbitt scored a hat-trick in the Scottish Youth Cup final against Rangers.[3] On 23 September 2015, Nesbitt made his first team debut in a League Cup match against Raith Rovers when he came on in the 89th minute.[4] On 24 April 2016, he won the Celtic academy player of the year award.[5]

On 1 February 2016, Nesbitt joined fellow Scottish Premiership side Partick Thistle on loan until the end of the 2015–16 season.[6] Nesbitt made his Premiership debut for Partick Thistle, starting in a 2–0 home win against St Johnstone on 23 February 2016; getting awarded a man of the match for his performance.[7] He signed on loan with Greenock Morton in August 2016.[8] The loan was extended in January 2017 until the end of the season.[9]

Milton Keynes Dons

On 31 August 2017, Nesbitt joined League One club Milton Keynes Dons for an undisclosed fee, signing a two-year deal.[10] Having made intermittent appearances under manager Robbie Neilson, Nesbitt soon found himself out of favour under new manager Paul Tisdale during the 2018–19 season. Nesbitt left the club by mutual consent on 2 January 2019, having made a total of 27 appearances in all competitions and scoring 4 goals.[11]

Dundee United

On 4 January 2019, Nesbitt joined Scottish Championship club Dundee United on a short term deal, reuniting with his former manager at his previous club, Robbie Neilson.[12] Nesbitt was released by United on 6 May 2019.[13]

Greenock Morton

On 17 June 2019, Nesbitt signed for Greenock Morton on a one-year contract.[14]

International career

Nesbitt was named in the team of the tournament at the 2014 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship, as Scotland U17s reached the semi-finals.[15] He then appeared for the Scotland U19 team in each of the following two seasons.[16] Whilst on loan to Morton, Nesbitt received his first call-up to the Scotland U21 squad in September 2016.[17]

He was selected for the under-20 squad in the 2017 Toulon Tournament.[18] After a historic first ever win against Brazil, which was at any level.[19] Nesbitt played in the win over Czech Republic for the bronze medal.[20] It was the nations first ever medal at the competition.[21]

Career statistics

As of 12 July 2024[22][23]
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Celtic 2015–16 Scottish Premiership 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
2016–17 Scottish Premiership 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2017–18 Scottish Premiership 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
Celtic Under-20s[a] 2016–17 — 3 2 3 2
2017–18 — 1 0 1 0
Total 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 2 4 2
Partick Thistle (loan) 2015–16 Scottish Premiership 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 0
Greenock Morton (loan) 2016–17 Scottish Championship 30 1 3 0 3 0 1[b] 0 37 1
Milton Keynes Dons 2017–18 League One 19 2 3 2 0 0 3[c] 0 25 4
2018–19 League Two 0 0 0 0 0 0 2[c] 0 2 0
Total 19 2 3 2 0 0 5 0 27 4
Dundee United 2018–19 Scottish Championship 7 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 8 0
Greenock Morton 2019–20 Scottish Championship 20 3 2 0 5 2 0 0 27 5
2020–21 Scottish Championship 25 4 3 0 3 1 4[d] 0 35 5
Total 45 7 5 0 8 3 4 0 62 10
Falkirk 2021–22 Scottish League One 34 2 2 1 1 0 2[e] 1 39 4
2022–23 Scottish League One 36 3 5 1 4 1 4[f] 0 49 5
2023–24 Scottish League One 34 12 2 0 0 0 3[e] 0 39 12
2024–25 Scottish Championship 0 0 0 0 3 2 0 0 3 2
Total 104 17 8 2 8 3 9 1 130 23
Career total 212 27 20 3 18 5 23 3 276 40
  1. ^ Matches in the Scottish Challenge Cup, in which teams from the SPFL Development League compete against senior clubs.
  2. ^ Appearance in Scottish Premiership play-offs.
  3. ^ a b Appearances in the EFL Trophy
  4. ^ Appearances in Scottish Championship play-offs.
  5. ^ a b Appearances in Scottish Challenge Cup.
  6. ^ Two Appearances in Scottish Challenge Cup and two appearances in Scottish Championship Play-offs.

Honours

Celtic U20

Scotland U20

Individual

References

  1. ^ "UEFA Youth League 2015/2016: Booking List before Domestic Champions Path Round Two, 2nd leg" (PDF). UEFA. p. 1. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  2. ^ "Welcome to Paradise". CelticFC. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  3. ^ "Nesbitt the hat-trick hero as Celtic lift Youth Cup". CelticFC. 21 May 2015. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  4. ^ Wilson, Richard (22 September 2015). "BBC Sport – Celtic 2–0 Raith Rovers". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  5. ^ "Player of the Year Awards: Celtic, Rangers and Hearts pay special tribute to their key men this season". Daily Record. 24 April 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2017.
  6. ^ "Partick Thistle add forwards Aidan Nesbitt and Antonio German". BBC Sport. 1 February 2016.
  7. ^ Wilson, Richard (23 February 2016). "Partick Thistle 2–0 St Johnstone". BBC Sport.
  8. ^ Mitchell, Jonathan (9 August 2016). "Aidan Nesbitt signs on loan from Celtic". Greenock Morton F.C. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  9. ^ Mitchell, Jonathan (4 January 2017). "Nesbitt loan extended until end of the season". Greenock Morton F.C. Archived from the original on 4 January 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
  10. ^ "MK Dons sign Scott Golbourne, Alex Gilbey and Celtic's Aidan Nesbitt". BBC Sport. 31 August 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
  11. ^ "Aidan departs MK Dons". Milton Keynes Dons. 2 January 2019. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  12. ^ "Aidan Nesbitt goes straight into Dundee United squad for Saturday". The Courier. 4 January 2019. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  13. ^ "THREE PLAYERS TO LEAVE UNITED". Dundee United FC. 6 May 2019. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  14. ^ "BREAKING: AIDAN NESBITT RETURNS TO MORTON". Greenock Morton F.C. 17 June 2019. Archived from the original on 12 August 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  15. ^ "Technical Report : Malta 2014" (PDF). Uefa.com. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  16. ^ "Aidan Nesbitt". www.scottishfa.co.uk. Scottish Football Association. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  17. ^ Mitchell, Jonathan (27 September 2016). "Aidan earns first Scotland under-21 call-up". Greenock Morton F.C. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  18. ^ "Scotland squad for Toulon announced". Scottish FA. 17 May 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  19. ^ "Scotland U20 1-0 Brazil U20: Young Scots make history". The Scotsman. 3 June 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  20. ^ "Scotland finish third at Toulon Tournament with 3-0 win". Scottish FA. 10 June 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  21. ^ "JULES AND HOLSGROVE TAKE BRONZE WITH SCOTLAND IN TOULON". Reading FC. 11 June 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  22. ^ Aidan Nesbitt at Soccerbase
  23. ^ Aidan Nesbitt at Soccerway
  24. ^ @PFAScotland (19 April 2024). "PFA Scotland on X: "🏆 PFA Scotland League 1 Team of the Year. As voted for by the players, congratulations to… Nicky Hogarth Finn Yeats Coll Donaldson Tom Lang Leon McCann Brad Spencer Liam Henderson Aidan Nesbitt Callumn Morrison Rumarn Burrell Calvin Miller #PFASAwards" (Tweet). Retrieved 19 April 2024 – via Twitter.