Roy O'Donovan is a professional football player who was born on August 10, 1985, in Cork, which is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland.
Roy O'Donovan has represented Republic of Ireland’s Under-21 team at the international level and has made nine appearances for this team with one goal to his credit. This striker was also given the opportunity to be a part of the Republic of Ireland B team in 2006 and 2007 and has made two international appearances for the team.
Roy O'Donovan started playing football at Leeds A.F.C. Cork’s youth club and went on to play in other youth clubs, which include Blarney Street, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Cheltenham Town. He made a move to Coventry City’s senior club in 2004 and spent the 2004-2005 season at this club. Following this, Roy O'Donovan signed to play with his hometown club, Cork City in 2005 and started his career at the club as a wide-right attacking midfielder and was soon asked to play as a forward. In 2007, when he left the club, he had the most number of goals in the Eircom League, making him the League’s leading goal scorer.
On August 7, 2007, Roy O'Donovan signed a three-year contract with Sunderland for an Eircom League record transfer fee of €500,000, which would be increased to €1 million depending on his performances for the club. He made his first Premiership appearance for Sunderland on August 15, 2007 by coming on as a substitute in the sixty ninth minute of the match against Birmingham City. On July 20, 2008, Roy O'Donovan netted his first goal for the club in a pre-season friendly match against Sporting Lisbon.
Leeds United and Dundee United have targeted Roy O'Donovan as a loan player for their club for the 2008-2009 season, and he signed a one-year loan contract on August 8, 2008 to play for the Dundee United football club.
