George McCartney

George McCartney (born April 29, 1981 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is an international footballer for Northern Ireland. He currently plays for Sunderland where he is an attacking left full back.

Sunderland

McCartney joined Sunderland as a trainee in 1998[1] and made his debut against Luton in the Worthington Cup in 2000. He was made team captain in 2003/04 after Jason McAteer suffered a long-term injury and in 2004/05 was voted Player of the Season by Sunderland fans during the successful Championship winning campaign, narrowly beating left sided partner and fan favourite Julio Arca. During the season his excellent performances earned him the title "Mr. Consistent" from manager Mick McCarthy. McCartney missed a large percentage of Sunderland's ill-fated 2005-06 season due to injury. He showed glimpses of his potential once he had regained his fitness, but in truth, his return came far too late in the season for him to have any meaningful impact on the team's dreadful run of results. He made 157 appearances for Sunderland in all competitions.

West Ham

On August 8, 2006 McCartney moved to West Ham in a four year deal, in exchange for Clive Clarke and an additional £600,000. He made his debut in the team's 2-1 defeat to Chesterfield in the League Cup on October 24, 2006. After initially spending most of his time as substitute, he eventually became a first team regular under Alan Curbishley and his strong forward runs played a crucial role in West Ham's eventual escape from relegation. He went on to make 25 appearances in all competitions for West Ham during the 2006/07 season. McCartney scored his first goal for the hammers, a strong back post header, in a friendly against Roma one week before the start of the 2007/08 season. He scored his first Premier League goal for West Ham in the 1-1 home draw with Bolton Wanderers on November 4, 2007 with a magnificent volley. At the end of the 2007/2008 season McCartney received the runner up Hammer of the Year Award, having played in all 38 Premiership games.