Stephen Grant is a former professional footballer who played as a striker

Striker

Forwards, also known as strikers, are the players on a team in association football who play nearest to the opposing team's goal, and are therefore principally responsible for scoring goals...

.

During his career he played for Athlone Town, Sunderland, Shamrock Rovers

Shamrock Rovers F.C.

Shamrock Rovers Football Club are a professional football club from Dublin, Ireland. They compete in the Premier Division of the League of Ireland and are the most successful club in Irish football history. The club have won the League of Ireland title a record 17 times and the FAI Cup a record 24...

 (two stints 154 competitive appearances), Stockport County, Burnley

Burnley F.C.

Burnley Football Club are a professional English Football League club based in Burnley, Lancashire. Nicknamed the Clarets, due to the dominant colour of their home shirts, they were founder members of the Football League in 1888...

, Finn Harps, Waterford United

Waterford United

Waterford United is an Irish football club playing in the First Division of the League of Ireland. The club was founded and elected to the league in 1930 and hails from Waterford. Originally the club was based at Kilcohan Park greyhound stadium, but have now moved to the Waterford Regional Sports...

 Boston Bulldogs

Boston Bulldogs (soccer)

The Boston Bulldogs were a soccer club originally founded in 1996 as the Worcester Wildfire. The team debuted in the USISL and would play in the A-League from 1997 to 2000...

, Galway United

Galway United

Galway United F.C. was founded as Galway Rovers in 1937. They are a football club currently playing in the League of Ireland Premier Division, the top tier of the Irish football....

 and Shelbourne

Shelbourne

Shelbourne may refer to :*Shelbourne Hotel; a hotel in the centre of Dublin, Ireland*Shelbourne Development; a real estate development company based out of Dublin, Ireland*Shelbourne Road; a street in Dublin, Ireland...

.

After playing for Athlone and Sunderland reserves his first taste of senior football came when Pat Byrne

Pat Byrne

Pat Byrne is a former Irish football player and manager.-Playing career:A central midfielder, Byrne's playing career started with Bohemians, his debut coming against St Patricks Athletic on 25 August 1974...

 signed him for Rovers in October 1996. He became an instant hero by scoring on his debut against fierce rivals Bohemians on the 18th. After 4 goals in 22 total appearances he signed for Stockport for £10,000 in 1997.

He signed back again for Rovers in the summer of 2001 and wrote himself into the history books by becoming the first Irish player to score against a Polish side in European competition when Rovers beat Odra Wodzisław in the UEFA Intertoto Cup

UEFA Intertoto Cup

The UEFA Intertoto Cup, also abbreviated as UI Cup and originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition for European clubs that had not qualified for one of the two major UEFA competitions, the Champions League and the UEFA Cup. The competition was discontinued...

 in June 2003 In total he made 6 appearances in Europe for Rovers.

He was Rovers top goalscorer in the 2004 season.

He scored 1 goal in 4 appearances for the Republic of Ireland U21.

Stephen retired from professional football at the relatively early age of 27 to concentrate on a career as a professional golfer .