Glenn Whelan

Glenn Whelan
Personal information
Full name Glenn David Whelan
Date of birth (1984-01-13) 13 January 1984
Place of birth Dublin, Ireland
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s) Defensive Midfielder
Team information
Current team
Wigan Athletic (assistant head coach)
Youth career
2000–2001 Cherry Orchard
2001 Manchester City
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2001–2004 Manchester City 0 (0)
2003Bury (loan) 7 (0)
2003–2004Bury (loan) 6 (0)
2004–2008 Sheffield Wednesday 142 (12)
2008–2017 Stoke City 291 (5)
2017–2019 Aston Villa 68 (2)
2019–2020 Heart of Midlothian 15 (0)
2020–2021 Fleetwood Town 34 (0)
2021 Wythenshawe 4 (0)
2021–2023 Bristol Rovers 43 (0)
Total 610 (19)
International career
2000 Republic of Ireland U16 2 (0)
2002–2005 Republic of Ireland U21 19 (2)
2007 Republic of Ireland B 1 (0)
2008–2019 Republic of Ireland 91 (2)
Managerial career
2025 Wigan Athletic (caretaker)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Glenn David Whelan (born 13 January 1984) is an Irish former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. He represented the Republic of Ireland national football team. He is the assistant head coach of Wigan Athletic.

Whelan started his career at Manchester City but only made one appearance which came in the UEFA Cup and after a loan spell at Bury he moved on to play for Sheffield Wednesday, with whom he won promotion to the Championship in May 2005. In January 2008 Whelan joined Stoke City for a fee of £500,000 with whom he helped gain promotion to the Premier League. He took a while to establish himself in Tony Pulis' first team plans in the top flight but by 2009 he became a regular and went on to play in the 2011 FA Cup final, but his old club Manchester City beat Stoke 1–0. Whelan continued to be a regular in the side under Pulis and kept his place under Mark Hughes. Whelan spent nine years at Stoke making 338 appearances before joining Aston Villa in July 2017 and then Hearts in August 2019.