David Murphy

David Paul Murphy (born 1 March 1984) is an England professional association football who currently plays for Birmingham City F.C.. Murphy, born in Hartlepool, County Durham, is a defender (association football) who plays at left back.

Early career and Hibernian

He started his career with Middlesbrough F.C., and had a spell on loan at Barnsley F.C.. Murphy was released by Middlesbrough and signed for Hibernian FC in the summer of 2004 after making a trial appearance against Cardiff City F.C. in a pre-season friendly. Murphy was a player that the manager (Tony Mowbray) became aware of through contacts at Middlesbrough F.C..

Murphy went on to become an important part of a relatively successful Hibernian side, which won the Scottish League Cup 2006-07. On 6 October 2007, Murphy scored the winning goal in a 1–0 victory against Rangers F.C. at Ibrox Stadium to send Hibernian top of the league for the first time in seven years.

Birmingham City

On 17 January 2008, Murphy signed for Birmingham City F.C. for a fee of £1.5 million.
He made his first-team debut on 2 February 2008 in the Premier League against Derby County F.C. and scored his first goal for Birmingham on the final day of the season, but this was not enough to save Birmingham from promotion and relegation to the Football League Championship.

International football

After Alex McLeish had signed Murphy for Birmingham City F.C., he said that he had investigated whether Murphy was eligible to play for Scotland national football team while he was Scotland's head coach. The result of this investigation was that Murphy had no Scottish ancestors and was therefore ineligible.

Murphy himself has said that he looked into whether he could play for the Republic of Ireland national football team, but it transpired that he was also ineligible for them because his closest relation was a Grandparent Great-grandparents, which is one generation too far back.