Anthony Stokes

Anthony Christopher Stokes (born 25 July 1988) is an Irish former professional footballer who played as a striker.

He began his senior career with Arsenal, and established himself with a successful loan spell with Falkirk in 2006, scoring 14 goals in 16 SPL games. He then signed for Sunderland in a £2 million deal, but struggled to hold down a place in the Sunderland first team. He moved back to Scottish football when Hibernian signed him for £500,000 in August 2009, and he scored over 20 goals in his only full season there. Stokes then moved to boyhood heroes Celtic for a fee of around £1.2 million. He played regularly for Celtic under the management of Neil Lennon and enjoyed success, but fell out of favour under Ronny Deila. In the latter part of the 2015–16 season, he was loaned to Hibernian, who he helped win the 2015–16 Scottish Cup.

After a season with Blackburn Rovers, Stokes joined Hibernian for a third time in 2017, but was released in 2018. He then had short spells with Greek club Apollon Smyrni, Iranian clubs Tractor and Persepolis, and Turkish club Adana Demirspor, before returning to Scotland with Livingston in 2020. Stokes also represented the Republic of Ireland at under-21 level, and played in nine full internationals for the senior team between 2007 and 2014. Provided by Wikipedia