Bournemouth announce signing of Irish international Darren Randolph

Darren Randolph

Darren Randolph Credit: Peter Fitzpatrick (ETPhotos)

AFC Bournemouth have announced the signing of experienced Republic of Ireland international goalkeeper Darren Randolph from West Ham United on an 18-month contract.

Randolph joins Bournemouth to provide competition to goalkeepers Neto and fellow Irish international Mark Travers after playing the role of third choice keeper at West Ham for a number of years.

On the club’s media channels, Randolph spoke of his desire to push and compete with the other two goalkeepers at the Cherries. “I think most clubs I’ve been at, I’ve had to fight with other goalkeepers, that’s just the nature of the business,” said the 35-year-old keeper.

He also spoke of the benefit of his experience to a young Bournemouth squad who are in a battle to stay up in their first season back in the Premier League since 2020. “The position the club’s in, I’ve been there in the past so I’d like to think I’ve got some experience and some other services to give to the rest of the team.”

Randolph, who hails from Bray, County Wicklow, began his professional football career at Charlton Athletic in 2004, going out on loan several times during his time at the South London club. He then moved to Motherwell in 2010 where he began playing regularly and played in the Europa League.

He returned south of the border three years later to Birmingham City where he played for two seasons before heading back to London in 2015 to West Ham. After sporadic appearances across two seasons, he dropped back down to the Championship with Middlesbrough where he played every game in the league for two years before rejoining the Hammers as a back-up in 2020.

On the international front, Randolph was first called up to the Irish senior side in 2011 after featuring in every youth side prior. However, his debut did not arrive until September 2012 in a 4-1 win against Oman, coming on as a substitute.

He did not go on to become a regular in the side until 2015, where he replaced an injured Shay Given midway through a European Championship qualifier in the famous 1-0 victory over Germany, where he got the assist for Shane Long’s winner.

He went on to play all of Ireland’s games at Euro 2016. As of today, he has 50 caps for Ireland, the last of which came in 2020.

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