Three League of Ireland goals so far have helped Ryan Edmondson settle into life under Stephen Kenny at Richmond Park.
20:00, 02 Apr 2026
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St Patrick's Athletic's Sean Hoare and Ryan Edmondson celebrate(Image: INPHO/Tom O'Hanlon)
He made his Leeds United debut at the age of 16 and worked under “strange genius” Marcelo Bielsa.
Now, at the age of 24, and with a wealth of experience and knowledge behind him, Ryan Edmondson is hitting the goal trail with St Patrick’s Athletic.
He has taken an unusual route to League of Ireland football - from his childhood club to Inchicore, via a spell in Australia with Central Coast Mariners.
But the highs along the way have kept him on course, and the lessons learned have built a resilience that has kept him focused on being the best player he can be.
“I kind of came on the scene quite abruptly,” said the former England underage international, who played with stars such as Bukayo Saka and Curtis Jones.
“I was in and around academy football as a youth, and then went back to lower league level. I was playing with York City at the age of 15, was bought by Leeds United and my career at Leeds at that age excelled quite quickly.
“I had my Championship debut at 16, so it was a bit of a dream come true, really.
“Then going on loan to places like Aberdeen and playing in Europe against Sporting Lisbon, and things like that, it was all a bit of a dream come true.
“I think I was a bit naive as a young player and I thought football was going to be easy, but we all know that’s not how it goes.”
He made his Leeds bow in the final game of the 2018 season against QPR.
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Ryan Edmondson in action for Leeds United(Image: Alex Dodd - CameraSport/Getty Images)
“Scary,” was how he described it, and he added: “It was all a bit weird having friends and family in the crowd.
“Even seeing where I used to have my season ticket as a fan myself was very strange, but that’s how football goes, it’s a man’s game, you have got to find yourself very quickly.
“And yeah, I don’t think I really did that at Leeds United, I think things came a bit too quickly for me.
“The lack of experience at academy level football and things like that, it all came about very quickly and I don’t think I was ready for Championship football yet.
“But to be able to play under Paul Heckingbottom at the time in the Championship at 16 and then play under Marcelo Bielsa as well was an absolute dream.”
Current Uruguay manager Bielsa, he said, was a “strange genius.”
He continued: “I think he had a very strange way of working that the English football scene hadn’t really seen for a while.
“He came in and developed his coaching methods onto us, and we didn’t really have a clue what was going on, and we were extremely successful under him.
“I think he made Championship players into Premier League players, and that’s how it went.
“You see the likes of Kalvin Phillips and things like that, that went on to play for England and win Player of the Tournament at the Euros, it was a very crazy turnaround.
“I don’t think any of the boys would have done that if it wasn’t for Bielsa. So a lot of the boys hold him in high regard, me included.
“He brought me on a lot as a player, and I think he just brought a new aspect to football that we hadn’t seen in a while.”
Asked for an example of the ‘strange’ and the ‘genius’ sides to Bielsa, he said: “Obviously we were in the Championship at the time and we got some very high level senior players in.
“When we first came in, we were doing… it wasn’t ball mastery, it was more like little combinations around static mannequins.
“We’d do it for maybe 40 or 45 minutes a day, doing these different combinations around mannequins, the pair of us or sometimes three of us. And the lads were quite confused by it.
“We’re in the Championship fighting for promotion and we are playing against mannequins; what’s going on?
“He ended up bringing it up a meeting and he had training clips of us doing these combinations around mannequins, and then the first game of the season we had Stoke at home and we beat them 4-0 or 4-1, and he showed us the clips from the game of all the different combinations we did in the game.
“From that moment on, every single one of us shut up. We had full belief in what he was doing from that moment on.
“The boys really bought into his training programmes, things like that, and it showed eventually.”
While at Leeds, Edmondson had loan spells at Aberdeen, Northampton, Fleetwood and Port Vale. He moved to Carlisle United in 2022, and then to Australia in the summer of 2024.
“I’ve been asked that quite a lot! I wanted to get back into the European feel of football,” he said, when asked how he could swap the Aussie weather for rainy Ireland.
“Australia was just a little bit slower paced than European football.
“Coming back over here, everything is more fast paced, everything is a bit similar to the Championship and EFL back in England.
“It’s high paced, it’s 100 miles per hour, it’s high pressing, and I think that suits my game.”
He has three goals already in eight appearances for Pat’s
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“It’s been really enjoyable to be back into the more fast-paced environment, and being able to contribute a few goals as well always helps with confidence,” he said.
“The boys are doing really well and we just hope to carry on.”
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