Just days after Armagh’s exit from the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, 2024 Sam Maguire winner Stefan Campbell has wasted no time making a switch back to soccer — rejoining his hometown club Lurgan Celtic for the 2025/26 season.

The Clan na Gael forward, known affectionately as “Soupy”, missed Armagh’s quarter-final loss to Kerry due to a hand injury, but now turns his attention to the Mid-Ulster Football League where he’ll don the famous green and white once more.

Back Where It All Began

Campbell has a long-standing connection with Lurgan Celtic, having come through their youth system and featured in three previous spells with the senior side. His return is being hailed as a massive coup by the club.

“We are absolutely delighted to announce the return of none other than Stefan ‘Soupy’ Campbell to Lurgan Celtic!” the club posted on social media.

“A household name in GAA circles and a proven attacking force on the soccer pitch, Soupy returns to the Hoops for the 2025/26 season — having last pulled on the green and white in 2018.”

They added: “His return is nothing short of monumental.”

Manager’s Praise

First-team boss Niall Lavery, a former teammate of Campbell’s, didn’t hold back in his praise:

“What a player. I played alongside ‘Soup’ for long enough to see what he can do. A leader in any changing room. He’ll add pace, power, goals and all-round quality to the team.

It’s a brilliant addition that drives the professionalism up considerably. Can’t wait to see Stefan back and scoring goals.”

Soupy Still Committed to GAA

Despite his return to soccer, Campbell will continue to line out for his GAA club, Clan na Gael, over the coming months. He remains a key dual-sport figure in the Armagh sporting community.

His switch follows a similar move from another 2024 All-Ireland winner, Cathal McShane of Tyrone, who recently signed for Strabane Athletic in the NIFL Premier Intermediate League.

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Gaelic footballer Cathal McShane has decided to remain in Ireland and not pursue an AFL career

— Adelaide Crows (@Adelaide_FC) February 5, 2020

According to RTE Sport McShane undertook a 10 day trial at Adelaide. However, he is now expected to commit to the Red Hands for 2020. In a statement released by Adelaide on their site the General manager and strategy Justin Reid said, “It is a big decision to relocate to the other side of the world and pursue a professional career in a different sport,”. The statement said that Cathal wasn’t ready for and they wished him the best of luck in the future.

According to the Irish Mirror the 2019 Championship scorer revealed that a job opportunity in his native Tyrone played a key decision to stay. Speaking to BBC Sport Northern Ireland he said, “This career opportunity given to me by Keystone [Lintels] was a big deciding factor in me staying”. Furthermore, he stated that it was something that he enjoyed, “It was something that I really enjoyed. I felt that I did really well when I was out there. The game was a new experience for me.”

He said the players and staff in Adelaide were very welcoming. However, he stated that once he got back to Ireland he had to weigh up the decision to which one was right. He said “It was very close in terms of obviously there’s deadlines for decisions”. Iit did come down to the wire in terms of the last day where I had to make my decision”.

Mickey Harte was delighted with the news, saying “As long as he hadn’t signed anything to say for sure he was going, I’m kind of the optimistic sort of person and I believed everything was possible that he would still stay.”  McShane is more than likely back training with Tyrone and could possibly make the bench for their weekend game with Kerry at 2pm in Omagh on Sunday.  

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