PLAYER PROFILE

Kyle Lafferty

Position: Forward

Height: 6'3

Weight: 11st 0lbs

Date of Birth: 1987-09-16 Enniskillen, Northern Ireland

Kyle Lafferty

The Northern Ireland striker began his career with NFC Kesh and played in the Fermanagh and Western League. In 2004 he signed a youth team apprenticeship with English Championship team Burnley. The following season saw him begin to make an impression upon the Burnley first team. He made his debut during a 2-1 away league defeat to Crewe Alexandra on August 6, 2005, coming on as a 89th minute substitute for Garreth O'Connor.

In January 2006, Lafferty joined Darlington on loan where he made nine appearances and netted three goals for the Quakers, including a scoring debut against Notts County before returning to Burnley in February 2006.

He scored his first senior goal against Luton Town, netting the equaliser for Burnley during a 1-1 draw on 30 April 2006.[3] Lafferty played 89 times and scored 10 goals during his time at Burnley.

During 2006, he received his first senior Northern Ireland call-up on a post-season trip to the USA to play friendly games against Romania and Uruguay. Lafferty scored his first Northern Ireland goal in an away friendly against Finland the following year. He has since gone on to forge a deadly partnership up front with Fulham striker David Healy. His form in the Euro 2008 qualification brought rave reviews from a number of Premier League and Championship sides, in a campaign which saw the 'green ad white army' narrowly pipped to qualification by Sapin and Sweden.

He featured predominantly as the second striker alongside David Healy during Northern Ireland's Euro 2008 qualification group, and he scored his first competitive international goal in a 4–1 victory over group minnows Liechtenstein. He then secured a 1–1 draw away to Sweden, scoring Northern Ireland's equaliser in the second half.On 26 March 2008, he bagged his first international brace, scoring two goals in a friendly against Georgia which Northern Ireland won 4–1.

On 16 June 2008, Burnley accepted a bid from Rangers of £3m plus Alan Gow but talks with the Old firm giants over his move to Turf Moor broke down. But Lafferty moved to Walter Smith's Rangers on 19 June after the transfer offer was readjusted and Gow written out.