About 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 in the English Premier League, and established himself with a successful loan spell with Falkirk in 2006, scoring 14 goals in 16 Scottish Premier League 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 Smyrnis, 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. Stokes scored his first goal for Falkirk in a 1–0 victory at Inverness Caledonian Thistle on 19 September 2006 in the Scottish League Cup. Having become the first player to score hat-tricks in successive SPL games, Stokes then hit a third in what proved to be his last game for Falkirk, a 3–1 home victory over Inverness CT on 30 December. He made his first-team debut as a substitute in a League Cup tie against Sunderland on 25 October 2005, coming on for Arturo Lupoli in the 88th minute of a 3–0 win.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.