Ryan Joseph Sweeney

Ryan Sweeney has already worn Mansfield Town's shirt twice, and this time he chose to come back. When he rejected a new contract at Burton Albion in May 2025, he turned down the club where he had just been named Men's Player of the Season, and instead signed a two-year deal to return to the Stags, a move confirmed on 20 May 2025. It closed a loop that began back in 2018, when he first arrived at Field Mill on loan from Stoke City and made the move permanent the following January, going on to make 82 league appearances and score 4 goals before leaving in 2021.

His best spell came north of the border. Sweeney joined Dundee in June 2021 and was voted the club's Players' Player of the Year and Andrew De Vries Player of the Year in his first season. He then captained the side through 2022–23, a campaign that ended with the Scottish Championship title and promotion to the Premiership, and earned him a place in both the PFA Scotland Championship Team of the Year and the SPFL Championship Team of the Season.

He started out in the AFC Wimbledon academy, which he joined at the age of eight, turning professional in February 2015 and making his senior debut two months later. A £250,000 move took him to Stoke City in August 2016. Sweeney qualifies for the Republic of Ireland through underage international football, having been capped at U19 and U21 level, but a senior call-up has not followed for either country he could represent.