Ian Fitzgerald

Ian Fitzgerald is a former Gaelic footballer from County Laois who played his club football for Portlaoise and was also a member of the Laois senior team. He was part of the Laois under-21 side that won the Leinster title in 1998 and was unlucky to miss a Leinster Minor Football Championship medal in 1995, when it took three games to separate Laois and the eventual All-Ireland minor winners Westmeath. In that run he earned a reputation as a penalty kick specialist, netting a game-saving spot kick against Kildare in Navan. He made his senior debut against Kildare in 1996 and in 2003 captained the Laois team that won the Leinster Senior Football Championship for the first time in 57 years. He won Laois Senior Football Championship medals with Portlaoise in 1999, 2002, 2004 and 2011, and retired in 2006 at 29 to concentrate on his career as a dentist.