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Anthony Stokes (born July 25, 1988 in Dublin) is an Irish footballer, who currently plays for Sunderland. He normally plays as a striker. He is a current Irish Under-21 international.

Stokes broke into the Arsenal reserves at only 15 years old after joining from Shelbourne. Stokes made his first-team début as a substitute in Arsenal's League Cup tie against Sunderland on October 25, 2005, coming on for Arturo Lupoli in the 88th minute which Arsenal won 3-0. In the summer of 2006, he trained with Sunderland with a view to a loan move, but the then Sunderland manager Niall Quinn decided against it due to Sunderland's large squad depth and lack of reserve team.^[1] Eventually, on August 29, 2006 Arsenal agreed a loan deal with Falkirk that saw Stokes play for the Scottish side until the end of 2006.^[2]

Stokes scored his first goal for Falkirk in a 1-0 victory at Inverness Caledonian Thistle on September 19, 2006, in the CIS Cup third round^[3]. He followed that up on October 21 with two more goals against Inverness.^[4] On October 28, 2006, he scored his first competitive hat-trick during Falkirk's 5-1 victory over Dundee United,^[5] and then scored another hat-trick in the following match against Dunfermline Athletic^[6] to take his tally to an impressive nine goals in just four games. This hat-trick wrote himself into Falkirk's history book, with Falkirk enjoying success over their bitter Fife rivals. Having become the first player to score back to back hat-tricks in the SPL, Stokes then hit a third in his final game for Falkirk on December 30, a 3-1 home victory over Inverness.^[7]

On November 7, Stokes scored an equaliser for Falkirk in the 100th minute of the CIS Insurance Cup against Celtic, Falkirk going through 5-4 on penalties. His continuing good form saw him named Young Player of the Month for October and November.

By the end of December 2006 he had scored 16 goals in 18 league and cup appearances and reports linked him with a move to Celtic^[8]. However, when his loan at Falkirk expired on December 31, 2006, he returned to Arsenal^[9].

On January 8, 2007, Stokes ended weeks of speculation as to his future by signing for Sunderland for a fee of £2 millon. With Celtic and Charlton Athletic having also been in the hunt for his signature, Stokes revealed that he was greatly influenced by Sunderland manager and former Irish football international, Roy Keane, in making his ultimate decision.^[10][11] Stokes was originally handed the 26 shirt at Sunderland, but after the departure of Jonathan Stead to Sheffield United he was given the number 9 shirt.

On January 13, 2007, Stokes made his Sunderland debut, and crossed to set up David Connolly to give Sunderland a one goal win over Ipswich.[12] Stokes scored his first goal for Sunderland on February 10, 2007 against Plymouth Argyle, scoring from 20 yards after coming on as a substitute.

Stokes then scored first Premier League goal; a last-minute winner against Derby County on 1st December 2007; a goal that took Sunderland out of the relegation zone which they had recently slipped into for the first time that season.^[13]

Stokes earned his first cap for the Republic of Ireland in their 2-1 win away to San Marino on February 7, 2007, coming on as a substitute.^[14]

Anthony Stokes was honoured in the "Irish Examiner National Junior Sports Stars Awards" in 2005.

• Anthony Stokes career stats at Soccerbase
• Profile on safc.com