The Barry Bannan family connection many Sheffield Wednesday fans won't know | OneFootball

Barry Bannan's grandfather was also a rather successful professional footballer

Barry Bannan made his emotional return to Sheffield Wednesday this summer, six months after departing the club for Millwall in the midst of their administration.

Bannan is a modern-day Wednesday legend, sitting fifth on the all-time appearance list for the famous South Yorkshire side over a decade-and-a-half of service.

Leaving back in January was a difficult choice, and one that the 36-year-old has stated that he never wanted to do. The midfielder stuck with Wednesday during their highs of Championship play-off runs, the lows of League One football, and even trained with them technically as a free agent last summer ahead of signing a new deal.

Barry Bannan isn't the only professional footballer in his family

Action Images

To many Wednesday fans, Bannan is one of the more technically gifted players they have seen at their club in a very long time. Therefore, it's no surprise to know that he comes from a lineage of professional footballers.

Indeed, Bannan's grandfather, Tommy, was also a professional player and had an extensive career in the EFL, too.

Like Barry, Tommy Bannan grew up in the Lanarkshire area, near where the Wednesday midfielder did in Airdrie. But unlike his grandson, his route through to the professional game wasn't as straightforward.

By the age of 13, Barry Bannan was already in the Celtic academy, but such set-ups didn't exist back in the late 1940s.

Tommy Bannan's breakthrough in the EFL

Action Images

Bannan played for his town's local club Airdrieonians, a club that was amongst the best in Scottish football in the mid 1920s, coming second in the top flight in four consecutive campaigns between 1922 and 1926.

They weren't as dominant in the late 1940s, when Bannan played for them, but he still performed well, scoring 18 times in 21 league appearances for them and earning a move to Wrexham in 1951, aged 21.

Wrexham at the time were playing in the third tier, then known as the Third Division North, and were treading water in mid-table. In Bannan's first season at the club, they finished 18th.

In the following campaigns, though, the Red Dragons would make a real effort towards earning promotion, and Bannan was a key part of that. They finished 3rd in the 1952/53 term, with the Scotsman netting 22 times, then eighth the following year, with Bannan scoring 18.

Unfortunately, that run was their best for a while, and they finished 18th again in his fourth season in North Wales. Despite that, Bannan still finished as their top scorer, netting 19.

Tommy Bannan's 2nd tier days with Lincoln City

Action Images

After scoring 60 times in 158 league games over four years, Bannan made the move up the EFL, joining Division 2 side Lincoln City in 1955.

The 2026/27 campaign marks the first at second-tier level for the Imps since 1961 — the years leading up to that had Barry Bannan's grandfather leading the line for them!

In fact, the 1955/56 campaign, Bannan's first at the club, when Lincoln finished eighth, is their best post-war finish, and one that hasn't been beaten in the 70 years that have followed. The Scottish frontman, unfortunately, didn't play much of a part in front of goal in it, but his second year in Lincolnshire was more fruitful.

He scored 14 times that year, ending the campaign as the club's top scorer, but they finished 18th, and it wouldn't be long before the Imps were suffering back-to-back relegations to the fourth tier.

Tommy Bannan only spent two years at Lincoln before returning to Wrexham

Action Images

Bannan wasn't part of that double relegation side, though, as he moved back to Wrexham two years after he left for Lincoln.

The Red Dragons were still in the third tier at the time, but had come off a run to the fourth round of the FA Cup alongside victory in the Welsh Cup for the first time since 1931 the previous year.

Bannan helped them retain that title in the 1957/58 campaign, scoring the winner in the final against Chester.

They'd be knocked out in the semi-finals the year after, which proved to be Bannan's final campaign in North Wales - a campaign he finished top scorer in once again with 17. He left for Barrow in the summer of 1959, and Wrexham were relegated to the fourth tier the following year.

His time at Barrow was relatively uneventful, but he still made 45 appearances, ending his career with 338 EFL games under his belt, scoring 117 times across the second, third and fourth tiers.