Ireland Born in
Dublin, Foran started his career in Ireland with
St Patrick's Athletic but failed to make a first team appearance, before signing for fellow
League of Ireland club
Shelbourne in 2000. He finished his first season in the league by winning the
PFAI Young Player of the Year award. Also during his debut season with Shelbourne, he scored home and away against
Rosenborg in the
second qualifying round of the
UEFA Champions League, and made his debut for the
Republic of Ireland under-21 international team in
Cyprus.
Carlisle In 2001, manager
Roddy Collins spent
£120,000 to secure Foran's signature for
Carlisle United, in England. While at
Brunton Park he scored twenty-nine goals, with sixteen of them coming in the
2001–2002 season, helping Carlisle to a respectable mid-table finish – despite the club's recent history of battling to stay in
The Football League. Over the next two seasons, Carlisle struggled and Foran found it difficult to score goals. He had a short loan spell at
Oxford United during the
2003–2004 season, but at the end of the campaign, Carlisle United were relegated. During his time at Carlisle, he had a highly publicised 'fight' in the tunnel with
Huddersfield Town's
Steve Yates after a series of fouls committed by Foran in the first-half. Both were sent-off, Yates lost a front tooth and Foran picked up a five-match ban.
Motherwell Foran moved to
Scottish Premier League outfit
Motherwell on a
free transfer in 2004, where he scored twenty-three league goals in ninety matches. He also played in the
2005 Scottish League Cup Final against
Rangers, but Motherwell lost the match 5–1.
Southend On 31 January 2007 he completed a £200,000 transfer to
Southend United. His career at Southend started with an assist for
Freddy Eastwood against
Stoke City, after coming on as a
substitute. He then had a man-of-the-match performance playing against
Crystal Palace. However, his early, impressive start was somewhat tarnished when he was sent-off for a second bookable offence during a game against
Leicester City. On 12 September 2013, Foran was awarded the
SPFL Player of the Month for August. Due to a complicated knee injury, he missed the latter part of the
2013–14 season and the entire
2014–15 campaign where he watched from the sidelines as Inverness lifted their first major honour with the Scottish Cup and finished the season in third place. Foran made three substitute appearances in the 2015–16 season before he suffered a calf muscle tear in February 2016. It was reported that he could miss the rest of the season but he managed to make a surprise return in March he was an unused substitute a 1–1 draw at
Easter Road In The Scottish Cup Quarter Final against Hibernian and the following league game away To
St Johnstone F.C. He came off the bench in the 65th minute in a home 1–0 defeat to
Hamilton Academical F.C. he impressed Yogi Hughes enough that he gave Foran a surprise start in the 2-1 Quarter Final replay home defeat to Hibernian. He made a late substitute appearance in the 3-0
Highland derby win in
Dingwall. He was an unused substitute through the majority of April and did not make an appearance till the last day of the month a substitute appearance away to
Partick Thistle F.C an emphatic 4–1 away win for the Caley Jags. May was a better month for the Irishman making substitute appearances in the last 3 games of the season a 3–2 home loss against
Dundee United F.C. and a 1–0 away win at Hamilton. He scored a penalty during the final day of the season against Dundee F.C. in a battle for seventh place after
Liam Polworth got brought down in the box. He scored the resulting penalty it was the fourth goal it was his also his first goal since November 2013 the game ended 4-0 a result that secured 7th place in The SPFL. Another reason fans knew it was a special moment as Foran stated 24 hours before that he would like regular first team football if he were to continue being a football player and felt he would not get that at Inverness. Leading to speculation that he would leave along with
David Raven who was nearing the end of his contract. Raven had fallen out with manager John Hughes. It did turn out to be his final goal not just for Inverness Caledonian Thistle but his last goal as a player. However, even though Foran took the penalty, the crowd were calling for him to let David Raven take it, due to him becoming a club hero because of his goal that sent Inverness into the Scottish Cup final the previous year, in the end Foran took the penalty and Raven stayed at the club, while manager at the time,
John Hughes, left the club after a fall out, due to the lack of star players staying at the club, with Richie taking the reins the next week. ==Coaching career==