Martin Keown

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Martin Keown
Personal information
Full name	Martin Raymond Keown
Date of birth	July 24, 1966
Place of birth	Oxford, England
Position	Defender
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1984-1986 1985 1986-1989 1989-1993 1993-2004 2004-2005 2005	Arsenal Brighton (loan) Aston Villa Everton Arsenal Leicester City Reading	22 (0) 23 (1) 112 (3) 96 (0) 311 (4) 17 (0) 5 (0)
National team
1992-2002	England	43 (2)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Martin Raymond Keown (born July 24, 1966 in Oxford) is a former English footballer, with full Irish heritage, who spent most of his career at Arsenal.

Contents 1 Club career 2 International career 3 Honours 4 References

[edit] Club career

A tough and uncompromising centre back from Oxford, Keown played for local sides as a boy, before joining Arsenal on a schoolboy contract in 1980, though he made his professional debut on loan at Brighton & Hove Albion in 1984. Keown returned to Arsenal to make 22 appearances, before being sold by new Arsenal boss George Graham to Aston Villa in 1987.Keown played for Villa for three seasons, before moving to Everton in the summer of 1989.

In February 1993, Keown was re-signed by his old club, Arsenal, for £2 million. Keown competed with Steve Bould for the second central defence place alongside Tony Adams. Keown didn't feature in Arsenal's FA Cup and League Cup double of 1993 thanks to being cup-tied, and was only a sub in Arsenal's Cup Winners' Cup win over Parma the following year. However, he became an integral part of Arsène Wenger's double Double winning sides of 1998 and 2002.

Keown remained at Arsenal until 2004, winning another Premier League title, before being released on a free transfer. He signed for Leicester City, but left after less than six months (it was rumoured he had fallen out with Leicester boss Micky Adams), and signed for Reading in January 2005 until the end of the season, whereupon he retired from the game.

Keown joined the coaching staff of Newbury in August 2005, but is now coaching back at former club Arsenal where he is taking his coaching badges. He has been identified by former Arsenal manager Terry Neill as a key figure behind the success of Arsenal's inexperienced "new-look" defence (which the team resorted to after ongoing injury problems) in the 2005/06 season, notably setting a record for minutes played without conceding in the Champions League).^[1].

[edit] International career

Keown made his England debut in 1992 against France. With an injury to Mark Wright he was called up into England's squad for Euro '92, and played in all three of England's matches.

Keown's early ascension to the England team under Graham Taylor did not continue under Terry Venables, who ignored him completely. Keown earned a recall from Glenn Hoddle in 1997, and Keown went to the 1998 World Cup, but did not play. Keown became a regular under Kevin Keegan (captaining the side against Finland) and played in two of England's Euro 2000 matches. By the time Sven-Göran Eriksson became manager, Keown's age was starting to count against him, though he went to the 2002 World Cup, again as a non-playing squad member. In all he played 43 times for England, scoring two goals.

[edit] Honours

• Premiership Championship Winner 1998, 2002 & 2004
• FA Cup Winner 1998, 2002 & 2003
• UEFA Cup Runner-Up 2000
• FA Cup Runner-up 2001
• 43 England caps

[edit] References

1. ^ Arsenal's New Guard. Retrieved on May 31, 2006.

	England squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup
1 Seaman | 2 Campbell | 3 Le Saux | 4 Ince | 5 Adams | 6 Southgate | 7 Beckham | 8 Batty | 9 Shearer | 10 Sheringham | 11 McManaman | 12 Neville | 13 Martyn | 14 Anderton | 15 Merson | 16 Scholes | 17 Lee | 18 Keown | 19 L. Ferdinand | 20 Owen | 21 R. Ferdinand | 22 Flowers | Coach: Hoddle

	England squad - 2002 FIFA World Cup Quarter-finalists
1 Seaman | 2 Mills | 3 A. Cole | 4 Sinclair | 5 Ferdinand | 6 Campbell | 7 Beckham | 8 Scholes | 9 Fowler | 10 Owen | 11 Heskey | 12 Brown | 13 Martyn | 14 Bridge | 15 Keown | 16 Southgate | 17 Sheringham | 18 Hargreaves | 19 J. Cole | 20 Vassell | 21 Butt | 22 James | 23 Dyer | Coach: Eriksson