John O'Shea (footballer)

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John O'Shea
Personal information
Full name John Francis O'Shea
Date of birth April 30, 1981 (age 25)
Place of birth    Waterford, Ireland Flag of Republic of Ireland
Height 6'3" / 1.93 m
Nickname Sheasy, Josh, The Cat, Jack O'Shea, Mr. Versatile
Playing position Defender, defensive midfielder
Club information
Current club Manchester United
Number 22
Youth clubs
1996-1998 Manchester United
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1998-
2000
2001		 Manchester United
→ Bournemouth (loan)
→ Royal Antwerp (loan)		 156 (7)
010 (1)
002 (0)   
National team2
2001- Republic of Ireland 38 (1)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of 29 March, 2007.
2 National team caps and goals correct
as of 17:58, 3 March 2007 (UTC).
* Appearances (Goals)

John Francis O'Shea (born April 30, 1981 in Waterford, Ireland) is a professional footballer, who currently plays for Manchester United.

Contents

[edit] Career

After completing his schooling in Waterford, O'Shea travelled to Manchester and finally joined Manchester United after spending summers travelling to England to train with the Academy. He signed his Professional forms at 17 and then finally made his professional debut in 1999 against Aston Villa at Villa Park. Following loan spells at Bournemouth and Royal Antwerp he returned to Manchester and made his mark on the United first team in the 2002-03 season, proving his versatility by playing at times at left-wing, right-back, centre-back and central midfield during the successful Premiership campaign.

O'Shea earned his first senior cap for the Republic of Ireland on 15 August 2001, when he came on as an 84th minute substitute at home to Croatia. His debut ended in disappointment, however, when he gave away a penalty in injury time, that resulted in Ireland conceding their lead, and the game ending 2-2.

After an excellent debut season, in which he famously nutmegged Real Madrid's Luís Figo in a UEFA Champion's League match and inspired a terrace chant sung to the tune of The Beatles' 'Yesterday'. However, in November 2002, in a moment even more famous than the nutmeg against Figo, O'Shea missed a scoring chance against Manchester City (in a match that United ultimately lost 3-1) that has been described as the worst miss in footballing history.

In the 2003-04 season he frustrated many Manchester United supporters with a series of lacklustre performances before being pushed down in the pecking order by the arrival of Gabriel Heinze. He displayed indifferent form in the 2004-05 season and was linked with a move away from Manchester, with Newcastle and Liverpool being linked with the Irishman. One of the highlights of Manchester United's otherwise slightly disappointing season was the 2-4 away victory against Arsenal, in which O'Shea scored a ridiculous fourth goal by chipping Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia. What followed was a bizarre celebration where it appeared he did not know what to do with himself, perhaps due to his accidental finish, as well the elation to be comprehensively beating one of the Premiership's strongest teams. Others believe that O'Shea was attempting to imitate the "celebration" of United legend, Éric Cantona, from when Cantona scored his famous chip against Sunderland in the 1996-97 season. An injury to Gary Neville in the 2005-06 season also gave O'Shea more first-team opportunities. He was criticised for his lacklustre performances last season, and was reportedly one of the players lambasted [1] by United veteran hero Roy Keane in a recent interview on the club's MUTV channel. More recently O'Shea has been played in the centre of midfield by Ferguson as United are short of cover in that position. Since being used in this position he has been considered increasingly impressive by fans and pundits alike, and is considered to have played a significant role in providing the stability which enabled United to extend their winning run to 9 games, after defeating rivals Arsenal 2-0 on Sunday 9th April 2006. It is now widely believed that he is regaining the form which made him an exciting prospect several seasons previously.

On February 4 during a game against Tottenham Hotspur, O'Shea deputised for Edwin van der Sar in goal after the latter was taken off the pitch for a suspected broken nose, and Manchester United had used all three substitutes previously. During this time he denied his Republic of Ireland teammate Robbie Keane a goal with an unorthodox save a few minutes before the end of the game (following this incident, United fans have chanted "Ireland's number one" in O'Shea's honour). A month later he was the unlikely scorer of an injury time winner at Anfield for United in the League, having come on as a substitute for Wayne Rooney. [2]

[edit] Honours

[edit] Notes

    [edit] External links


    Manchester United F.C. - Current Squad

    1 van der Sar | 2 Neville | 3 Evra | 4 Heinze | 5 Ferdinand | 6 Brown | 7 Ronaldo | 8 Rooney | 9 Saha | 11 Giggs | 13 Park | 14 Smith | 15 Vidić | 16 Carrick | 18 Scholes | 20 Solskjær | 21 Dong | 22 O'Shea | 23 Richardson | 24 Fletcher | 27 Silvestre | 29 Kuszczak | 32 Cathcart | 33 Eagles | 38 Heaton | Manager: Ferguson
    Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../j/o/h/John_O%27Shea_%28footballer%29_62c5.html"