Liam Miller

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Liam Miller
Personal information
Full name	Liam William Miller
Date of birth	February 13, 1981
Place of birth	Cork, Ireland
Height	5'6"
Playing position	Central midfield
Club information
Current club	Sunderland
Number	36
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1997-2004 2001 2004-2006 2005-2006 2006-	Celtic → Aarhus (loan) Manchester United → Leeds United (loan) Sunderland	26 (2) 18 (0) 09 (0) 28 (1) 27 (2)
National team2
2004-	Republic of Ireland	13 (1)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 20:14, 1 April 2007 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 14 September 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Liam Miller (born February 13, 1981 in Cork) is an Irish football player currently playing for Sunderland. His favoured position is central midfield , although he can also play on the right wing. A little known fact that Miller is also elligble for Scotland because of a Scottish born father.

He formerly played with his boyhood heroes Celtic, where he became a fan favourite after putting in a number of impressive performances and scoring in the UEFA Champions League. He joined Manchester United for free on July 1, 2004 having signed a surprising pre-contract agreement in January that year, after negotiations with Celtic apparently fell through. This caused an outcry amongst the Celtic support who perceived Miller to be showing a distinct lack of loyalty to the club, which supported him through long-term injury.

He scored his first goal for Manchester United on October 26, 2004 against Crewe Alexandra. However, after an initial fairly promising start for the Red Devils, he found first-team opportunities rare towards the end of the 2004-05 season. On November 4, 2005 he was loaned to Leeds United initially for three months, but later extended to the end of the 2005-06 season.

Despite failing to secure a first-team position at Manchester United, he remained a regular in the Irish squad. On March 1, 2006 he scored his first goal for Ireland in an international friendly against Sweden in Dublin, Picking the ball up on the half way line Miller raced towards the Swedish penalty area letting loose a fine shot from 25 Yards which defeated the Swedish keeper and dipped into the net.

In July 2006 it was reported that Liam Miller would be allowed to leave Manchester United once the Red Devils received a suitable offer. Big things had been expected of Miller following his move from Celtic, but the Republic of Ireland midfielder struggled to establish himself at the club. In two years at United, Miller managed just 22 first-team appearances and despite the huge number of senior players missing, he was still only a substitute in the opening game of the Red Devils' tour of South Africa. The 25-year-old spent the latter half of last season on loan at Leeds scoring 1 goal in the process, the winning goal in the stunning 4-3 win away to Southampton, as the Yorkshire outfit's run to the Championship play-off final. Miller took part in the Play-Off Final as Leeds failed to overcome Watford. Leeds were however unable to meet Manchester United's valuation so no permanent deal materialised.

After Sir Alex Ferguson announced that Miller would be allowed to leave the club, he was linked with Scottish side Aberdeen FC. However, on 31 August 2006 he moved for free to Sunderland on a 3 year deal [1], joining up with new Sunderland mananager and former Manchester United and Ireland captain Roy Keane. On the 24th February 2007 he scored the winning goal against Derby County in stoppage time, that knocked them off top of the Football League Championship, this was declared Keano's Derby double as he beat them twice in the league, both times winning 2-1.

[edit] External links

• Liam Miller career stats at Soccerbase

Sunderland A.F.C. - Current Squad
2 Wright | 3 Simpson | 4 Evans | 5 Cunningham | 7 Edwards | 8 Whitehead | 9 Stokes | 10 Elliott | 11 Murphy | 12 Nosworthy | 13 Ward | 14 T. Miller | 15 Collins | 16 Hysén | 17 Welsh | 18 Mocquet | 19 Arnau | 20 John | 22 Clarke | 23 Leadbitter | 24 Carson | 27 Varga | 28 Kavanagh | 29 Hartley | 30 Richardson | 31 Connolly | 32 Fülöp | 33 Wallace | 34 Yorke | 36 L. Miller | Manager: Keane