Craig Cathcart

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Craig Cathcart
Personal information
Date of birth	February 6, 1989 (1989-02-06) (age 19)
Place of birth	Belfast, Northern Ireland
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing position	Defender
Club information
Current club	Manchester United
Number	37
Youth clubs
1999-? ?-2005 2005-	Carnmoney Colts St Andrew's Boys' Club Manchester United
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2006- 2007	Manchester United → Royal Antwerp (loan)	00 (0) 13 (2)
National team2
	Northern Ireland U-21	? (?)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 12:12, 3 January 2008 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 21:48, 13 October 2007 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Craig Cathcart (born 6 February 1989, in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a Northern Irish footballer. He is a left-footed centre-half, and currently plays for Manchester United.

Having been spotted playing for Glengormley High School at age 14, and having won the Northern Ireland Youth Player of the Year award,^[1] Cathcart signed trainee terms at Manchester United in July 2005. By April 2007, he had been made captain of the youth team that reached the FA Youth Cup Final, although he himself missed the both legs of the final.

In February 2007, Cathcart was selected in the European squad for the 2007 UEFA-CAF Meridian Cup, a competition between two "all-star" Under-18 teams from Europe and Africa.^[2]

Cathcart received his first call-up to the Manchester United senior squad for the 6th Round FA Cup replay with Middlesbrough on 19 March 2007. After Nemanja Vidić's injury, on 31 March 2007, Cathcart was promoted to the first team squad as cover. He was an unused substitute in Manchester United's 7-1 win against Roma in the Champions League, the FA Cup semi-final victory over Watford four days later, and the victory over Sheffield United on 17 April. Speculation that this defensive injury crisis would lead to Cathcart making his senior debut ended when he suffered a season ending knee injury at training after the match against Sheffield United.^[3] As a result he also missed the second leg of the FA Youth Cup final; he had already missed the first leg due to his call-up to the senior squad.

At the start of the 2007-08 season, Cathcart was sent on a half-season loan to United's Belgian feeder club, Royal Antwerp, to gain match experience.^[4] He made his debut for the Belgians on 22 September 2007 in a match against R.O.C. de Charleroi-Marchienne. The next game saw Cathcart score Antwerp's only goal of the game in a 4–1 loss to K.V. Kortrijk. He scored again in a match against A.F.C. Tubize to earn a 1–1 draw, and also the Man of the Match award. He made a further nine appearances for "The Great Old", to bring his total to 13, before returning to Manchester United at the end of 2007.

Cathcart is also a member of the Northern Ireland national under-21 football team.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Craig Cathcart career stats at Soccerbase
• manutd.com Player Profile

Persondata
NAME	Cathcart, Craig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	footballer
DATE OF BIRTH	1989-2-6
PLACE OF BIRTH	Belfast, Northern Ireland
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH