Richard Martin (footballer)

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For other persons named Richard Martin, see Richard Martin (disambiguation).

Personal information
Richard Martin
Full name	Richard Martin
Date of birth	September 1, 1987 (1987-09-01) (age 20)
Place of birth	Chelmsford, England
Height	6' 2" (188cm)
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Manchester City
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2004-2007 2005/2006 2006 2007 2007-	Brighton → Kingstonian (loan) → Dorchester (loan) → Folkestone (loan) Manchester City	00 (0) 13 (0) 11 (0) 12 (0) 00 (0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Richard Martin (born September 1, 1987 in Chelmsford, Essex) grew up in Liverpool. He is a professional footballer and is currently contracted to Manchester City F.C. He is a goalkeeper.

Martin progressed successfully through the youth ranks at Brighton and was awarded a professional contract in September 2004 on reaching his 17th birthday. During this time the highly rated 'keeper was a target for a number of premiership clubs including Liverpool ^[1] with whom he trialled in 2004 and Everton ^[2]^[3] in 2006.

During the course of the 2005/6 season he made fourteen appearances on the substitute bench as understudy to Irish international Wayne Henderson and also had a very successful loan spell at Kingstonian helping them move from 18th to 7th position in the league before being recalled by the club.

At the beginning of the 2006/07 season Martin was sent on a season-long loan to Conference South side Dorchester Town, making eleven appearances and helping Dorchester challenge for a playoff place before being recalled by Brighton after suffering an injury. Martin then went out on loan to Folkestone Invicta at the end of February 2007 and helped the club avoid relegation playing in every one of their remaining games.

Richard was released at the end of his contract in May 2007 his departure coinciding with that of long time goalkeeping coach, John Keeley. In August 2007 two weeks before the start of the the new Premiership season Martin, still without a club, was invited to train with Manchester City ^[4] for a week by goalkeeping coach Eric Steele. However, injuries to Joe Hart and Andreas Isaksson resulted in Martin unexpectedly playing for City that weekend. After impressing in the friendly fixture Martin was given a month long contract. Martin continued to impress in subsequent premier reserve team fixtures, including a victory over Manchester United. This didn't go unnoticed as City boss Sven-Göran Eriksson saw fit to extend Martin's contract to the end of the season.