Kieran Richardson

Kieran Richardson
Richardson, Kieran.jpg
Personal information
Full name Kieran Edward Richardson
Date of birth 21 October 1984 (1984-10-21) (age 25)
Place of birth    Greenwich, London, England
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Playing position Midfielder
Club information
Current club Sunderland
Number 10
Youth clubs
xxxx–2001
2001–2002		 West Ham United
Manchester United
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
2002–2007
2005
2007–		 Manchester United
→ West Bromwich Albion (loan)
Sunderland		 41 (2)
12 (3)
29 (5)   
National team2
2005–2007
2005–2006		 England U21
England		 11 (1)
08 (2)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of 22:44, 24 August 2008 (UTC).
2 National team caps and goals correct
as of 21:30, 21 August 2007 (UTC).
* Appearances (Goals)

Kieran Edward Richardson (born 21 October 1984 in Greenwich, London) is an English footballer currently playing for Sunderland. He is a left-sided midfielder who is also comfortable playing in central midfield. He has also played at left-back on occasion.

Contents

Club career

Early career

Richardson was schooled at the private and non-selective Riverston Independent Day School in Lee, London. He began playing football at Parkwood Primary School and his talent was very apparent at this young age, he was made captain of his school team and was invited to train with Arsenal.

He then moved to West Ham United where he would begin training professionally. However, before he made his debut for the Londoners, he was signed by Manchester United in 2001. He is the cousin of Big Brother contestant Charley Uchea.

Manchester United

During his first season at Manchester United, Richardson established his place as a regular on United's reserve team. He was given squad number 42 for the first team, but he failed to make his debut with them.

During summer 2002, Richardson was fully involved with the first team during their pre-season. Subsequently he made his first appearance for Manchester United on October 23 2002 when coming on as a late substitute in a match against Olympiacos in the UEFA Champions League. He then scored his first goal in the League Cup on November 5 2002 against Leicester City, although he had yet to make his Premiership debut for the club at that time. Richardson enjoyed his first breakthrough during the 2002-03 season appearing nine times and scoring a goal for the first team. He also played a significant role in Manchester United's youth team's win of the 2003 FA Youth Cup.

At the start of 2003–04 season, he was given squad number 23. This suggested that he may be more involved with the first team than during the previous season. However, during this season he failed to stake his claim for the first team. He only appeared three times, all of them in League Cup and FA Cup.

During the 2004–05 season, he started to become more involved with the first team. He had already made nine appearances and scored one goal during the first half of the season. However during the January transfer window, Sir Alex Ferguson decided to loan him out in order for him to gain more first team experience.

Richardson was linked with a loan move to Norwich City but Ferguson said there was no chance as other players had gone on loan [1] but when old boy Bryan Robson manager of West Bromwich Albion enquired the deal was done straight away.[2] Under Bryan Robson, Richardson made an instant impact on West Brom's quest to escape relegation. He was a regular in West Brom's first eleven, playing in central midfield. He scored three goals from 12 appearances as West Bromwich successfully avoided relegation despite starting the final day of the season on the bottom of the table.

At the start of 2005-06 season, Richardson declined a further loan spell at West Brom in an attempt to win a regular place at Old Trafford.[3] He made his break in Manchester United's first eleven in September 2005, when he appeared as an emergency left-back, in place of the injured Gabriel Heinze. He soon returned to midfield however, where he made several good performances. In October, Richardson celebrated his 21st birthday by signing a new four-year contract with United.[4] He went on to appear 36 times and score six goals that season.

During the 2006–07 season, Richardson's chances to prove his mettle mainly came in the League Cup and the FA Cup. However, Richardson felt Sir Alex Ferguson's wrath as the youngster shouldered some of the blame for United's below-par performance against Crewe Alexandra in the League Cup. Ferguson publicly declared that Richardson and others would benefit from spending some time in United's reserve team. He scored one of United's goals in the 4-1 FA Cup semi-final win over Watford, that put them in the final at the new Wembley Stadium. Richardson was disliked by many United fans on and off the field for his lazy and arrogant attitude and was nicknamed 'Lord Snooty' by United fanzine Red Issue. [5]

Sunderland

On 16 July 2007, Sunderland paid Manchester United an undisclosed fee, reported to be in the region of £5.5m.[6] Richardson signed a four-year deal with the Black Cats,[7][8] and linked up with former United captain Roy Keane. After an indifferent start, it was discovered that he had a stress fracture of the spine. This led to his being out of action for almost four months.

He scored his first goal for Sunderland on 29 December 2007 against Bolton Wanderers.[9] Richardson scored two goals in the 2–0 win against Portsmouth at the Stadium of Light on 13 January 2008, also striking the bar to miss out on his hat-trick.[10] Since then he suffered a hamstring injury in training then this injury recurred in Sunderland's 3–0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield. On the 23 August 2008, Kieran scored against Tottenham Hotspur in the 56th minute, in a 2-1 win at White Hart Lane. On 25 October 2008, Richardson scored the winning goal in the Tyne-Wear derby, with a free-kick. A week earlier away at Fulham F.C., Richardson's free-kick hit the post three times and he had a later free-kick disallowed as Pascal Chimbonda was adjudged to be pushing in the wall.

International career

During his stay at West Brom, he won his first cap for the England U21 team on 8 February, 2005 in a friendly match against Netherlands U21 team. After a series of convincing performances for West Brom, he won a late call-up for England's trip to the United States at the end of the 2004–05 season. He started the match against the USA and scored twice on his England debut, including one directly from a free-kick. He earned praise from England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson, who described Richardson's debut as "fantastic".[11] He also appeared as a substitute on England's second match in the United States against Colombia.

After earning senior caps, Richardson also returned to the Under-21 squad, playing in both legs of the England U21s' crucial European Championship qualification play-off against France U21s, which they lost 3–2 on aggregate. The decisive goal came in the 85th minute of the second leg, when Richardson brought down Lassana Diarra in the box and the resulting penalty was converted.

He then made two further substitute appearances during England's World Cup qualification against Wales in Cardiff and Austria in Old Trafford. The latter was his home England debut. However, he was not selected by Sven-Göran Eriksson in England's 2006 FIFA World Cup squad.

In 2006–07 season, he continued to be selected by newly appointed England manager Steve McClaren and made several substitute appearances. He went on to make further appearances for the England U21 squad, for whom he was eligible to play until the end of the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, where he made three appearances. However, he has neither started nor scored for the England senior team since his debut.

Honours

Manchester United

Career stats

(Correct as of 13 January 2008)

Club Season League Cup[12] Europe Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Manchester United 2002–03 2 0 2 1 5 0 9 1
2003–04 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 0
2004–05 2 0 5 1 2 0 9 1
West Bromwich Albion (loan) 2004–05 12 3 - - - - 12 3
Manchester United 2005–06 22 1 9 4 5 1 36 6
2006–07 13 1 5 1 4 1 22 3
Sunderland 2007-08 17 3 0 0 0 0 7 3
2008-09 9 2 0 1 0 10 2
Total 54 9 24 7 16 2 101 18

References

  1. ↑ "Richardson Canaries loan denied", BBC Sport (2005-01-21). Retrieved on 2007-06-14. 
  2. ↑ "Man Utd winger signs for Baggies", BBC Sport (2005-01-29). Retrieved on 2007-06-14. 
  3. ↑ "Richardson opts for Man Utd stay", BBC Sport (2005-08-03). Retrieved on 2007-06-14. 
  4. ↑ "Richardson signs new Man Utd deal", BBC Sport (2005-10-21). Retrieved on 2007-06-14. 
  5. ↑ "Lord Snooty Put In His Place", Red Issue (2006-10-27). Retrieved on 2007-10-23. 
  6. ↑ "Sunderland sign winger Richardson", BBC Sport (2007-07-16). Retrieved on 2007-07-16. 
  7. ↑ Nick Coppack (2007-07-16). "Sunderland sign Richardson", ManUtd.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-16. 
  8. ↑ Nick Alexander (2007-07-16). "Keane signs Richardson", SAFC.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-16. 
  9. ↑ "Sunderland vs Bolton match report", www.safc.com (2007-12-29). Retrieved on 2008-01-13. 
  10. ↑ "Sunderland vs Portsmouth match report", www.safc.com (2008-01-13). Retrieved on 2008-01-13. 
  11. ↑ "Eriksson joy at Richardson debut", BBC Sport (2005-05-29). Retrieved on 2007-06-14. 
  12. ↑ Includes FA Cup, League Cup and FA Community Shield

External links

Sunderland A.F.C. – current squad

1 Gordon • 2 Bardsley • 3 McCartney • 4 Tainio • 5 Nosworthy • 6 Whitehead • 7 Edwards • 8 Malbranque • 9 Cissé • 10 Richardson • 11 Diouf • 12 Miller • 13 Ward • 14 Murphy • 15 Collins • 17 Jones • 18 Leadbitter • 19 Yorke • 20 Reid • 21 Chimbonda • 23 Healy • 25 M'voto • 26 Ferdinand • 29 Hartley • 31 Connolly • 32 Fülöp • 34 Colback • 35 Kay • 36 Luscombe • 37 Weir • 38 Chandler • 40 Dowson • 41 Meyler • 42 Henderson • 43 Hourihane • 45 Prica • 46 Colgan • Caretaker manager: Sbragia
Persondata
NAME Richardson, Kieran
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Richardson, Kieran Edward
SHORT DESCRIPTION Footballer
DATE OF BIRTH 21 October 1984
PLACE OF BIRTH London, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH