Matt Holland

Matt Holland
Personal information
Full name Matthew Rhys Holland
Date of birth 11 April 1974 (1974-04-11) (age 37)
Place of birth Bury, Greater Manchester, England
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position Midfielder
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
1992–1995 West Ham United 0 (0)
1994-1995 → Bournemouth (loan) 15 (1)
1995–1997 Bournemouth 89 (17)
1997–2003 Ipswich Town 258 (38)
2003–2009 Charlton Athletic 191 (13)
Total 553 (69)
National team‡
1999–2006 Republic of Ireland 49 (5)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 21:28, 5 August 2010 (UTC).

† Appearances (Goals).

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 19:45, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Matthew Rhys "Matt" Holland (born 11 April 1974) is a former English-born Irish footballer, who represented Republic of Ireland at international level. Since ending his football career he has worked in the media.

Contents

Club career

Early career

Initially rejected by Arsenal for being 'too small' he went to West Ham United where he moved up the ranks of the academy but did not play for the first team.

Bournemouth

In order to gain first team football, he joined South Coast side Bournemouth in January 1995. He played a total of 104 games, scoring 18 goals whilst at Dean Court, and also became captain.

Ipswich Town

In the summer of 1997, Holland joined Ipswich Town for a fee of £800,000. He again became team captain and captained the club into the Premier League by winning the First Division play-offs in 2000. He captained the club to a fifth place finish and qualification for the UEFA Cup in their first season in the Premier League in 2001. Though Ipswich were relegated in 2002 he stayed with the club after he turned down a £4.5 million move to Aston Villa. His spell at Ipswich is most remembered for the consistency he showed, after playing 223 consecutive games and only missing one league match (due to international duty) in the six years he was at Portman Road.

Charlton Athletic

After Ipswich failed to win promotion in 2003, Holland moved back to the Premier League by joining Charlton Athletic for an initial £750,000 fee which later rose to £900,000. Again with this move he assumed the captain's armband and was ever-present in his first season for the club. One of the longest-serving Charlton players, he claimed more than half the entire vote for the 2007–08 Fans' Player of the Year award to overwhelmingly succeed 2006–07 winner Scott Carson, who became the first ever loan player to win the award the previous season.[1]

After Charlton

In July 2009, Holland had an unsuccessful trial with Colchester United following his release from Charlton.[2]

International career

Although born in England, he qualified to play for Ireland through his grandmother who hailed from County Monaghan.[3] He went with the Republic of Ireland to the 2002 World Cup scoring the equaliser against Cameroon in their opening game. Ireland were eliminated from this tournament in a Second Round penalty shootout against Spain and Holland was selected to take a penalty, but missed it. Following Ireland's failure to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, he announced his retirement from international football in early February 2006 having made 49 appearances and scoring 5 goals.

Club

Season Club Division League FA Cup League Cup FA Trophy Play Offs Europe Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
1992–93 West Ham United Division 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1993–94 Premier League 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1994–95 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
West Ham United total 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1994–95 Bournemouth (loan) Division 2 15 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 1
1995–96 Bournemouth 44 10 2 0 4 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 50 10
1996–97 45 7 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 48 7
Bournemouth total 104 18 3 0 6 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 116 18
1997–98 Ipswich Town Division 1 45 10 4 0 7 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 58 12
1998–99 46 5 2 0 4 2 0 0 2 2 0 0 54 9
1999–00 46 10 1 0 4 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 54 10
2000–01 Premier League 38 3 2 0 7 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 47 5
2001–02 38 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 46 3
2002–03 Division 1 45 7 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 54 7
Ipswich total 258 38 12 0 24 6 0 0 7 2 12 0 313 46
2003–04 Charlton Athletic Premier League 38 6 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 41 6
2004–05 32 3 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 36 3
2005–06 23 1 5 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 30 2
2006–07 33 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 36 1
2007–08 Championship 31 1 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 34 1
2008–09 34 1 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 38 1
Charlton Athletic total 191 13 15 1 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 215 14
Career total 553 69 30 1 39 6 3 0 7 2 12 0 644 78

Media career

He was one of several players and managers (including Danny Mills and Paul Jewell) who acted as summarisers for BBC Radio Five Live during the 2006 World Cup. Holland has also appeared on the BBC television program A Question of Sport and the radio quiz Fighting Talk. Holland as a freelance pundit has appeared on nearly every media outlet covering football in the UK. He has been a pundit on ESPN & Sky Sports, appeared on BBC results service Final Score on the odd Saturday afternoon and appeared on ITV commentating on the UEFA Cup. He is also a presenter for the Eastern England edition of the BBC regional football show Late Kick Off.[5]

He has also appeared on many radio shows, he usually appears on talkSPORT on kick off usually on Thursday nights and also appearing on Matchday Live on Saturday afternoons whenever he is not on Final Score. Holland has also appeared frequently on BBC Radio 5 Live as a Co Commentator. He usually appears on some sort of Premier League show every Saturday, either on talkSPORT, Final Score, Premier Soccer Saturday or as an analyst for Setanta Sports' live matches.

Holland began work with RTÉ when he commentated along side George Hamilton during the Rep. of Ireland and Brazil friendly. He then appeared as a member of the panel on RTÉ's Premier Soccer Saturday for a number of weeks. He commentated the 2010 FIFA World Cup.[6][7]

References

  1. ^ Charlton Athletic Playing Squad – Matt Holland
  2. ^ "Colchester rule out Holland move". eleven-a-side.com. 30 July 2009. http://www.eleven-a-side.com/acrossthewater/news.asp?n=36846. Retrieved 24 August 2009. 
  3. ^ Premiership life a beach for Holland – Telegraph
  4. ^ "Matt Holland Career Stats". Soccerbase. 28 December 2009. http://www.soccerbase.com/players_details.sd?playerid=3567. Retrieved 28 December 2009. 
  5. ^ "Matt Holland presents BBC One's Late Kick Off". BBC Suffolk. 16 January 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/suffolk/hi/tv_and_radio/newsid_8461000/8461915.stm. Retrieved 16 January 2010. 
  6. ^ Black, Fergus (2 June 2010). "RTÉ hopes Ossie and squad will spur fans to back home team". Irish Independent. http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/tv-radio/rte-hopes-ossie-and-squad-will-spur-fans-to-back-home-team-2203365.html. Retrieved 2 June 2010. 
  7. ^ O'Malley, Carl (2 June 2010). "RTÉ roll out big guns for their 56 live games". The Irish Times. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2010/0602/1224271676683.html. Retrieved 2 June 2010. 

External links
Republic of Ireland squad – 2002 FIFA World Cup