| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Norman Whiteside | ||
| Date of birth | 7 May 1965 | ||
| Place of birth | Belfast, Northern Ireland | ||
| Height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||
| Playing position | Midfielder Striker |
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| Youth career | |||
| 1978–1982 | Manchester United | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1982–1989 | Manchester United | 206 | (47) |
| 1989–1991 | Everton | 29 | (9) |
| National team | |||
| 1982–1989 | Northern Ireland | 38 | (9) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
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Norman Whiteside (born 7 May 1965) is a former Northern Ireland international footballer who played in two World Cups.
He appeared for Manchester United (273 appearances, 66 goals) and Everton, before his career was ended by injury at the age of 26. He won the FA Cup twice during his time playing for Manchester United, in 1983 and 1985. He is the youngest player ever to take part in a World Cup.
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Born in the Rathcoole area of Newtownabbey, a suburb of Belfast, Northern Ireland, Whiteside was raised in north Belfast, and attended Cairnmartin Secondary School on the Ballygomartin Road. He was discovered by Manchester United's Ulster scout Bob Bishop, who previously unearthed Belfast-born George Best and Sammy McIlroy for the club.
Whiteside became United's youngest player since Duncan Edwards when he made his debut as a forward in the 1981–82 season. His debut came against Brighton & Hove Albion in a 1–0 league win at the Goldstone Ground on 24 April 1982, two weeks before his 17th birthday.[1] On the final day of that season, eight days after his 17th birthday, he became the club's youngest goalscorer in their 2–0 home win over Stoke City.[2]
The following year, he appeared in both the League Cup and FA Cup finals and became the youngest player to score in both, winning the FA Cup in the process by beating Brighton & Hove Albion. He had become a regular player early in the season, playing in attack alongside new signing Frank Stapleton.
After starting his career as a centre forward, he was subsequently used more as a midfielder as his career progressed – particularly after the sale of Ray Wilkins to AC Milan at the end of the 1983–84 season, which left a gap in the centre of midfield, while Mark Hughes was emerging as a striker and filled Whiteside's position alongside Stapleton.
Though not possessing the pace needed to be a genuine forward, Whiteside combined a gritty, physical style of play with an eye for goal combined with some great skill. This made him an instant favourite among Manchester United fans for giving it all on the pitch as well as his adeptness in both going forward or helping the midfield control the game. However, some thought he was too physical at times, with even his manager later admitting that in a 1987 game against Arsenal "Big Norman Whiteside kicked everybody up and down the pitch for 90 minutes and didn't even get booked!".[3] He became known as "The Shankill Skinhead" because of aggressive, physical playing style.
Another reason why he was loved by United faithful were his consistently remarkable match-winning displays against the team's bitter Merseyside rivals in the league; Liverpool and Everton, who at that time were two of the more dominant and successful clubs in England. He also scored the winning goal in the 1985 FA Cup final, curling a shot in from the right hand side in the 20th minute of extra time, to give ten man United victory over Everton, and Whiteside his second FA Cup winner's medal. Norman Whiteside was passionately called "The Scourge of the Scousers" as a result of these exploits.
Despite such a promising start, Whiteside began to have serious injury problems which kept him out of the team for long periods. Also, Alex Ferguson made a point of improving team discipline when he took over as manager, and Whiteside's drinking was not tolerated as it had been under the previous manager Ron Atkinson.
Late in the 1987–88 season, when United finished second to Liverpool in the league, Whiteside put in a request for a transfer, but he would remain at the club for another season.
Whiteside's goal in a 2–1 win over Derby County in a league match at the Baseball Ground on 10 February 1988 would prove to be his last for Manchester United.[4]
A knee injury restricted him to just six goalless league appearances in the 1988–89 season, by which time Mark Hughes had returned after two years at Barcelona to partner Brian McClair, who had joined United in 1987, up front. In midfield, Bryan Robson was still the mainstay on the right and in the centre. And during the close season, United brought in Neil Webb and Mike Phelan, and were also in the hunt for Paul Ince, who would ultimately join them just after the start of the 1989–90 season. It was clear by now that Whiteside's future at Old Trafford was looking bleak and a transfer was inevitable.
It was this that led Ferguson to sell him to Everton for £600,000 in July 1989, against the wishes of most of United's support (who had hoped that Whiteside could bounce back and recover his old form), although in his 2007 autobiography Determined: My Autobiography, Whiteside says that he had put in the transfer request.
Everton had been one of United's main rivals for much of the 1980s, having been FA Cup winners in 1984, league champions and European Cup Winners' Cup winners 1985, and league champions again in 1987, as well as being double runners-up to Liverpool in 1986. However, they had been less of a threat under new manager Colin Harvey after the departure of Howard Kendall at the end of the 1986–87 season.[5]
Whiteside started well at Everton, but he was unable to shake off his knee injury. Having had some 13 operations performed on his knee during his career, Whiteside retired from professional football in 1991 at the young age of 26, after a doctor advised him that he might end up being unable to walk if he continued to play football. He had made only 29 appearances for Everton, most of them during his first season.
Whiteside broke Pelé's record as the youngest player to appear in a World Cup, when he debuted for Northern Ireland aged 17 years and 41 days at the 1982 World Cup. When selected for the World Cup squad, he had played just two competitive games at club level.
He started all five of his country's matches, including the historic 1–0 win over Spain. The opening game against Yugoslavia in Zaragoza was his international debut; he received a yellow card in the second half.
At the 1986 FIFA World Cup finals in Mexico, he scored in his country's only result in the tournament, a 1–1 draw against Algeria. Whiteside won a total of 38 caps and scored nine times in eight years playing for Northern Ireland. His final international appearance came against the Republic of Ireland in a World Cup qualifying game at Lansdowne Road[6]on 11 October 1989.[7]
Scores and results list Northern Ireland's goal tally first.
| # | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 21 September 1983 | Belfast, Northern Ireland | Austria | 2–0 | 3–1 | UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying |
| 2 | 16 November 1983 | Hamburg, West Germany | West Germany | 1–0 | 1–0 | UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying |
| 3 | 13 December 1983 | Belfast, Northern Ireland | Scotland | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1984 British Home Championship |
| 4 | 12 September 1984 | Belfast, Northern Ireland | Romania | 2–1 | 3–2 | 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 5 | 16 October 1984 | Belfast, Northern Ireland | Israel | 1–0 | 1–0 | Friendly match |
| 6 | 1 May 1985 | Belfast, Northern Ireland | Turkey | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 7 | 1 May 1985 | Belfast, Northern Ireland | Turkey | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 8 | 3 June 1986 | Guadalajara, Mexico | Algeria | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1986 FIFA World Cup |
| 9 | 6 September 1989 | Belfast, Northern Ireland | Hungary | 1–2 | 1–2 | 1990 FIFA World Cup qualification |
Upon retirement, Whiteside studied to become a podiatrist and now works at the Professional Footballers' Association. He released his autobiography entitled Determined in August 2007. He is also an accomplished after-dinner speaker, and has appeared regularly on Soccer AM since August 2007 as a joke-teller in a comedy sketch.
Since the mid to late 1990s, Whiteside has been back at Manchester United, running guided "legend" tours of their Old Trafford stadium, as well as corporate meet-and-greet sessions on match days.
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