Kieran Richardson

Infobox Football biography
playername = Kieran Richardson


fullname = Kieran Edward Richardson
nicknames = Revelz, KR23, The Kiemasterfact|date=July 2007
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1984|10|21|df=y
cityofbirth = London
countryofbirth = England
height = height|ft=5|in=9
position = Midfielder
currentclub = Sunderland
clubnumber = 10
youthyears = ????–2001
2001–2002
youthclubs = West Ham United
Manchester United
years = 2002–2007
2005
2007–
clubs = Manchester United
→ West Bromwich Albion (loan)
Sunderland
caps(goals) = 41 (2)
12 (3)
24 (4)
nationalyears = 2005–2007
2005–2006
nationalteam = England U21
England
nationalcaps(goals) = 11 (1)
08 (2)
pcupdate = 22:44, 24 August 2008 (UTC)
ntupdate = 21:30, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

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.

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.

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 [cite news |date=2005-01-21 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/n/norwich/4194659.stm |title=Richardson Canaries loan denied |publisher=BBC Sport |accessdate=2007-06-14 ] but when old boy Bryan Robson manager of West Bromwich Albion enquired the deal was done straight away. [cite news |date=2005-01-29 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/4218725.stm |title=Man Utd winger signs for Baggies |publisher=BBC Sport |accessdate=2007-06-14 ] 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. [cite news |date=2005-08-03 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/w/west_bromwich_albion/4675927.stm |title=Richardson opts for Man Utd stay |publisher=BBC Sport |accessdate=2007-06-14 ] 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. [cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/4364082.stm |title=Richardson signs new Man Utd deal |date=2005-10-21 |accessdate=2007-06-14 |publisher=BBC Sport ] 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. [cite news |url=http://www.redissue.co.uk/news/loadnews.asp?cid=TMNW&id=305664|title=Lord Snooty Put In His Place |date=2006-10-27 |accessdate=2007-10-23 |publisher=Red Issue ]

underland

On July 16 2007, Sunderland paid Manchester United an undisclosed fee, reported to be in the region of £5.5m. [cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/sunderland/6901589.stm |title=Sunderland sign winger Richardson |date=2007-07-16 |accessdate=2007-07-16 |publisher=BBC Sport ] Richardson signed a four-year deal with the Black Cats, [cite news |url=http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid={B4CEE8FA-9A47-47BC-B069-3F7A2F35DB70}&newsid=444848 |title=Sunderland sign Richardson |date=2007-07-16 |accessdate=2007-07-16 |author=Nick Coppack |publisher=ManUtd.com ] [cite news |url=http://www.safc.com/news/?page_id=12670 |title=Keane signs Richardson |date=2007-07-16 |accessdate=2007-07-16 |author=Nick Alexander |publisher=SAFC.com ] 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 4 months.

He scored his first goal for Sunderland on December 29 2007 against Bolton Wanderers. [cite news |url=http://www.safc.com/match/?page_id=13879&fixture=2848103&t=6 |title=Sunderland vs Bolton match report|date=2007-12-29 |accessdate=2008-01-13 |publisher="www.safc.com"] 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. [cite news |url=http://www.safc.com/match/?page_id=13964&fixture=2924211 |title=Sunderland vs Portsmouth match report|date=2008-01-13 |accessdate=2008-01-13 |publisher="www.safc.com"] 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.

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". [cite news |date=2005-05-29 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/4570057.stm |title=Eriksson joy at Richardson debut |publisher=BBC Sport |accessdate=2007-06-14 ] 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

*Premier League
**Winner (1): 2006-07
**Runner-up (1): 2005-06
*FA Cup
**Runner-up (1): 2006-07
*Football League Cup
**Winner (1): 2005-06
*FA Community Shield
**Winner (1): 2003
**Runner Up (1): 2004

Career stats

("Correct as of 13 January 2008")

References

External links

*soccerbase|id=32427|name=Kieran Richardson
* [http://www.safc.com/team/?page_id=2623&player_id=198 Kieran Richardson's profile] at safc.com
* [http://www.thefa.com/England/SeniorTeam/Players/Postings/2005/05/EnglandPlayerProfile_KieranRichardson.htm Kieran Richardson's profile] at TheFA.com

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=