Kieran Richardson

Kieran Richardson

Personal information
Full name	Kieran Edward Richardson
Date of birth	21 October 1984 (1984-10-21) (age 26)
Place of birth	Greenwich, England
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Playing position	Midfielder Defender
Club information
Current club	Sunderland
Number	3
Youth career
000?–2001	West Ham United
2001–2002	Manchester United
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2002–2007	Manchester United	41	(2)
2005	→ West Bromwich Albion (loan)	12	(3)
2007–	Sunderland	78	(8)
National team‡
2005–2007	England U21	11	(1)
2005–2006	England	8	(2)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 06:25, 18 May 2010 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 21:48, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Kieran Edward Richardson (born 21 October 1984) 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. He often captained Sunderland when former captain Dean Whitehead did not start the match.

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.

2002–03 season

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 23 October 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 5 November 2002 against Leicester City,^[1] 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.

2003–04 season

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.

2004–05 season

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.^[2] However, when former Manchester United captain Bryan Robson, manager of West Bromwich Albion, enquired about loaning Richardson, the deal was done straight away.^[3] Under 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. Despite this his confrontational demeanor won him no respect with opposing fans, particularly at Norwich, where he received a pastie thrown from row Q (impressive in itself) to the face after taunting them.^[4].

2005–06 season

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.^[5] 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.^[6] He went on to appear 36 times and score six goals that season.

2006–07 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.^[7]

Sunderland

On 16 July 2007, Sunderland paid Manchester United an undisclosed fee, reported to be in the region of £5.5 million.^[8] Richardson signed a four-year deal with the Black Cats,^[9][10] and linked up with former United captain Roy Keane.

2007–08 season

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.^[11] He scored his first goal for Sunderland on 29 December 2007 against Bolton Wanderers.^[12] 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.^[13] Since then he suffered a hamstring injury in training then this injury recurred in Sunderland's 3–0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield.

2008–09 season

On 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, 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. Richardson attracted interest from both Bolton Wanderers and rivals Newcastle United in the 2009 January transfer window, but manager Ricky Sbragia insisted he is not for sale.

2009–10 season

Richardson scored his first goal of the 2009–10 season with an equaliser against West Ham United at home, which ended 2–2. Kieran has been used in several positions this season, whilst predominantly featuring in central midfield he also enjoyed a run of form at left-back – his performances there led to many touting him as a surprise World Cup inclusion. ^[14]

2010–11 season

In the build up to the new season Kieran Richardson signed a new three year deal at the Stadium of Light, keeping him at the club for another 3 years. He is expected to be the clubs first choice leftback for the new season, a role he has adapted to under Bruce's management. Richardson replaced George McCartney as number 3 on the eve of the opening day.

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".^[15] 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 World Cup squad.

In 2006–07, 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.

International goals

Kieran Richardson: International goals

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	28 May 2005	Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois, United States	United States	0–1	1–2	Friendly
2	28 May 2005	Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois, United States	United States	0–2	1–2	Friendly

Honours

Club

Manchester United

• Premier League (1): 2006–07
• Football League Cup (1): 2005–06
• FA Community Shield (1): 2003

Career statistics

Statistics accurate as of the end of the 2009–10 season

References

External links

• Kieran Richardson career stats at Soccerbase
• Kieran Richardson's profile at safc.com
• Kieran Richardson's profile at TheFA.com

England squad – 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship 1 Carson • 2 Hoyte • 3 Baines • 4 Taylor • 5 Ferdinand • 6 Cahill • 7 Reo-Coker • 8 Bentley • 9 Richardson • 10 Nugent • 11 Young • 12 Routledge • 13 Hart • 14 Rosenior • 15 Milner • 16 Lita • 17 Huddlestone • 18 Noble • 19 Derbyshire • 20 Onuoha • 21 Vaughan • 22 Alnwick • 23 Whittingham • Coach: Pearce