Keith Gillespie

Keith Robert Gillespie (born 18 February 1975) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who plays as a winger for FC Mindwell in the Mid-Ulster Football League.

Gillespie signed for Manchester United on leaving school in the summer of 1991, being a member of the FA Youth Cup winning side in 1992.

Also in that team were Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Gary Neville and Robbie Savage.

He began his career at Manchester United after winning the FA Youth Cup in 1992, before moving to Newcastle United, where he played in the UEFA Champions League.

Gillespie made his first senior appearance for Manchester United in the 1992–93 season.

He scored on his debut against Bury in a 2–0 FA Cup third round triumph on 5 January 1993.

He was issued with the number 31 shirt for the 1993–94 season with the introduction of squad numbers, but did not play any first team games and was loaned to Division Three club Wigan Athletic, scoring four goals in eight games.

Gillespie earned 86 caps for Northern Ireland between 1994 and 2008, putting him 6th in their most capped players of all time.

He had well-publicised issues with problem gambling during his career, and has since spoken out about gambling.

Gillespie was born in Larne, County Antrim.

His first years were spent in Islandmagee, County Antrim where he attended Whitehead Primary School.

He later moved to Bangor, County Down where he attended Rathmore Primary School and Bangor Grammar School.

He was scouted playing for St Andrews FC from Belfast, and was the first professional footballer to come from this club.

Occasional appearances for United followed in 1994–95, but he was never able to displace Andrei Kanchelskis as United's first-choice right winger.

He moved to Newcastle United on 10 January 1995, as a £1 million component in the £7 million deal (£6 million cash) which took Andrew Cole to Old Trafford.

Gillespie had scored one of United's goals against Newcastle in the 2–0 victory at Old Trafford.

This meant that he had scored twice for Manchester United in three seasons as a professional.

On 20 August 1995, the News of the World carried reports that Gillespie was subject of an approach from Alex Ferguson to return to Manchester United to fill the gap on the right wing being left by the sale of Andrei Kanchelskis to Everton, but the return to Old Trafford never happened and United instead turned to up-and-coming youngster David Beckham to occupy that position.

18 years later, Gillespie confirmed that Ferguson did contact him regarding a possible return to Manchester United, but claims that he heard nothing more about the prospective transfer after that original telephone conversation with his former manager.

Gillespie stayed at Newcastle for three-and-a-half years and during this time he played 143 games, including 15 European ties (in both the Champions League and UEFA Cup) and scored 13 goals.

In both the 1995–96 and 1996–97 seasons he helped Newcastle to finish second in the Premier League (runners up to Gillespie's former club, Manchester United, on both occasions), being a key member of "The Entertainers".

On the first occasion, the Magpies very nearly beat Gillespie's old club to the title, having been 10 points ahead of them by Christmas 1995 before a dismal final three months of the season saw the title sealed by Gillespie's former team mates.

Initially injured from a Phil Neville tackle in a 0–2 defeat at Old Trafford on 27 December 1995 causing him to miss the following three games, at the end of the 1995–96 season Gary Lineker, then a BBC pundit, said that one of the main reasons that Newcastle lost out on the title race was because they dropped Gillespie (who had been supplying Newcastle's forwards with a stream of good crosses) for several key games in the latter part of the season.

In September 1996, Gillespie was outed as a problem gambler by The Sun.

He then accepted a £5,000 payment by the same tabloid to publicly thank them for helping out his problem.

Gillespie has publicly said that he would bet on matches involving his own team, and once lost £52,000 because he had bet on Newcastle scored a late goal and he had bet on them beating Stoke City by under four goals.

In his final full season at Newcastle, the 1997–98 season, Gillespie assisted two of Faustino Asprilla's three goals in a 3–2 Champions League victory over FC Barcelona on 17 September 1997.

He also scored what he later claimed was his best goal for the club when playing up front due to an injury crisis at home to Blackburn Rovers in 1-1 draw on 25 October 1997.

He also helped Newcastle to reach the FA Cup final.

However, a foot injury sustained in a 0–2 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur on 25 April 1998 meant, despite a fitness test, he was not in the squad for the final and Newcastle lost to Arsenal.

Despite being in manager Kenny Dalglish's plans, the following pre-season Gillespie failed a medical at Middlesbrough but eventually departed Tyneside in a £2.3 million move to Blackburn Rovers following the appointment of Ruud Gullit as manager and a final appearance in a 2–2 draw at Middlesbrough on 6 December 1998.

Gillespie was unable to help Blackburn avoid relegation in 1998–99, and manager Brian Kidd was sacked later in the year.

Gillespie was initially out of favour with new manager Graeme Souness, and another loan spell at Wigan Athletic brought his total appearances for Athletic to 15, from which he scored four goals.

He returned to the Blackburn side for the final months of the 2000–01 season, as the club gained promotion back to the Premier League.

Gillespie also played in the Premier League for Blackburn Rovers, Leicester City and Sheffield United, helping Blackburn win the Football League Cup in 2002.

Towards the end of his career, he played for Glentoran in the Irish League and Longford Town in the League of Ireland.

He also started in the 2002 Football League Cup Final, setting up a goal by Matt Jansen in the 2–1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur.

Five seasons at Ewood Park brought 137 appearances and 6 goals.

Gillespie moved to newly promoted Leicester City on a free transfer on 8 July 2003, signing a two-year contract.

He played 48 games and scored two goals in two seasons.