Kieran Richardson

Kieran Edward Richardson (born 21 October 1984) is an English former professional footballer who played as a winger, left-back, or central midfielder.

Richardson began his career as a trainee at West Ham United, going on to play senior football at Manchester United, Sunderland, Fulham, Aston Villa and Cardiff City.

He was capped eight times for England, scoring twice.

Richardson was born in Greenwich, London and was schooled at the private and non-selective Riverston School in Lee, London.

Growing up he would watch Arsenal with his father Clyde who was a season ticket holder.

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.

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.

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 for United in the League Cup on 5 November 2002 against Leicester City.

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 role in Manchester United's youth team's win of the 2003 FA Youth Cup.

At the start 2003–04, he was given squad number 23 and only appeared three times, all of them in League Cup and FA Cup.

During 2004–05, 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, 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.

Former Manchester United captain Bryan Robson, manager of West Bromwich Albion, enquired about loaning Richardson, the deal was done straight away.

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.

At the start 2005–06, Richardson declined a further loan spell at West Brom in an attempt to win a regular place at Old Trafford.

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 2005, Richardson celebrated his 21st birthday by signing a new four-year contract with United.

He went on to appear 36 times and score six goals that season.

In 2006–07, Richardson's chances to establish himself in the first team were limited, mainly playing in the League Cup and the FA Cup.

However, Richardson felt 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 into the final at the new Wembley Stadium.

On 16 July 2007, Richardson joined Sunderland for an undisclosed fee, reported to be in the region of £5.5 million.

He signed a four-year contract with Sunderland, under the management of his former United captain Roy Keane.

After an indifferent start, it was discovered that he had a stress fracture of the spine.

This led to him being out of action for almost four months.

He scored his first goal for Sunderland on 29 December 2007 against Bolton Wanderers.

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.

Since then he suffered a hamstring injury in training then this injury recurred in Sunderland's 3–0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield.

On 23 August 2008, Richardson scored against Tottenham Hotspur in the 56th minute, in a 2–1 win at White Hart Lane.