Gary Neville

Gary Neville
Gary Neville in December 2006
Personnel
Surname	Gary Alexander Neville
birthday	18th February 1975
place of birth	Bury ,  England
size	180 cm
position	Right full-back
Juniors
Years	station
1991-1992	Manchester United
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1992-2011	Manchester United	400 (5)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1995-2007	England	85 (0)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
2012-2016	England (assistant coach)
2015-2016	Valencia CF
1 Only league games are given.

Gary Alexander Neville (born February 18, 1975 in Bury , Lancashire ) is a former English soccer player and current coach . Between 1995 and 2007 he played the most appearances of a right full-back in the English national team , in this position was considered one of the most experienced and best footballers in the world and participated in two world ( 1998 and 2006 ) and three European championship finals ( 1996 , 2000 and 2004 ). Neville played since his youth in the English Premier League -Verein Manchester United and won during his professional career eight British Championships , three FA Cup trophies , two League Cup spending and in 1999 and 2008 , the Champions League .

Club career

The early years (1992–1995)

Gary Neville comes from a family of athletes. His brother Phil is also a former professional soccer player; In addition, sister Tracey Neville was in the English selection in netball . Gary also played cricket in his youth and was active in the Bolton Cricket League. After becoming part of Manchester United in July 1991 , he made his debut a good year later on September 16, 1992 in a UEFA Cup match against Torpedo Moscow . Like his brother, Phil Neville emerged from the new and greatly rejuvenated Manchester United guard that coach Alex Ferguson built in the 1990s. In this generation called "Fergie's Fledglings" (German: "Fergies chicks") (the nickname alluding to the equally young "Busby Babes" from the 1950s) there were players such as Ryan Giggs , David Beckham , Nicky Butt and the brothers Paul Scholes .

Neville originally started out as a center- back , but due to his relatively small height at the end of 1.80 meters, he was later retrained to the full-back position. He celebrated his sporting breakthrough in the 1994/95 season when Ferguson appointed him permanently to the vacant right-back post after the failure of Paul Ince . Neville stood out on the defensive through leadership and header strength; He also made a name for himself with long throw-ins and was particularly successful in the FA Cup semifinals against Crystal Palace when he prepared a goal from Gary Pallister .

The high phase of sport (1995-2006)

In the 1995/96 season, which brought him the " double " from the English championship and FA Cup in 1996 , he first started on the right side of defense and moved to central defense after Gary Pallister was injured . Although he showed promising performances there alongside David May and also demonstrated an important headball strength for this position, he had to give way again in the decisive final phase of the season after the return of Pallister and Steve Bruce and the right-back position was temporarily assigned to brother Phil been. In the 1-0 cup final win against Liverpool , he came on a short substitute just a minute before the end. Regardless of this, the English players' union PFA nominated him for the "Team of the Season". After good performance at the Euro 1996 in his own country and the signing of a new five-year contract, he ousted his injured brother as a right full-back and winning the second championship was again crowned by an election to the team of the season; shortly before the end of the season, he had also scored his first goal against Middlesbrough FC . In the meantime, Neville, who had meanwhile also matured into a regular player in the English national team, continued to grow into a leading role at "United" in the following season 1997/98. He led the team in the Champions League quarter-finals against AS Monaco as captain on the field. Italian clubs have expressed interest in a possible transfer, but Neville - despite an untitled season - responded with clear oaths of loyalty to his home club.

In the successful 1998/99 season, which brought Manchester United the three most prestigious trophies with the Champions League , the English Championship and the FA Cup, Gary Neville was a key player who was particularly in good shape towards the end of the round and both convinced in the semi-finals against Juventus Turin (1: 1, 3: 2) and in the final against FC Bayern Munich (2: 1) in an overall weakened team. At the beginning of the 1999/2000 season, Neville initially struggled with groin problems, paused for two months and only returned sporadically to the team in late November 1999. After two appearances during the FIFA Club World Cup 2000 , he regained his regular place by the end of January 2000 at the latest. In the summer of 2000 he won the fourth English championship of his career and completed the "league hat trick" the following year, with 49 competitive games in the 2000/01 season - most of a United player this season - not only " He was always present ”, but during Jaap Stam's injury and later after his departure at Wes Brown's side, he also helped out as a central defender.

Despite continued consistent performance, Neville went through with Manchester United in the 2001/02 season a slight crisis situation, which was mainly due to the fact that the further vacant position in the defense center caused problems. At the end of the untitled season, which brought Neville only third place in the Premier League, bad luck came when he broke his left metatarsal . With the commitment of Rio Ferdinand in July 2002, United's defensive network stabilized and Neville returned to his traditional right-back position behind David Beckham after a complete recovery at the end of September 2002 . The interaction of the two “old friends” turned out to be one of the best “weapons” the club had to bring back championship success - Neville's sixth league title.

The following three years were marked by unrest and renovation work. Neville lost his long-term partner on the right with David Beckham in July 2003 and Rio Ferdinand's long doping ban resulted in a renewed destabilization of the United defense network. Neville, whose brother Phil also left the club for Everton in August 2005 , only won the FA Cup in 2004 and the less important league cup two years later. Neville took on additional responsibility from December 2005 after the departure of Roy Keane as the new team captain of Manchester United.

The last years of his career (2006–2011)

As the fifth captain of his club after Bryan Robson , Steve Bruce , Éric Cantona and Roy Keane , Neville accepted the Premier League trophy at the end of the 2006/07 season after winning the English championship again. A "big downer" was the fact that Neville was injured and not used in the final phase. He suffered a cruciate ligament rupture on March 17, 2007 after eleven minutes in the home game against Bolton Wanderers , which ultimately left him sidelined for almost the entire 2007/08 season. The only ten minutes he played in the Champions League quarter-finals against AS Roma ; he could not make any further contribution to the ultimate success in the "premier class" .

In his first appearance from the start after 17 months, Neville led his team on August 10, 2008 in the Community Shield game against Portsmouth FC (3: 1 nE ) and just under three weeks later in the Super Cup against Zenit St. Petersburg (1: 2). However, he gradually lost his regular player status to teammates like Wes Brown and John O'Shea ; his contribution to winning the English championship in 2009 was comparatively small with 16 inserts. At the end of February 2010, he won the League Cup again when he came on as a substitute in the final win against Aston Villa . In September 2010, he resigned from his position as team captain, so that this could be exercised by a regularly deployed player - off the pitch, he initially remained the contact person for matters relating to the team as “club captain”.

On February 2, 2011, Neville announced his retirement at the age of 35 after 20 years at Manchester United . During his active time he played a total of 602 games for Manchester United and scored seven goals - he had exceeded the 600-game limit with four competitive games in the 2010/11 season. At the time of his resignation, only Ryan Giggs , Bobby Charlton , Bill Foulkes and Paul Scholes had played for Manchester United more often. Neville played his last game for Manchester on May 24, 2011 in a friendly against Juventus at Old Trafford . The game ended 1: 2 (1: 1) for the Italians.

English national team

On June 3, 1995 Neville came in a friendly game against Japan to his first international match for the English national team under the then coach Terry Venables . Since then he has been the right-back of four different national coaches as a right-back, breaking Phil Neal's record for most games as a right-back with his 51st international match against Italy in Leeds in 2002 . In his first major tournament at the European Championships in 1996 in his own country, he was the youngest English regular player and was used in every game until he had to sit out in the semi-finals due to a yellow card suspension. He was also represented in the English national team at the next two tournaments, the 1998 World Cup in France and the 2000 European Championship in the Netherlands and Belgium . Due to a broken foot, he was unable to participate in the subsequent World Cup in Japan and South Korea in 2002 . After a successful recovery, he quickly fought his way back into the team and became the first choice for his traditional position at the 2004 European Championships . With a total of 11 European Championship games, he is the English record player at European Championships.

Although he had to take a break due to injury in the late phase of qualifying for the 2006 World Cup in Germany , he was appointed to the squad as a regular in his position. He made his brief comeback in a friendly against Uruguay in March 2006 , before saying goodbye on February 7, 2007 with his 85th international match against Spain (0-1). He only briefly missed the English full-back record of Kenny Sansom , who had played in 86 games for England.

Style of play / behavior

The older of the two Neville brothers was often criticized by football fans for his inconspicuous game, which the experts valued as a solid and experienced leadership game from defense. In addition to the original defensive tasks, he was especially known for his support of the attacking game on the right side. Above all, the interaction with and his capacity as defensive protection for David Beckham , who was placed in front of him in midfield and with whom Neville also has a close friendship off the field, should be mentioned, which has long been characteristic of the “right side” of Manchester United was.

He also gained notoriety through his reputation for campaigning for the interests of other players. He allegedly sought to lead a boycott of the qualifying game for the European Championship 2004 in Turkey in order to show solidarity with his national team colleague Rio Ferdinand , who had been suspended due to a non-submitted doping test - the intended strike did not take place and the game took place.

A special media focus was on Neville in January 2006, when he ran over half of the pitch after the decisive goal at Old Trafford against Liverpool FC from Rio Ferdinand in stoppage time and celebrated in front of the opposing appendix. The police made this action partly responsible for the subsequent unrest between the two fan camps and Neville received a fine of 5,000 pounds from the English Football Association - against which Neville filed with the noting question whether players would behave like "robots" in the future and no more emotions should show an objection.

Coaching career

On December 2, 2015, the Spanish first division club Valencia CF announced the signing of Neville as their new head coach. It is his first coaching position as head coach. With Valencia Neville signed a contract until the end of the season . At Valencia CF he was finally dismissed on March 30, 2016 due to persistent and massive failure. Despite his position as coach of Valencia, Neville had also held the role of assistant manager for the English national football team during this time.

Away from active sport

Neville has a long-term relationship with the island of Malta , which he visited regularly in his childhood. He has been the country's official tourism ambassador since 2001 and also works for Air Malta . In return, the tourism authorities sponsor the football school Gary Neville Soccer School on Malta, where the namesake teaches every summer.

In 2005, following a friendly against the Netherlands under the motto “Let's kick racism out of football” against racism , Neville opened a debate that questioned the motives of the sponsors involved and criticized them for being less interested committed to the cause, but wanted to benefit more from the advertising effect .

successes

• UEFA Champions League : 1999 , 2008
• World Cup : 1999
• Club World Championship : 2008
• English championship : 1996 , 1997 , 1999 , 2000 , 2001 , 2003 , 2007 , 2009
• FA Cup : 1996, 1999, 2004
• English League Cup : 2006, 2010
• FA Charity / Community Shield : 1996, 1997, 2008
• U-18 European Champion : 1993

Web links

• Gary Neville in the soccerbase.com database
• Gary Neville in the database of weltfussball.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The consistent size indication in the print media is “5 ft. 11 in.”.
2. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1995-96 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1995, ISBN 0-09-180854-5 , pp. 153 .
3. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1996-97 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1996, ISBN 1-85291-571-4 , pp. 176 .
4. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1997-98 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1997, ISBN 1-85291-581-1 , pp. 196 f .
5. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1998-99 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1998, ISBN 1-85291-588-9 , pp. 216 .
6. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1999-2000 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1999, ISBN 1-85291-607-9 , pp. 220 f .
7. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 2000-2001 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2000, ISBN 1-85291-626-5 , pp. 233 .
8. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 2001-2002 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2001, ISBN 0-946531-34-X , pp. 221 .
9. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2002/2003 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2002, ISBN 1-85291-648-6 , pp. 302 .
10. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2003/2004 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2003, ISBN 1-85291-651-6 , pp. 312 .
11. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2004/2005 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2004, ISBN 1-85291-660-5 , pp. 296 .
12. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2005/2006 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2005, ISBN 1-85291-662-1 , pp. 296 .
13. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2006-07 . Mainstream Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1-84596-111-0 , pp. 297 .
14. ↑ Neville retires
15. ↑ Press release , website of FC Valencia (Spanish), accessed on December 2, 2015