Gary O'Neil

Gary O'Neil
O'Neil in October 2012
Personnel
Surname	Gary Paul O'Neil
birthday	May 18, 1983
place of birth	Bromley ,  England
size	173 cm
position	midfield player
Juniors
Years	station
1988-1992	Valley Valiants
1992-1996	Charlton Athletic
1996-1999	Portsmouth FC
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1999-2007	Portsmouth FC	174 (16)
2003	→  FC Walsall  (loan)	7 0(0)
2004	→  Cardiff City  (loan)	9 0(1)
2007-2011	Middlesbrough FC	109 0(8)
2011-2013	West Ham United	48 0(3)
2013-2014	Queens Park Rangers	29 0(1)
2014-2016	Norwich City	48 0(0)
2016-2018	Bristol City	33 0(1)
2018-2019	Bolton Wanderers	29 0(3)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
2001-2002	England U-19	8 0(0)
2002-2003	England U-20	7 0(0)
2003-2004	England U-21	9 0(0)
1 Only league games are given. Status: February 17, 2020

Gary Paul O'Neil (born May 18, 1983 in Bromley ) is an English football player .

Career

society

On January 29, 2000, Gary O'Neil made his professional debut at the age of 16 in the jersey of the then second division club Portsmouth FC . At the home game against Barnsley FC he was substituted on, but had no ball contact and did not play a game for the rest of the season. Still, it made him the youngest player to wear Portsmouth FC ever to appear. The midfielder only got some appearances again under coach Graham Rix . When at the end of the 2001/02 season Harry Redknapp took over as coach at Portsmouth, O'Neil was one of the few players who did not have to leave the club as part of the squad restructuring. It was therefore all the more surprising that it was only used in eleven games.

At the end of the 2002/03 season, he and his team made it to the Premier League . In order to collect match practice, he was awarded to FC Walsall at the beginning of the next season . However, due to his good performance and injury problems at Portsmouth, he was brought back in November 2003. O'Neil made his Premier League debut in a 6-1 win over Leeds United and scored two goals. Only a few days later he had to leave for Dubai for the 2003 Junior World Cup . Back in Portsmouth, all injury concerns in the team had resolved and O'Neil could not achieve a regular place by the end of the season. At the beginning of the 2004/05 season he was therefore loaned to Cardiff City . Again he was brought back after a short time, as Portsmouth again had many injured regular players to complain about. After Redknapp was fired, O'Neil developed under the new coach Velimir Zajec and later under Alain Perrin to the regulars in midfield of Portsmouth. Just a few months later, however, Perrin was fired and Harry Redknapp re-engaged as head coach. This had not escaped the good performances of O'Neil and therefore this time he stuck to the midfielder and later even let him play in his favorite position in central midfield. At the home game against Everton in January 2006, he ran for the first time as team captain and was voted Portsmouth Player of the Year at the end of the season. In the following season he reached ninth place in the table with his team.

On August 31, 2007 he moved to league rivals FC Middlesbrough for the equivalent of 7.5 million euros . In 2008, O'Neil suffered a ruptured cruciate ligament . He played for Boro until the 2010/11 winter break , before signing a two and a half year contract with West Ham United .

For the 2013/14 season O'Neil moved to the first division relegated Queens Park Rangers . He signed a contract until the end of the season.

National team

Gary O'Neil has played in every England youth team and was the captain of the U-21 national team. O'Neil is also eligible to play for the Irish National Football Team.

Others

Gary O'Neil has been married to his wife Donna Guerin since 2006 and became the father of their daughter in May 2007.

Web links

• Gary O'Neil in the soccerbase.com database
• Gary O'Neil in the database of weltfussball.de