Richard Stearman

Richard Stearman
Stearman in Fulham FC jersey (2016)
Personnel
Surname	Richard James Michael Stearman
birthday	August 19, 1987
place of birth	Wolverhampton ,  England
size	185 cm
position	Center-back , full-back (right)
Juniors
Years	station
1998-2004	Harborough Town
	Leicester City
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
2004-2008	Leicester City	116 (7)
2008-2015	Wolverhampton Wanderers	211 (5)
2013	→  Ipswich Town  (loan)	15 (0)
2015-2017	Fulham FC	29 (0)
2016-2017	→ Wolverhampton Wanderers (loan)	18 (0)
2017–	Sheffield United	14 (1)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
2003	England U-16	3 (0)
2004	England U17	9 (0)
2005	England U-19	1 (0)
2008-2009	England U-21	4 (0)
1 Only league games are given. As of February 5, 2018

Richard James Michael Stearman (born August 19, 1987 in Wolverhampton ) is an English football player .

Athletic career

Richard Stearman was born in Wolverhampton , but grew up in Leicestershire . In a game for the small club Harborough Town he caught the talent scouts of Leicester City , who convinced him to join the club's academy. There he was trained as a defender and showed particular strengths in the positions of the center and right full-back. After the end of the 2003/04 season he received the club's internal award for the best “Young Player of the Year” and in the same year 2004 he signed his first professional contract with the “Füchsen”.

At the age of 17, Stearman completed his first second division game on October 30, 2004 in the goalless draw against Cardiff City and ended the 2004/05 season with a total of eight appearances. A year later he was already a regular and received a serious offer from the Premier League in the form of AFC Sunderland , which the then coach Rob Kelly, however, declined with the statement that he was not willing to give up prospective players. The talent stayed in Leicester until 2008 and finally won the award for best club professional of the past season in two categories. Regardless, he had to accept relegation to the third-tier Football League One with Leicester City .

Since Stearman had now developed into a nationally recognized talent, he could no longer be held by the third division club and so he moved to former second division competitor Wolverhampton Wanderers on June 25, 2008, where he signed a four-year contract. He celebrated his debut in the 2-2 draw against Plymouth Argyle on August 9, 2008 on the occasion of the first match day and, towards the end of 2008, formed an effective defensive duo with Michael Mancienne on loan from Chelsea FC , who also played in the English U-21 team. National team came into play. When the promotion battle went into the decisive phase, coach Mick McCarthy left him on the bench more often due to a weakness in form and trusted the more experienced Jody Craddock . On May 3, 2009, he scored in stoppage time the decisive goal for the 1-0 win against Doncaster Rovers , which was also Stearman's first goal for the "Wolves".

National team

After Stearman had already been active for England's U-17 and U-18 selection, he received his first nomination for the U-21 national team in November 2007. However, he was initially not used there, which was repeated with his next nomination on the occasion of the qualifier for the U-21 European Championship 2009 against the Portuguese youth in September 2008 as well as a month later against Wales . His debut ultimately followed in a 2-0 friendly win against the Czech Republic . Coach Stuart Pearce nominated him for the U-21 European Championship in Sweden, where he only played his only final game in the last group game against Germany in a "B-team", which was relatively unimportant for England .

Web links

• Richard Stearman in the database of weltfussball.de
• Richard Stearman in the database of transfermarkt.de
• Richard Stearman in the soccerbase.com database

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Leicester reject bid for Stearman" (BBC Sport)
2. ^ "Stearman proud of awards double" (BBC Sport)
3. ^ "Stearman swaps Foxes for Wolves" (BBC Sport)
4. ↑ "Stearman called up for England Under-21s" ( Memento of the original from September 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (wolves.co.uk) 
5. ↑ "England Under-21 Call-up For Stearman" ( Memento of the original from October 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (wolves.co.uk)