Shay Given

Shay Given
Shay Given in the Manchester City shirt (2010)
Personnel
Surname	Séamus John James Given
birthday	April 20, 1976
place of birth	Lifford ,  Ireland
size	185 cm
position	goalkeeper
Juniors
Years	station
1991-1994	Celtic Glasgow
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1994-1997	Blackburn Rovers	2 (0)
1995	→  Swindon Town  (loan)	5 (0)
1996	→  Sunderland AFC  (loan)	17 (0)
1997-2009	Newcastle United	354 (0)
2009-2011	Manchester City	50 (0)
2011-2015	Aston Villa	37 (0)
2013-2014	→  Middlesbrough FC  (loan)	16 (0)
2015-2017	Stoke City	8 (0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
	Ireland U-21	5 (0)
1996-2016	Ireland	134 (0)
1 Only league games are given. As of February 1, 2018

Séamus John James "Shay" Given (born April 20, 1976 in Lifford ) is an Irish football goalkeeper . After training at the Scottish club Celtic Glasgow and the second division championship in 1996 with AFC Sunderland , he was successfully active for Newcastle United for more than a decade from 1997 and led the club to the FA Cup finals in 1998 and 1999 . In the 2001/02 and 2005/06 seasons, he was relatively short at 1.85 meters, but valued for his speed, athleticism and good reflexes, the 2002 World Cup participant was voted the best goalkeeper in the Premier League . He is the all-time Irish goalkeeper with 134 appearances and was under contract with Stoke City until July 2017 .

Career

Beginnings (until 1994)

Shay Given grew up with three older brothers in Lifford, a town directly adjacent to Northern Ireland . After some initial soccer experience in the garden at home, he ended up at the local club Lifford Celtic at the age of 14 . There he first drew attention to himself as a goalkeeper during a cup semi-final match in Dundalk : Although he lost 1-0 with his team, he looked extraordinarily mature and confident for his age. Word of the talent of the young goalkeeper spread to Scotland and a dream seemed to come true for Given when, in 1991, the club he had always been a part of, Celtic Glasgow , invited him to a trial training session.

A year later he signed his first contract there and spent two years at Celtic, whose professional team was first coached by Given's compatriot Liam Brady and a year later by Lou Macari . The hurdles for a use in the A-team were too high, although he was allowed to sit on the bench at least once on New Year's Day 1994 at the derby against the Rangers . However, his good performances in the youth teams reached Blackburn in England: the coach Kenny Dalglish signed the young talent in the summer of 1994.

Blackburn Rovers and Loan Stations (1994–1997)

The "Rovers" were English champions for the first time in Given's first season , but behind regular goalkeeper Tim Flowers and substitute Bobby Mimms , the newcomer was mostly only allowed to play the role of "number three" - only in February 1995 he sat in three Premier League games 1994/95 season on the bench when Flowers was represented by Mimms. The change of coach to Ray Harford also changed little in the pecking order. Instead, the club loaned it to third division Swindon Town for a month in August 1995 . There he had to reach back only once in five competitive games and in January 1996 the next loan club followed with the second division and promotion aspirants AFC Sunderland . Here the surprisingly serene and not very nervous looking teenager stayed in 12 of the 17 games without conceding a goal and was an important factor in the fact that the "Black Cats" rose to the Premier League as second division champions.

Hopes of being able to keep Given, who had become a hero in Sunderland for a short time, were dashed and Given spent the 1996/97 season again in Blackburn. Mimms had left the club in the meantime, but Given Flowers couldn't get past Flowers - even the move to interim coach Tony Parkes at the end of October 1996 did little to change that fact . After his substitution and a four-minute competitive debut in September 1996 during a league cup encounter against Brentford FC (2-0), he represented Flowers in just two Premier League games against Wimbledon FC (0-1) and Derby shortly before the end of the year County (0-0). Otherwise, Parkes relied on tried and tested forces in the relegation battle. With Kenny Dalglish, who had recently accepted a new coaching engagement at Newcastle United , an "old acquaintance" announced again interest in a commitment from Given and so he moved to the 1997/98 season for a transfer fee of 1.5 million pounds Tyne .

Newcastle United (1997-2009)

In the battle for the position of the goalkeeper, Given prevailed against Shaka Hislop and Pavel Srníček at the beginning of the 1997/98 season and demonstrated his skills with good performances - including in the Champions League against opponents like FC Barcelona (3-2) on. After an injury from an international match in November 1997 he lost to Hislop and during the almost three months on the bench a renewed change also seemed not unthinkable, with Sunderland AFC in particular making efforts to return Given to his old place. The fact that Given was back in the Newcastle starting line-up in February 1998 was mainly due to the fact that the contract negotiations with Hislop had stalled and the sporting management subsequently resorted to Given. This "thanked" with a goal-free performance in the FA Cup semifinals against Sheffield United (1-0), which prepared the "Magpies" the way to Wembley . There, however, he lost against Arsenal with 0-2. Also in the 1998/99 season, Given initially retained a regular place under the new coach Ruud Gullit , before a dislocated shoulder briefly threw him back in November 1998. A few weeks later he received the first red card of his professional career on January 2, 1999 in the FA Cup after a handball outside the street area. As in the previous year, he again delivered one of the best performances of the season in the cup semi-finals and promoted his team to the second FA Cup final in a row with a 2-0 win against Tottenham Hotspur . In the final against Manchester United (0: 2), Gullit surprisingly put him on the bench and preferred Steve Harper , who was in better shape .

The duel between the two opponents continued in the 1999/2000 season and Given only made fourteen league appearances, which was also due to a knee operation at the start of the season. After a four-month break, he returned in late February 2000 in the FA Cup quarter-finals against the Tranmere Rovers (3-2), shortly after Harper had again injured himself. Increasingly frustrated with his unsteady status, the now 26-time Irish national goalkeeper officially asked for a transfer clearance at the turn of the year 2000/01, which the then coach Bobby Robson refused. It should be a turning point for Given for good. At the end of the season, Harper was injured and the Irishman took over the role of "number one" for a long time. He stood in all 38 league games in the 2001/02 season for Newcastle between the posts, qualified in the end with a surprisingly good fourth place for the Champions League and was voted the best goalkeeper of the previous round by the players' union PFA. In May 2002 he also signed a new five-year contract with the Magpies.

After the final sporting breakthrough that by good performance in the 2002 World Cup and international manifested, surpassing Given in the 2002/03 season the previous successes achieved with his club to third place and held in again 38 league appearances equal to 14 times his box clean. From then on, he became a long-runner and after another fifth place in the 2003/04 season , an uninterrupted series of 140 Premier League games did not come to an end until November 2004, when Given attended the birth of his first child. In the season 2004/05, in which after the coaching change from Robson to Graeme Souness with rank 14 the season goals were missed relatively clearly, Given exceeded the 300-competitive game mark for Newcastle. In addition, in April 2005 he was the first player in his club with 50 appearances in the European Cup.

The fact that Newcastle recovered quickly from this weak phase and finished seventh again in the 2005/06 season was due to Given, who was elected best goalkeeper in the Premier League for the second time at the end of the season, during Alan Shearer's temporary absence represented him as captain and finally signed a new five-year contract. The headlines in September 2006 was a serious injury given by Given in a collision with Marlon Harewood of West Ham United, which the attending physician compared to a car accident. Given suffered an inch-long tear in his bowel and was out for two months. On his return he ended the season with 22 league appearances and reached the round of 16 of the UEFA Cup . Given also struggled with fitness problems in the 2007/08 season and when an old groin injury broke out again, Given's season ended prematurely in February 2008.

The time came to an end for Given at Newcastle United. This was due to the sporting downturn, which ended at the end of the 2008/09 season with relegation to the second-rate Football League Championship , numerous injury problems and unrest in the club environment with regard to ownership and the coaching question. From January 2009 serious transfer talks began with Manchester City . The then Newcastle coach Joe Kinnear initially expressed his general disinterest in a sale and subsequently the purchase price offered as "offensive". Only at the end of the winter transfer period on February 1, 2009, the change to the "Citizens" was sealed for an initial transfer fee of 5.9 million pounds and Given left his long-term club with mixed feelings - quite a few supporters believed that Given had the club abandoned in difficult times and relegation would have been avoided with him. Given had only missed 34 competitive games to catch up with Jimmy Lawrence as Newcastle United's record player.

Manchester City (2009-2011)

Given signed a four-year contract with Manchester City; the total transfer volume was seven million pounds. He made his debut on February 7, 2009 against Middlesbrough FC and remained clean at 1-0. His opponent in the goalkeeping position was the talent Joe Hart , but since he was loaned to Birmingham City for the entire 2009/10 season , he was an undisputed regular goalkeeper during this period. With a saved penalty against Frank Lampard on December 5, 2009 against eventual champions FC Chelsea (2: 1), he finally played his way into the hearts of the new supporters and coach Roberto Mancini , who described Given as one of the five best goalkeepers worldwide: He transferred the captaincy to the Irishman when Kolo Touré was at the African Championship .

On April 24, 2010 Given dislocated his shoulder in a game against Arsenal FC and after the early end of the season he also lost his regular place at the beginning of the 2010/11 season to returnees Hart, who was already in the after a good season in Birmingham England had made it.

Aston Villa and guest appearance in Middlesbrough (2011–2015)

Given could not regain his regular place, after which he joined Aston Villa in July 2011 . Given received a contract there until 2016. In November of the 2013/14 season , Aston Villa gave Given to Middlesbrough FC as part of the emergency loan possible in English football apart from the usual transfer periods until the end of February 2014 .

After returning to Villa, he became the goalkeeper in the FA Cup and led the team to the final in the 2014/15 season , which however was lost 4-0 to Arsenal .

Stoke City (since 2015)

After his contract with Aston Villa expired , Given joined league rivals Stoke City on a free transfer .

Irish national team

Although Given was previously only considered for the U-21 selection of Ireland and in the 1995/96 season at his home club Blackburn Rovers in the "first team", he was after good performances for loaners AFC Sunderland for the first time on March 27, 1996 in a friendly match against Russia (0: 2) for the Irish national team between the posts. Although he played seven more internationals within the next few months, the fact that Given remained without match practice after his return to Blackburn was not conducive to maintaining the regular place.

Only after moving to Newcastle for the 1997/98 season did Given consolidate his position, although he did not qualify for the 1998 World Cup in France or two years later for the 2000 European Championships in the Netherlands and Belgium and he lost his place in Newcastle at the turn of the millennium was no longer “set” in Ireland either. With good performances in the 2001/02 season, he was the undisputed goalkeeper after a successful World Cup qualification during the 2002 finals in Japan and South Korea . Here he and his team initially remained unbeaten in all three preliminary round games against Cameroon (1-1), Germany (1-1) and Saudi Arabia (3-0), before taking penalties from Juanfran and in the round of 16 against Spain during the penalty shoot-out Juan Carlos Valerón held, but was eliminated from the tournament because of three missed shots by his comrades.

Although Given was still "number one" in the following years, there were no further notable successes with Ireland. He narrowly missed the World Cup tournaments in Germany in 2006 and South Africa in 2010 - the decisive factors were a 0-0 draw against Switzerland in November 2005 and a play-off defeat against France four years later caused by a handball by Thierry Henry .

On March 28, 2007 he had already set Pat Bonner's previous goalkeeping record with his 80th international match and on October 14, 2009 he made the "100 full" against Montenegro . On November 18, 2009 he set against France just like Kevin Kilbane with his 102nd international match, the record of Steve Staunton and on November 17, 2010, after Kilbane's absence, he took over the sole record with the 109th international match. After 125 games, Given announced his retirement from the national team in August 2012. His record was set by Robbie Keane on June 2, 2013 and surpassed on June 7, 2013. On September 3, 2014, he made his comeback in the national team in the friendly against Oman.

At the European Football Championship in France in 2016 , he was included in Ireland's squad. This time he was only a substitute goalkeeper and was not used.

social commitment

Given is an ambassador for Show Racism the Red Card .

Web links

• Shay Given in the database of weltfussball.de
• Shay Given in the database of transfermarkt.de
• Shay Given in the soccerbase.com database
• Official website of Shay Given

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Given ends rumors and signs deal" (BBC Sport)
2. ↑ "Football: Celtic blame anticlimax for disorder: Rangers rampant amid unrest" (The Independent)
3. ↑ Mike Jackman: Blackburn Rovers - The Complete Record . Breedon Books, 2009, ISBN 978-1-85983-709-2 , pp. 532-533 .
4. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1996-97 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1996, ISBN 1-85291-571-4 , pp. 97 .
5. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1997-98 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1997, ISBN 1-85291-581-1 , pp. 108 .
6. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1998-99 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1998, ISBN 1-85291-588-9 , pp. 115 .
7. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1999-2000 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1999, ISBN 1-85291-607-9 , pp. 118-119 .
8. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 2000-2001 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2000, ISBN 1-85291-626-5 , pp. 298 .
9. ^ "Newcastle turn down Given's plea for transfer" (Daily Telegraph)
10. ↑ "Given's form promise" (BBC Sport)
11. ↑ "Season 2001/02" (Premier League)
12. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2003/2004 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2003, ISBN 1-85291-651-6 , pp. 168 .
13. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2004/2005 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2004, ISBN 1-85291-660-5 , pp. 160 .
14. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2005/2006 . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2005, ISBN 1-85291-662-1 , pp. 160 .
15. ↑ "Long break for Shay Given" (kicker)
16. ↑ "Man City's Given bid 'insulting'" (BBC Sport)
17. ↑ "Shay Given disgusted by Newcastle treatment" (The Times)
18. ↑ "Given completes Man City transfer" (BBC Sport)
19. ↑ "Given signs for City in £ 7m deal" (The Guardian)
20. ^ "Roberto Mancini praises Carlos Tevez and Shay Given" (The Guardian)
21. ↑ mcfc.co.uk: Given joins Villa (English)
22. ↑ Aston Villa sign Shay Given from Manchester City on five-year deal (BBC Sport)
23. ↑ It's A Given on stokecityfc.com on July 10, 2015, accessed on August 14, 2015
24. ↑ Ireland's record international player Given declares his resignation  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , stern.de of August 13, 2012 (accessed on August 13, 2012).  
25. ↑ fai.ie: "Martin O'Neill names final 27 man squad"
26. ^ Rep. Of Ireland - Oman 2-0
27. ↑ Show Racism the Red Card-Hall of fame ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2014 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.