Tony Adams

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Tony Adams
Adams, Tony.jpg
Tony Adams (2010)
Personnel
Surname Tony Alexander Adams
birthday October 10, 1966
place of birth RomfordEngland
position Defender
Juniors
Years station
1980-1983 Arsenal FC
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1983-2002 Arsenal FC 504 (32)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1985-1986 England U-21 5 0(1)
1989-1990 England B 4 0(1)
1987-2000 England 66 0(5)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
2003-2004 Wycombe Wanderers
2006-2008 Portsmouth FC (assistant coach)
2008-2009 Portsmouth FC
2010-2011 FK Qəbələ
1 Only league games are given.

Tony Alexander Adams MBE (born October 10, 1966 in Romford , London Borough of Havering , England ) is a former English football player and current coach .

He spent his 19-year professional career entirely at Arsenal , where he is considered one of the best players in the club's history. Most recently, he worked in England until February 2009 as a coach at Portsmouth FC and in 2010/2011 at the Azerbaijani FK Qəbələ .

Player career

Adams was born in Romford in the east London Borough of Havering and joined Arsenal as a schoolboy in 1980 at the age of 14, having been an Arsenal fanatic throughout his childhood. He made his debut in the professional team on November 5, 1983, almost a month after his 17th birthday, against Sunderland . Together with Lee Dixon , Nigel Winterburn and Steve Bould , Adams formed a legendary back four in defense that was famous for its good game with the offside trap under coach George Graham . On January 1, 1988, Adams became the youngest team captain in the history of Arsenal at the age of 21 and would hold this position for the next fourteen years.

With this above-average well-functioning defense, Adams won the English League Cup with Arsenal in 1987 and the English championship in 1989 and 1991. Two more years later - in 1993 - he was the first player to lead Arsenal to a "double" from the League Cup and FA Cup . Just another year later, he accepted the European Cup Winners' Cup when Arsenal defeated AC Parma 1-0 in Copenhagen in the final.

By this high point in his career, Adams had already established himself in the English national team . He played his first international match against Spain in 1987 and then played at the 1988 European Championship in Germany . Adam's career in the national team was also marked by setbacks. After he had not been considered by the English coach Bobby Robson for the 1990 World Cup in Italy , he had to cancel his participation in the following European Championship in Sweden in 1992 due to an injury. Nevertheless, he was always a constant on the English defensive and was promoted to the new captain in 1992 - after the resignation of Gary Lineker . He initially shared this office with David Platt , but was appointed sole team captain in his own country shortly before the European Championships in 1996 , after Platt's regular position became very uncertain. At the tournament itself, Adams made it to the semi-finals with England, where Germany was beaten on penalties .

At the same time, his alcohol problems were increasing, threatening his existence. After he had often been involved in brawls in discos and was caught several times while drunk behind the wheel of his vehicle (in 1990 he was sentenced to a three-month prison term for this), he announced to the public after the 1996 European Championships that he was an alcoholic. After rehabilitation , he fundamentally changed his lifestyle, from then on took care of his education and began to learn to play the piano . He became one of the most prominent role models in Great Britain for a successful fight against alcoholism, where he described his fight against the disease in detail in the autobiography "Addicted" published in May 1998 and received enormous recognition in society for it.

His recovery was also accompanied by coach Arsène Wenger , who was signed by Arsenal in September 1996. Wenger reformed the club, placing particular emphasis on changing eating habits and professionalizing the lifestyle of the individual players. He supported Adams in his fight against alcohol and was presumably largely responsible for the advancement of the club, which ensured that Adam's career would last for a long time. Together with Arsenal they won the "double" from the FA Cup and the English championship in 1998 and 2002. Adams was the first team captain in England to lead his club to championships in three different decades.

In the English national team, the new coach Glenn Hoddle handed over the captain's armband to Alan Shearer , which was controversially discussed and criticized in public. Adams continued his career and participated in the 1998 World Cup in France . Two years later, however, Adam's career on the English team came to an end. When Shearer resigned after the disappointing Euro 2000 , Adams was initially again captain of the team. A few months later, however, England lost the last game in the old Wembley Stadium against Germany with 0: 1 in October . Then there was greater public pressure on the new coach Sven-Göran Eriksson to bet on emerging players like Rio Ferdinand in the future and Adams announced his retirement after 66 appearances for England before Eriksson first announced the roster. His 60th game at Wembley Stadium (which remains a record to this day) was his last.

After winning the second double in 2002, Adams retired from active football after the FA Cup Final. He made 668 appearances for Arsenal (only David O'Leary came on more appearances for this club) and was the most successful team captain in the club's history. After the departure of “Mr. Arsenal ”- as Adams was called - no other player has worn the number 6 shirt at Arsenal (recently Philippe Senderos will wear the number 6). Adams was honored with a farewell game against Celtic Glasgow and met many of his former teammates again, such as Ian Wright , John Lukic and especially his defensive colleagues Dixon, Winterburn and Bould.

In 2004, Adams was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his accomplishments .

Coaching career

After retiring in 2002, he pursued a degree in sports science from Brunel University and a year later became a coach with the Wycombe Wanderers . He resigned from this position in November 2004 for personal reasons and from July 2005 worked in the scouting and junior division of the Dutch association Feyenoord Rotterdam . He was then briefly between January 15 and February 2, 2006 in the coaching staff of FC Utrecht .

On June 28, 2006, Portsmouth FC signed Adams as Kotrainer and successor to Kevin Bond . From October 28, 2008 he was head coach at Portsmouth FC until he was on leave on February 9, 2009 after only two wins from 16 games.

In May 2010, Adams signed a three-year contract with FK Qəbələ in the Azerbaijani Premyer Liqası . On November 16, 2011, he gave up the post early.

Community service

In September 2000, as a result of his own experiences with alcohol and drug addiction, Adams founded the Sporting Chance Clinic , a charitable institution that provides care, advice and support for athletes to combat drug or gambling addiction.

The clinic of the philosophy twelve-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous works is in Liphook (county Hampshire resident) and, with Kate Hoey , Alex Rae , Paul Merson and Elton John , as well as the English professional players 'union Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), prominent supporters.

successes

literature

  • Tony Adams, Ian Ridley: Addicted . HarperCollinsWillow, London 1999, ISBN 0-00-218795-7 (New Edition, English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Tony Adams' grand plans for Azerbaijan football club . BBC News , May 11, 2010. Retrieved September 15, 2015.
  2. Tony Adams' quits as manager of FC Gabala . The Independent , November 18, 2011. Retrieved September 15, 2015.