Niall Quinn
From Free net encyclopedia
Niall Quinn, honorary MBE (b. October 6, 1966 in Dublin) is an Irish international football player, now retired.
An honest player and a model professional, the 6'5" (1.96 m) Quinn was often considered an archetypal old fashioned target-man. However, Quinn possessed excellent ball control, the result of countless hours additional training on his own. He played as a youth for Irish club Manortown United, before signing professional forms with English club Arsenal in 1983. He scored on his first-team debut against Liverpool in December 1985, but his form for the rest of that season was decidedly patchy.
Quinn took time to find form, but by 1986-87 had become a regular in the Arsenal side, helping them reach and then win the 1987 League Cup final. However, the arrival of fellow centre-forward Alan Smith that summer forced Quinn out of the Arsenal first team, and he became a fringe player. In all he scored 20 goals in 93 matches for the Gunners.
Manchester City F.C. signed Quinn for £800,000 in March 1990. He scored 22 times in his first full season, and he went on to spend six years at the club, scoring 66 goals in just over 200 appearances; his time at City was hampered by a cruciate ligament injury in 1993-94 and a falling-out with manager Alan Ball.
Quinn made his debut for the Republic of Ireland in 1986, and went on to earn 91 caps . He retired as his country's all-time scorer with 21 goals; this record was surpassed by Robbie Keane in October 2004. Quinn played for his country at two World Cups, in 1990 and 2002; he missed the Template:Wc because of injury.
Quinn finished his career with a highly successful spell at Sunderland A.F.C., joining the north-east club in 1996. His partnership with striker Kevin Phillips was one of the most prolific in the Football League and helped the club to promotion to the Premiership. Quinn will always retain the distinction of being the first player to score in Sunderland's Stadium of Light, against Manchester City in 1997. In 2002, he donated the entire proceeds of his testimonial match between Sunderland and the Republic of Ireland to charity, an act for which he received a number of awards, including an honorary MBE. Quinn played for both teams during the match, which is thought to have raised over £1 million.
Quinn retired in 2003 at the age of 37, taking a brief coaching role at Sunderland. Quinn has also made appearances as a TV pundit and commentator for televised matched involving his past teams with Sky Sports.
Niall was voted Sunderland and North East Sportswriters' Player of the Year award in 1999 after scoring 21 goals, after this Niall has also had his own song wrote and performed by the local, unofficial Sunderland AFC programme producers of 'A Love Supreme' (ALS for short), it was glam-rock meets terrace chanting, with the chorus of:
Niall Quinn's disco pants are the best,
They go up from his a**e to his chest,
They're better than Adam Ant's,
Niall Quinns disco pants!
The song was wrote after Sunderland AFC's record breaking division 1 title win in 1999 and the famous chant that Machester City and Sunderland AFC fans used to connect with Quinny.
Quinn also wrote an acclaimed autobiography "Niall Quinn - The Autobiography" (2002) which was nominated for a William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award and was ghost written by Tom Humphries. The book is not structured chronologically, but rather in the context of Quinn's career swansong, the 2002 World Cup in Japan.
Quinn confirmed on April 19th 2006 that along with a consortium of wealthy Irish businessmen (suspected to be associates of Quinn's from his involvment in horse racing) that he is attempting to buy his former club Sunderland A.F.C. from the current chairman Bob Murray.