Stephen Ireland

Stephen Ireland - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Stephen Ireland

Stephen James Ireland (born 22 August 1986) is an Irish former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder.

This profile of Stephen Ireland covers Early Career and Breakthrough, Manchester City, Aston Villa, Stoke City and Bolton Wanderers.

Ireland played as a youth player with Cobh Ramblers before joining English club Manchester City in 2001 at the age of 15. He made his professional debut in September 2005 and soon established himself as a regular at the City of Manchester Stadium. At the start of the 2008–09 season, City were taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group, which led the club to buy players such as Robinho and Vincent Kompany. Ireland was a key player for Manchester City that season, becoming the club's player of the year.

Ireland fell out of favour at City when manager Mark Hughes was sacked and replaced with Roberto Mancini in December 2009. In September 2010, Ireland was transferred to Aston Villa in a swap deal with James Milner. After a slow start to his Villa career, he was loaned out to Newcastle United where he only played twice. In the 2011–12 season, he improved and won the Fans' Player of the Season award. But he fell out of the first team under Paul Lambert and in September 2013 he joined Stoke City on loan, before making the move permanent in January 2014. After being released from Stoke in 2018, he joined Bolton Wanderers for a brief spell before retiring.

His early performances with Manchester City saw him earn international recognition with the Republic of Ireland. But a row with Steve Staunton saw his international career come to an abrupt end in 2007.

Early Career and Breakthrough of Stephen Ireland

Born in Cork, County Cork, Ireland started his career in Cobh, playing junior football for Cobh Ramblers, a team his father Michael had previously played for. As a schoolboy, Ireland had trials with several British clubs, though several were discouraged by his Osgood-Schlatter disease, which he suffered from in his mid-teens. He eventually chose Manchester City, where he moved in August 2001, as a fifteen-year-old.

Manchester City of Stephen Ireland

In 2005, at the age of 18, he joined English club Manchester City. He played for the first team in several pre-season friendlies and made his competitive debut on 18 September 2005, against Bolton Wanderers, coming on as an 81st-minute substitute. He later made his first competitive start against Doncaster Rovers on 21 September. He won the Man of the Match award on his first Premier League start against Everton on 2 October. He then started the next six matches for City, which won him a contract to keep him at the club until 2009. In the remainder of the season he participated in around half of Manchester City's matches, ending the season with 16 starts and 12 substitute appearances. On 26 December, Ireland scored his first Premier League goal for City, a left footed volley from 20 yards. The goal proved to be the only goal in a vital 1–0 victory at Sheffield United's Bramall Lane. On 18 February, Ireland rounded off the scoring for Manchester City in a 3–1 away win over Preston North End in the fifth round of the FA Cup with a volley from outside the area.

Having started the 2007–08 Premier League season well with City, Ireland scored the only goal, a volley, in a 1–0 home win over Sunderland. His celebration for the goal courted some controversy, Ireland dropped his shorts to reveal a pair of underpants sporting the Superman logo, however the FA decided a warning would be the fairest course of action. Then in November against Reading, he scored to keep Manchester City's home record at 100%. Two weeks later, he was sent off in the 2–1 loss at Tottenham Hotspur, and received a three-match ban. Ireland scored a goal in the reverse fixture, which led Manchester City to a 2–1 home victory over Spurs. He scored his final goal of the season in the 2–3 loss to Fulham. He got the ball just outside the left side of the penalty box and curved it over Kasey Keller into the top right corner. He finished the 2007–08 season with four goals.

He returned to the first team in a good individual and team performance in the 3–0 win against West Ham United. He finished the match with two assists, crossing for Elano to strike home. He opened his tally in the 3–0 away win at Sunderland. He scored again in the 2–2 draw at Newcastle United on 20 October. He scored both goals in the 2–2 draw at Hull City on 16 November, and opened the score in the successive league match against Arsenal. After netting in a 2–1 win over Everton, Ireland took his season's tally to 13.

On 20 May 2009, he was named Manchester City's Senior Player of the Year for the 2008–09 season and secured a new five-year contract, keeping him at the club until 2014. He later became the Greater Manchester Player of the Year. He opened his account in the 2009–10 season with an opening day goal in the 2–0 win at Blackburn Rovers.

In December 2009, Mark Hughes was sacked as manager and was replaced by former Inter Milan manager Roberto Mancini. With the good form of Nigel de Jong, Vincent Kompany and new signing Patrick Vieira at the club, Ireland spent most of the second half of the season as a substitute. By the end of the 2009–10 season, he only scored three goals, which were all before Mancini's arrival. Mancini said Ireland must "change his head" to play.

Aston Villa

At the start of the 2010–11 Premier League season, Ireland was targeted to be transferred with loan to Aston Villa in exchange for James Milner, but the deal was held up when he demanded £2 million from Manchester City to agree to the move. On 17 August 2010 it was reported the deal had been done, and he was at Aston Villa's Bodymoor Heath Training Ground for a medical. The final price was £8million in a part exchange for Milner. Ireland signed a 4-year deal with the Midlands club. After completing the move, Ireland criticised his former club, saying that its young players were "money-obsessed" and that: "I guess James Milner must think the grass is greener on the other side. He's going to get a shock soon because it's definitely not that way." Ireland made his debut for the club on his 24th birthday in an away fixture at Newcastle United. Ireland started and played for the full duration of the match as Villa were beaten 6–0. But by the end of October 2010, Ireland had been dropped from the Villa team with manager Gérard Houllier publicly stating that he needed to work harder at his game.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Ireland), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.