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Gary Kelly (footballer, born 1974)

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Gary Kelly
Personal information
Full name Gary Oliver Kelly[1]
Date of birth (1974-07-09) 9 July 1974 (age 50)[1]
Place of birth Drogheda, Ireland
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s) Right-back
Youth career
1989–1990 Drogheda United
1990–1991 Home Farm
1991–1992 Leeds United
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1992–2007 Leeds United 531 (7)
International career
1992–1994 Republic of Ireland U21 5 (0)
1994–2003 Republic of Ireland 52 (2)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Gary Oliver Kelly (born 9 July 1974) is an Irish former footballer who played his entire professional career with Leeds United.

Kelly played as a right-back or a right midfielder from 1992 until 2007 and made 531 appearances in total for Leeds United, being the only player to make more than 500 appearances outside the stewardship of Don Revie.

Club career

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Kelly, the youngest of a family of 13, originally started playing football as a striker, and was reasonably successful in this position for Home Farm. However, when he joined Leeds, then boss Howard Wilkinson recognised qualities in him that would make a very good wing-back.[2]

Kelly made his debut for Leeds in the 1991–92 season, although he did not become a regular in the side until the 1993–94 season, when Wilkinson made him his first choice right-back following the injury-induced retirement of Mel Sterland, occasionally filing in at centre back when needed.

He had played just twice in the 1991–92 season,[3] when Leeds were champions of the last old Football League First Division before the FA Premier League was created, and did not qualify for a title winner's medal.

He was selected in the Premier League team of the season for the 1993–94 campaign.

By the end of that season, he had also played himself into Jack Charlton's Republic of Ireland squad that went to the 1994 World Cup in the USA. Kelly was one of the "Three Amigos" alongside Phil Babb and Jason McAteer whose youthful exuberance rejuvenated an ageing Irish squad.[citation needed] Kelly scored in a 2–0 victory over Germany in a warm-up friendly before those finals. Kelly was installed by George Graham as his skipper in the 1997–98 season, at the age of 23.

Kelly was generally a regular either at right back or right midfield in every subsequent season he played for Leeds, except for 1998–99, when shin splints ruined his season (this injury would reoccur in subsequent seasons). But Kelly forced his way back into the Leeds first team, in 1999–2000, making the right back role his own, despite the signing of Danny Mills in the summer of 1999. Kelly once again took over as skipper when Lucas Radebe was on international duty. He was rewarded with a testimonial match in May 2002, played against Celtic. The proceeds from this match were donated to several cancer charities chosen by Kelly (mainly Teenage Cancer Charity in Leeds and Cancer Support Centre in Drogheda), in dedication to his sister, Mandy, who died from the disease in 1998 aged only 35. Seen by a crowd of 26,440, Celtic won this match, which generated nearly £1 million in receipts – making up the majority of the total £1.5 million which was raised to open a cancer centre in his native Drogheda.[4] He is also only the 10th player to ever make over 500 appearances for Leeds United, making the feat against Luton Town in Leeds' 2–1 victory at Elland Road on 25 February 2006.

Kelly played regularly in the first half of his 16th season at Leeds. But at that stage, he had fallen out with Ken Bates and new Leeds manager, Dennis Wise. On 26 October 2006, Wise revealed Shaun Derry was replacing Kelly as the new Leeds vice captain.[citation needed]

After 16 years of loyal service to the club, a presentation of a crystal cut vase was made to Kelly at the last home game of the 2006–07 season by former Leeds United players Paul Reaney, Allan Clarke, Mick Jones, and Frank Worthington.[5][6]

International career

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Kelly scored three goals in the 1992 UEFA European Under-18 Football Championship qualifiers and won 52 international caps playing for the Republic of Ireland scoring two goals, before his retirement from international football.[7] He represented them at both the 1994 FIFA World Cup and 2002 FIFA World Cup.

Personal life

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Kelly is the uncle of fellow Irish international and Leeds teammate Ian Harte. Kelly and Harte were both part of Ireland's 2002 World Cup squad. Kelly was also regarded amongst the Leeds squad as being a prankster and joker, having pulled several different stunts, including wearing Nicky Byrne of Westlife's clothes for a training session when Byrne had got changed to join in with the training session.[2] Byrne used to be part of the youth team set up at Leeds United during the mid-1990s, and is a friend of Kelly.[citation needed]

Career statistics

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Club

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Appearances and goals by club, season and competition[8]
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Europe Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Leeds United 1991–92 First Division 2 0 0 0 1 0 — 0 0 3 0
1992–93 Premier League 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1993–94 Premier League 42 0 3 0 2 0 — 0 0 47 0
1994–95 Premier League 42 0 4 0 2 0 — 0 0 48 0
1995–96 Premier League 34 0 5 0 8 0 4[a] 0 0 0 51 0
1996–97 Premier League 36 2 4 0 3 0 — 0 0 43 2
1997–98 Premier League 34 0 4 0 3 0 — 0 0 41 0
1998–99 Premier League 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1999–2000 Premier League 31 0 3 0 2 0 11[a] 0 0 0 47 0
2000–01 Premier League 24 0 1 0 1 0 12[b] 0 0 0 38 0
2001–02 Premier League 20 0 1 0 1 0 3[a] 0 0 0 25 0
2002–03 Premier League 25 0 4 1 0 0 6[a] 0 0 0 35 1
2003–04 Premier League 38 0 0 0 2 0 — 0 0 40 0
2004–05 Championship 43 0 1 0 3 0 — 0 0 47 0
2005–06 Championship 44 0 2 1 0 0 — 3[c] 0 49 1
2006–07 Championship 16 0 0 0 2 0 — 0 0 18 0
Total 431 2 32 2 30 0 36 0 3 0 532 4
  1. ^ a b c d Appearances in UEFA Cup
  2. ^ Appearances in UEFA Champions League
  3. ^ Appearances in Championship play-offs

International

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Scores and results list Ireland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Kelly goal.
List of international goals scored by Gary Kelly
No. Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1 29 May 1994 HDI-Arena, Hanover, Germany  Germany 2–0 2–0 Friendly
2 24 March 2001 GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus  Cyprus 3–0 4–0 2002 World Cup qualification

Honours

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Leeds United

Individual

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Hugman, Barry J., ed. (2005). The PFA Premier & Football League Players' Records 1946–2005. Queen Anne Press. p. 343. ISBN 978-1-85291-665-7.
  2. ^ a b Gary Kelly Testimonial Program. Leeds United Vs. Celtic, Tuesday 7 May 2002
  3. ^ "Leeds United: Season 1991 – 1992: Division One". leeds-fans.org.uk. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  4. ^ "Irish News UK - News from the Irish Community in Britain". Archived from the original on 29 September 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  5. ^ "Farewell Gary". LeedsUnited.com. 30 April 2007. Archived from the original on 2 May 2007. Retrieved 30 April 2007.
  6. ^ "Farewell Kells". LeedsUnited.com. 27 April 2007. Archived from the original on 29 May 2007. Retrieved 27 April 2007.
  7. ^ "www.fai.ie: The players who represented the Republic of Ireland in 50 or more official international matches".
  8. ^ "leeds-fans.org.uk: Leeds United Player Profile: Gary Kelly".
  9. ^ "Milosevic gives; Villa a touch of magic". The Independent. 25 March 1996. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
  10. ^ Lynch. The Official P.F.A. Footballers Heroes. p. 150.
  11. ^ "Keane claims award double". BBC Sport. 30 April 2000. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  12. ^ "Gerrard named player of the year". BBC Sport. 23 April 2006. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
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