John O'Shea

John O'Shea

File:Oshea john mufc profile 2006.jpg
Personal information
Full name	John Francis O'Shea
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Position(s)	Versatile Defender, defensive midfielder
Team information
Current team	Manchester United
Number	22
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 18:43, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

John Francis O'Shea (born April 30 1981 in Waterford, Ireland) is a professional footballer, who currently plays for Manchester United.

Career

After completing his schooling in Waterford, O'Shea travelled to Manchester and finally joined Manchester United after spending summers travelling to England to train with the Academy. He signed his professional forms at 17 and then finally made his professional debut in 1999 against Aston Villa at Villa Park. Following loan spells at Bournemouth and Royal Antwerp he returned to Manchester and began to feature in the United first team in the 2002-03 season, demonstrating versatility by playing at left-back, right-back, centre-back and central midfield during the successful Premiership campaign.

O'Shea earned his first senior cap for the Republic of Ireland on 15 August 2001, when he came on as an 84th minute substitute at home to Croatia. His debut ended in disappointment, however, when he gave away a penalty in injury time, that resulted in Ireland conceding their lead, and the game ending 2-2.

After an excellent debut season, in which he famously nutmegged Real Madrid's Luís Figo in a UEFA Champion's League match and inspired a terrace chant sung to the tune of The Beatles' 'Yesterday'.

In the 2003-04 season he frustrated many Manchester United supporters with a series of lacklustre performances before being pushed down in the pecking order by the arrival of Gabriel Heinze. He displayed indifferent form in the 2004-05 season and was linked with a move away from Manchester, with Newcastle and Liverpool being linked with the Irishman. One of the highlights of Manchester United's otherwise slightly disappointing season was the 4-2 away victory against Arsenal, in which O'Shea scored an exquisite fourth goal by chipping Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia.

An injury to Gary Neville in the 2005-06 season also gave O'Shea more first-team opportunities. He was criticised for his lacklustre performances last season, and was reportedly one of the players lambasted [1] by United veteran hero Roy Keane in a recent interview on the club's MUTV channel. In the 2006-07 season O'Shea has been played in the centre of midfieldby Ferguson as United were short of cover in that position.

On February 4, 2007 during a game against Tottenham Hotspur, O'Shea deputised for Edwin van der Sar in goal after the latter was taken off the pitch for a broken nose, and Manchester United had already used all three substitutes. During this time he denied his Republic of Ireland teammate Robbie Keane a goal with an unorthodox save a few minutes before the end of the game (following this incident, United fans have chanted "Ireland's number one" in O'Shea's honour). A month later he won over many United fans by scoring an injury time winner at Anfield for United in the League, having come on as a substitute for Wayne Rooney. This goal was hugely important in United going on to regain the Premiership, as was his goal at Goodison Park on April 28th, 2007, when United came back from 2-0 down to beat Everton 2-4. [2]

John O'Shea had the highest shots to goals ratio in the Premier League in the 2006/2007 whih 80% of his shots ending up as goals.

Trivia

• The character Paddy, from Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, was given the surname 'O'Shea' due to the physical similarities between the comedy actor Patrick McGuinness and the United defender.
• Of the 9 Premier League goals he has scored for Manchester United, 5 of them have come in the 80th minute or later.[3]
• He is sponsored by Adidas.

Honours

• FA Premier League - Champion : 2002-03, 2006-07
• FA Premier League - Runner Up: 2005-06
• FA Cup Winner : 2004
• FA Cup Runner Up: 2005, 2007
• League Cup Winner : 2006
• League Cup Runner Up: 2003
• Community Shield Winner 2003
• Community Shield Runner up 2004

External links

• John O'Shea at Soccerbase

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